Guilloché/Spirograph vector generator?

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Would any of you happen to know of a good Guilloché/Spirograph pattern generator, that can output a vector file, not a bitmap ?

I spent way too much time googling around, tried ten different things, none hit me as remotely usable, and this left me with a weird feeling that Guilloché-based CNC was a thing circa 2010, and everyone lost interest afterwards.

I want to try V-carving some generated designs (you’re welcome to borrow the idea for the contest if you want), but I want to come up with something really fancy first.

More generally speaking, if you’re into computer-generated “art” and feel like sharing a few interesting links, I’m all ears.

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If you happen to have Adobe Illustrator, this might be helpful:


The video says that this will output a vector file, but I don’t have AI and can’t verify.

EDIT: This might also work, but you"ll have to convert from a PNG to vector:
https://nataliefreed.github.io/spirogator/

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Thanks! I don’t have Illustrator, but I downloaded and tried Spirogator and it’s simple and clean, and a little bitmap tracing in Inkscape should allow me to go from PNG to a nice vector file.

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I was just trying the same exercise. Looks like it’s going to create some fun cutting.

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Put together a list of generator programs at:

https://wiki.shapeoko.com/index.php/Online_resources#SVG_generators

EDIT: The links were:

which includes:

https://mandalacreator.com/

c.f.,

(the author’s geargenerator site went commercial, so haven’t bothered to look at the license)

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Much better than the ones I tried earlier, thanks!

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There’s also one in the Microsoft Store: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/spirality/9nrjglmxpv55?activetab=pivot:overviewtab but not sure of the export options.

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Also, one can just rotate designs — ages ago, Adobe’s Font & Function magazine had a neat bit where they showed rotating letters to make “fontflakes”.

Or see: How to draw a compass rose

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There was a program guillochograph on tailmaker.net but a shutdown notice abruptly appeared there and I believe the author may have passed in an auto accident. I did receive an email back from whoever is now administering the site saying that she plans to make the programs free in the fall. I have a copy of the unlicensed version which will run in demo mode.

Bill Ooms has a rose engine simulator/gcode generator that can simulate a geometric chuck, look here. Rose engines are closely related to guilloche and often used for guilloche engravings.

Art Fenerty (from Mach3) now writes eclectic add-ons to his gear software, including a guilloche generator (it’s not quite a geometric chuck emulator, but it’s interesting) in his latest CAD spin Vexx at gearotic.com

Alan Battersby’s otinexperiences site is gone but there’s a copy here which includes a link to his code (including a geometric chuck simulator iirc) on github

I’ve been playing around with a crude straight-line guilloche simulator in Processing, but it’s far from being ready for even subprime time. Keeps getting delayed by other stuff including helping a knee revision surgeon make boat payments

Sorry, have gotten into the habit of using ctrl-cr for paragraphs on faceplant (don’t ask) and this forum takes it as send/save edit

I’ve purchased Calina Shevlin’s Guilloche book. While this is aimed at old-style guilloche engraving it’s an excellent reference, and an interesting read. For me, anyway. There’s a recent youtube video by the Horological Society of New York on straight line guilloche which inspired my attempt to write an emulator last fall. Alas my programming experience was all bit fiddly stuff (OS, datacom, realtime, embedded systems, etc) with no graphics so it’s been a bit of a slog, and the aforementioned surgeon made it hard to sit at a desk long enough to work on it recently. There’s a stack of brass disks here waiting for their guilloche engravings…

Hope some of this helps. If I had the room, budget, and most importantly wifely agreement there would probably be a rose engine in the next room.

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Added a few edits, have a FacePlant bad new paragraph habit that causes premature post sending

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And here’s a link to Alan Battersby’s Ornamental Turning Workbench code on Github (see I omitted his name in my OP). While I only knew of him through his ornamental turning site, one of my must-read sites until it went dark, I believe he was also a professor at Cambridge

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Thank you all for the great resources, now I need some time in the mancave to put that to good use !

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I haven’t tried it, and the comments aren’t especially encouraging, but there is a guilloche extension for inskcape: https://inkscape.org/~fluent_user/★guilloche-pattern-extension

Best of luck to you :sweat_smile:

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Here’s an interesting article about Fourier Transforms used to decode sound waves.
Perhaps not directly related to CNC, but with some of the genius here, I wouldn’t be surprised if it turns into more beautiful projects.

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There were a couple of very cool sound-wave projects early on, a wedding “I do” pair, and someone cutting up records if memory serves.

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The software for this is now freely available at:

https://fabrikisto.com/tailmaker-software/

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Thanks for finding that, Will! I had some correspondence with them saying it was going to be posted for free last fall, but had assumed it didn’t happen.

The person in the crash had the same name as the author, but wasn’t him. I got a short reply from the author late last year on cnczone that just said it was unavailable

I’ll bring the laptop in from the still internetless shop and download them

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Yeah, the guy who is hosting the software was kind enough to put me in touch with the author.

We’ll have to see when Tailmaker gets posted — I’ve been meaning to look into the geometry of that joinery technique, and have some ideas on it, but I’m currently working through one other idea to see how it plays out and what comes of it.