More Nodes, please

[Greenfeetpilot (DR Ayrz)]

I am new to CC.

I have copied shapes recently and when I go to edit them, there are way WAY more nodes that are easier to manipulate and snap-to other objects. I understand I can “add node” but then accuracy and positioning is difficult. There is something that happens occasionally that adds a bunch of nodes automatically.

I don’t know how to replicate this action.

For example, if I create a circle, I get 4 nodes. What I want is 300 nodes (or make up any number, 75, 350, 600…don’t care, just more!).

Any help is appreciated.
Blue skies,
D

[WillAdams (William Adams (Carbide 3D))]

More nodes is not the answer to verisimilitude when editing shapes. The action(s) which cause more nodes to appear are Boolean operations though.

Instead, you want the bare minimum number of nodes which are properly placed:

• at extrema of curves (top/bottom, left/right)
• at points of inflection (the middle of the curve of an S)
• at corners

See:

Let's draw an "ellipse" with new users

(the title of this post hearkens back to a small book / card which Warren Chappell created, “Let’s make a “B” for Bennet” — I was fortunate to meet Mr. Chappell when he was Artist-in-Residence at UVA on a school field trip when I was young, and he was the author, along with his cousin Oscar Ogg, of a number of books I remember from my youth.) Note that the below is obsoleted in current versions of Carbide Create by the ability to asymmetrically scale a circle into an oval/ellipse. Okay, step-b…

and

Let's Make a B (for anyone)

Ages ago, there was an elegant little pamphlet entitled “Let’s Make a B for Bennet” which Warren Chappell wrote and illustrated. Here’s a discussion of how to use Carbide Create’s new curve feature to draw a B. We start with an image of a “B”: https://www.flickr.com/photos/letterformarchive/38372487832/in/album-72157687338823192/ [38372487832_6b4562b0a5_o]

If there’s a design you’re having difficulty drawing please post it (or send it in to support@carbide3d.com) and we’ll do our best to walk through how to draw it with you.

[Greenfeetpilot (DR Ayrz)]

@WillAdams

verisimilitude

Didn’t expect to learn that today. Thanks Will.

For example (and for my current practice project):
I am trying to chop these shapes so they leave a border. 1st selected shape will get edited to look like the last selected shape.

If I try boolean, I lose my rectangle “guide” that is inset 1/4". I don’t want to create a rectangle just to boolean-delete it over and over.

My solution so far is to edit the rectangle and add nodes at the intersection of the small pieces. Then I go back and snap the pieces to the rectangle and delete the nodes that live outside of the rectangle. It is a slow boolean-like process.

I do appreciate the idea that the fewer nodes the better. Simple is good. I have just experienced a few times where the software recreated a shape for me and it was much easier to manipulate.

[Greenfeetpilot (DR Ayrz)]

[WillAdams (William Adams (Carbide 3D))]

Rather than doing Boolean intersection, move the removing geometry to the outside and do Boolean Subtraction, selecting the geometry which you wish trimmed first, then the subtracting geometry (so that it has a dashed highlight as the key object) which (in current versions) leaves behind the geometry which is the key object used for the subtraction.

This is an example of an operation which would profit from exporting as an SVG, then editing in a tool where one can combine multiple things into composite geometry — this would make this a two-stage process:

• join things into composite geometry
• Boolean Intersection

then just save/export back to an SVG — I do this quite a bit.

Tools to consider:

• Inkscape
• Serif’s Affinity Designer
• GraviT
• Adobe Illustrator

There are others, but those are tools I’ve had good (and bad in the case of AI) experience w/.