carvewrighttips&tricks oct07

7/26/2019 CarveWrightTips&Tricks Oct07

1/4

Pattern Layering & Composition in Designer

The CompuCarve andCarveWright machines haveushered in a new era forwoodworking hobbyists!

Making woodcarving

projects with either deviceallows you to express yourself

quickly and with relative ease. The resultthat can be achieved by the averagewoodworker are often quite remarkable.

The great success of the machines is due inpart to the freedom the user has for layingout project designs with the easy-to-use

For this tutorial, I will be using patternsfrom CarveBuddy.com to create a simpleforest scene using some easy layeringtechniques in the Designer software. (Youcan use whatever patterns you like - theprocess is the same.)

Patterns used:Elk6x725_1PineTreeSet_1OakTree75x11_1

STEP 1Start the Designer software and create anew project board with these dimensions11.25 x 11.25 x 0.75 thick.

by Michael Tyler of www.CarveBuddy.co

WOODWORKING SYSTEM

To learn about theCompuCarve and

CarveWright

machines, please visitthe manufacturers

website at:

For Patterns you canadd to your Designer

software library,please visit:

www.carvewright.com

www.carvebuddy.com

Designer software that is included. A nicevariety of stock relief patterns are alsoincluded in a pattern library. Thepatterns are brought onto the softwaresvirtual board display by simply clickingand dragging them into position on theboard. Patterns can be repositioned orresized and the carving depth and height ofeach pattern can be adjusted at will.

Many owners of the machines areexpanding their choices by adding patternsfrom www.carvebuddy.com and othercompanies that specialize in making relief

patterns for the CompuCarve andCarveWright machines.

There are some basic, yet powerful, toolsin the Designer software that can help youmaximize your creativity to composedesign layouts. These tools allow you tolayer and position patterns to make uniqueproject designs that you can call your own.

STEP 2

Select the Square Drawing Tool and drout a square measuring 10x10.

CarveWright TIPS & TRICKS - OCTOBER 20

www.carvewright.co


2/4

Pattern Layering & Composition in Designer (cont.)STEP 3 It may look a bit strange at this point, because the carvRight-click the square and select Center/Center Both. region sometimes makes some patterns disappear in

fig. 3a

Now, click the Carve Region Tool. The default depth of

the region is 0.25. Leave that for now.

fig. 3b

STEP 4

certain areas, depending on their default depth settingWell fix that in the next few steps.

STEP 5Click on each pattern one at a time and remove thefeather-edge from all the patterns by using the FeatheTool.

click None to removefeathered edgefrom each pattern

fig. 5

feathered edgeswe dont want

We now have our board with a centered 10 x 10 x1/4 deep carve region. You can now drag-and-dropwhatever patterns you want, onto the board. In myexample, Ill drag the Elk and some trees to the boardfrom my own pattern list.

fig. 4

STEP 6Now, lets arrange our patterns on the board for a

pleasing layout. You can move, copy, paste, angle,enlarge or reduce the patterns individually to geteverything arranged and sized the way you want.(Notice I copied the oak tree and positioned it so itlooks like a bush in the lower right corner.)

fig. 6

Page 2 CarveWright TIPS & TRICKS - SEPTEMBER 20www.carvewright.co


3/4

Pattern Layering & Composition in Designer (cont.)STEP 7Youll notice that some of the patterns overlap theraised border around the carve region. Thats not whatwe want in this case. There is a very easy way to fixthis by using the Clip Carving feature.

Select any pattern that overlaps the border, then right-click it to display the menu choices. Youll see theClip Carving menu item. Rest your cursor over thatitem and a fly-out menu will display your choices.

Currently, the Clip Carving feature is set to None bydefault, but we want to change that, so select (left-click) the Clip Carving: Inclusiveoption. Taa-daa!The pattern is now clipped neatly inside our carveregion. Repeat this for each pattern that you dont wantoverhanging the raised border.

Starting with the elk, set the carve depth to the same athe carve region (0.25). That brings the elk to the

fig. 7

forefront of our layout.

fig. 8a

To layer the remaining patterns, change the carveregion depth to something close to the same amount ayour deepest pattern (in my case one of the pine treeshad a default depth of 0.364, so I changed the carveregion to that same amount).

fig. 8b

STEP 8

All thats left to do now is adjust the carving depthsand heights to finish our design layout.

The elk is the featured item on this layout, so we wantto work our way front to back from the elk, to layer ourpatterns. First, select each pattern and make note ofeach ones default carving depth. (Deeper carves sitlower in the height plane. We want the elk front andcenter, so it will have the lowest carving depth.)

Now, select each pattern, and raise or lower the depthsetting until your composition is layered as you wish.Just type in new values in the Depth box. Dont beafraid of experimenting with various depths and chanthem if necessary to avoid interference with otherpatterns on your layout.



4/4

Pattern Layering & Composition in Designer

STEP 9You may need to change the Height setting on somepatterns to achieve the look youre after. (I changed thebackground pine tree to 50% height so that it was setback farthest in the carving.

fig. 9a

Were finished with the layout, but there is one finalthing you always want to be sure to do before savingthe project for uploading to your memory card. That iselecting Bit Optimization: BEST for every pattern onyour board. You do this by selecting a pattern, thenright-click, hover over Bit Optimization to get the

fly-out menu of options, then select BitOptimization: BEST

Repeat this for each pattern. If you skip this step, thenyour carvings will lose details, and not look as good athey are designed to be! Dont forget...always setBit Optimization: BEST for your patterns as yourfinal step in the design process.

Lastly, I changed the elks Height setting to 999 tomake absolutely sure it remained in the foreground andno portions of patterns behind it would poke through.I was able to leave all the other patterns at the normal100% default height, in this particular example.

IN CONCLUSIONIts really fun to create your own custom layouts withthe Designer software using the layering techniquesweve reviewed here. I hope youve enjoyed this brietutorial from your friends at CarveWright.com !

Watch for next months issue of CarveWright Tips &Trickswhere well explore the mysteries of groupipatterns and objects along with the merge features ofDesigner.

Happy Carving!

Special thanks to Michael Tyler ofwww.carvebuddy.com for providingthe content for this wonderful tip.

fig. 9b


carvewrighttips&tricks oct07

Documents