How to draw a spiral in Pre-Design - method 1

[Loes]

Below please find some tips in reply to a question how to draw a spiral in Pre-Design:

The easiest way - Install a spiral font, insert the right character into Pre-Design, edit the points, save and export:

Download the True Type Font called "Xpiralmental.ttf" from the dingbat fonts section of http://www.fontgaarden.com

Direct link to the font page is: http://www.fontgarden.com/dingbats/misc/misc6.htm

Unzip the font. Then install the font via Control Panel > Fonts > Install new fonts.

Start Pre-Design, choose menu Edit > Insert Text. Choose the font Xspiralmental, click OK. Type lower case "k" and click OK. The spiral is almost ready now: while it is still selected, right-click and choose Size. Set it to the desired size (12 inch for example) and click OK.

Press the spacebar once to fit the view.

Click outside the design to de-select. Take the select tool and edit some of the points to perfect the lines.

Save. Then export to DXF for CompuQuilter or IntelliQuilter.

Or print for your laser guides machine without a computer.

Loes

trial version of Pre-Design can be downloaded from:

http://quilters.pre-design.eu button "Free Trial"

[Loes]

This is a method using a background image created yourself first:

Go to http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/polar/

There you can create your own circular graph paper. Change the line color to black.

Then click on Download PDF.

Save the pdf and open it. Make the view of the circular graph as large as possible by zooming in. Then hit Print Screen. This will copy the view of your screen to the windows clipboard.

Start MSPaint and press Ctrl+V to paste it into Paint. Take the Selection tool and draw a rectangular marquee around the circle. Press Ctrl+C to copy the circular graph to the windows clipboard.

Open Pre-Design and choose menu Background > Load from > Clipboard. Click OK.

Press the space bar once to fit the view.

Turn off the Pre-Design grid by clicking on its icon in the toolbar.

Then take the Curve tool and start drawing in the center. Draw the spiral by skipping the first line. Draw only 4 points in each circle, skipping to the next circle in the same place as where you started. Hmm, this is really hard to explain in text only. But I hope you get it though: you need to skip once in each row, because otherwise you would have only loose circles and you want to go on and on with your spiral.

In the outer lines you will need more points to keep nice curves.

Save and export. and or print via the File menu.

A very helpful article about how to draw spirals for quilting can be found here: http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/cr_quilting_instructions/article/0,1789,HGTV_3302_4129310,00.html

Hope this helps!

Enjoy the program!

Loes

http://www.artistitch.com

http://www.pre-design.eu

http://quilters.pre-design.eu

[Loes]

Hi everyone,

The above messages are old posts with tips how to create a spiral. But now, things have become so much easier!!

We have added a new function in Pre-Design Studio: an automatic Spiral and Swirl maker

Creating a mathematically perfect spiral is now a matter of 4 clicks in Pre-Design Studio!

Take the Spiral tool, choose between spiral or swirl,

Set the size of the desired spiral

Enter the desired number of rings from the outside to the center

Click on OK.

Then either print at actual size, create a stencil from it,

or export to DXF if you have a computerized quilt system!

Take a look at the tutorial movie on page: http://www.pre-designstudio.com/tutorials.htm It's movie #8

Have fun

Loes