How Do You Enlarge a Pattern?

[reible]

Hi Tim,

I have a older version of this:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/de ... B0000719WL
sold by sears.

The work because they always make the design/letter smaller (always a reduction). The nice part is that any computer art can be used, just print and trace. It came with a few fonts and other interesting designs which of course now in the days of computers is not much of a deal at all.

I haven't used it the last couple of years, a plastic coupler broke and it is no longer order-able so I will have to deal with making something or getting a new one... in which case I might think about one like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Milescraft-1298-3 ... 95ICBAIUZF

If anyone wants to discuss this area we should move it to a new thread cause it is sort of off subject for this one... sorry I got Tim off subject...

Ed

How easy is that one to use? It seems like the weight of the router wood be hard to guide around from "the other end" of the pantograph. Do you do it alone, or with help?

[JPG]

Using the pantograph to enlarge a PAPER pattern is possible, and does not require a 'single pass'. You could retrace as necessary as long as the paper is not (re)moved.

Possible problem is the indefinite scale of the ORIGINAL. Pantographs enlarge/reduce by ratio of arm lengths(the pivots are changed along the length of the arms). This means a limited number of fixed ratios are possible.

The eyeball/manual approximation of the original is the most common(in the pre computer past) used method. Unless the shape is a critical dimension/shape to the 'thingie's' function, artistic license is A-OK!

[JPG]

How would one go about enlarging this pattern [ATTACH]5163[/ATTACH] Dave

Close examination will reveal the ability to infer dimensions from the 'graphic'.

For instance; the top piece is 3 1/2" wide and is 'straight for 16" on the top and 15" on the bottom. Drawing a center layout line from the right(down 4" and 35" from the cross hatch upper left corner). The 'left' end of this center layout line is 1 3/4" down from the top and 15 1/2" from the left END of the piece. Draw two lines 1 3/4" above and below this line(1 3/4" perpendicular to the layout line). A 1 3/4" radius on the end defines piece "B". The square cutouts are almost dimensioned(1/2" x 2") and located as indicated.

Similar procedure may be used for parts "E" and "F". the graceful curves may be approximated. The 'jaggies' in the computer image gives us clues.

Part "L" needs the eyeball approximation technique.

Good Luck with parts A,C,D,G,H,I,J,K,????

[tom_k/mo]

How would one go about enlarging this pattern [ATTACH]5163[/ATTACH] Dave

Dave, personally I would import the scanned image into CorelDraw, and scale the raster image up in Corel, measuring until the squares actually equaled 1" each. I would then print it out in Corel as Tiled pages. Works well, but unless you have something like CorelDraw or Adobe Illustrator you can't use that option.

[efmaron]

For those who do a lot of pattern resizing this is a great program.
http://rapidresizer.com I think the download cost is about $45.00 they do offer a free trial before purchase. I use it in my shop for resizing patterns for carvings. You scan the pattern into the program then select the size that you want, it will than print out as many pages as necessary for your resized pattern. I have found it very accurate.

[2manband]

Dave, personally I would import the scanned image into CorelDraw, and scale the raster image up in Corel, measuring until the squares actually equaled 1" each. I would then print it out in Corel as Tiled pages. Works well, but unless you have something like CorelDraw or Adobe Illustrator you can't use that option.

I'd do something similar with AutoCAD. It's very easy to scale drawings up or down to a particular size and then make a full sized PDF file. Of course, unless you have a large format printer, you have to have a printing shop make the actual paper copy, but that's fairly affordable where I live ($3 or $4 per sheet)

[charlese]

How would one go about enlarging this pattern [ATTACH]5163[/ATTACH] Dave

Dave - I prefer to use the simple, old fashioned method described by Ed (reible) in post #6.

A long time ago I did a little re-sizing with pantographs. It was always a problem to keep the papers from shifting.

I think the down-loadable program offered by Eric in post #15 looks terrific, if you have a continued use for re-sizing. If I had a need for repeated use, I'd snap this up in a second, but to me the simplest way for occasional use is use the old fashioned way.
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P.S. Eric - That's a super program you found - Thanks for showing us!!!! My wife might find this to be very useful in her embroidery work!

[mikelst]

There is another method that I haven't seen mentioned yet.
If you have a program like photoshop or paintshop pro you can load the image and re size it there.

I use paintshop pro. I crop the image to just the graph area then resize and print it out scaled to actual size. For this picture that would be 17" X 35". Paintshop pro let me do this for the rocking horses I did for the grandsons and those are the patterns I worked from. I did have to tape them together but that isn't an issue for me and in my case it is a program I already own. I am sure many other paint programs will let you do this too.

[ATTACH]5171[/ATTACH]

Just for clarification I am not affiliated with the maker of Paintshop Pro. Just a User.

Mike

[judaspre1982]

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