Digitizing guitar plans

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yourwhathurts69

Posts: 117
Joined: Sep. 16 2009

Digitizing guitar plans

Hi folks!

Does anyone have any recommendations or guidance for digitizing guitar plans? In other words, how would one go from a pencil sketch to a print-to-scale document?

Tom Blackshear, I know you have a couple plans through GAL. Can you give some advice on the process?

Thanks in advance for everyone's help!

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Oct. 30 2016 2:27:47

Tom Blackshear

Posts: 2304
Joined: Apr. 15 2008

RE: Digitizing guitar plans (in reply to yourwhathurts69)

I have no idea how the GAL does this, but if you have an old master plan; something that is of interest to the GAL, then you might approach them to do the plan for you, as long as they can publish it.

I donated both my plans this way.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Oct. 30 2016 14:25:26

Escribano

Posts: 6415
Joined: Jul. 6 2003
From: England, living in Italy

RE: Digitizing guitar plans (in reply to yourwhathurts69)

quote:

In other words, how would one go from a pencil sketch to a print-to-scale document?

You'll some sort of CAD program. It's not a trivial exercise.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Oct. 30 2016 16:07:54

Leñador

Posts: 5237
Joined: Jun. 8 2012
From: Los Angeles

RE: Digitizing guitar plans (in reply to yourwhathurts69)

There are printing places somewhere in your city that can do this for you fairly cheaply$30-$40ish. We do this in the building industry all the time. Some old school architects still like to draw on paper and I bid from computers and build off an iPad so I have to go get them digitized. search for blueprint printers near you.
After its digitized, bluebeam bluebeam bluebeam, can't say enough about that software.

Unless you want a 3D document, then your best bet is to get it scanned and send it to Eastern Europe.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Oct. 30 2016 16:33:44

johnguitar

Posts: 208
Joined: Jan. 10 2006

RE: Digitizing guitar plans (in reply to yourwhathurts69)

You can read here about the full-scale Santos Hernández plan that I recently drew. http://www.granadaexpert.com/johnray/full-size-plans-for-santos-hernandez-1924/ I drew it by hand and then my architect friend "translated" it to AutoCAD. Basically you have to redraw it over the scanned image. The only problem I saw with that is that any irregularities in the original lines can be amplified as the program tries to fit a jagged segment into a series of straight lines and curves. I imagine that if the person who draws it then re-draws it with the program you could avoid this problem just because you know better what you are looking for and can smooth those irregularities in one area out by using one curve. Hope that makes sense.

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https://www.johnguitar.com

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 2 2016 17:20:07

estebanana

Posts: 9351
Joined: Oct. 16 2009

RE: Digitizing guitar plans (in reply to yourwhathurts69)

Another option is to have the pencil drawing scanned and made into a file format you can have printed out. I tend to like that better, the CAD drawings of guitars are sterile.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 3 2016 6:27:48

Echi

Posts: 1132
Joined: Jan. 11 2013

RE: Digitizing guitar plans (in reply to yourwhathurts69)

I find the same as Estebana.
The guitar plan included in Romanillos' book is just amazing..

Btw many CAD plans do not report the doming on top and sides.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 3 2016 11:06:16

yourwhathurts69

Posts: 117
Joined: Sep. 16 2009

RE: Digitizing guitar plans (in reply to yourwhathurts69)

Thanks for all the advice, everyone!

John, any idea how the Santos plan you drew compares to some of the other available Santos plans? Did you change your regular flamenco design as a result of the Santos or are you planning on offering it as a separate model in addition to your own flamenco design?

Stephen, wouldn't a CAD file also be printable? Do you have another recommendation for a specific file format type that works well for scanning an image and later printing it to scale? Maybe Adobe Illustrator??

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 5 2016 4:28:51

Leñador

Posts: 5237
Joined: Jun. 8 2012
From: Los Angeles

RE: Digitizing guitar plans (in reply to yourwhathurts69)

quote:

Do you have another recommendation for a specific file format type that works well for scanning an image and later printing it to scale? Maybe Adobe Illustrator??

Adobe is for amateurs, Bluebeam is what you want. PDF's are more powerful than you'd guess.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 5 2016 5:05:35

johnguitar

Posts: 208
Joined: Jan. 10 2006

RE: Digitizing guitar plans (in reply to yourwhathurts69)

The doming on a guitar is very important but only useful if you know the original doming. This can be extrapolated from the relationship of the sides to the top (or back) because this doesn't change even if the dome sinks over time. This is not something that can be drawn on a plan but rather noted after you carefully measure it.

The Santos in question is a classical so I won't be using it for a flamenco but I have made three copies now and even after making 200 guitars the old guy still had something to teach me. For my flamencos I use ideas from a Barbero that I was able to get a look at years ago so maybe that is not so different from using Santos.

AutoCad will produce a pdf I think but you need the "power" of the scaleability of pdf. I think it doesn't always have that. I will be looking into Bluebeam. The files of the plan that are being sent to readers of the magazine are in pdf.

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https://www.johnguitar.com

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 5 2016 7:34:53

estebanana

Posts: 9351
Joined: Oct. 16 2009

RE: Digitizing guitar plans (in reply to yourwhathurts69)

quote:

Stephen, wouldn't a CAD file also be printable? Do you have another recommendation for a specific file format type that works well for scanning an image and later printing it to scale? Maybe Adobe Illustrator??

CAD is type drawing or rendering program, they can by formatted in many ways for printing. CAD is great, but to me not the most ideal for guitar plans. Although professionally prepared plans from CAD programs are great. I tend to work from drawings I have made myself and from pencil drawings and photos other people have made.

I suggest bypassing the computer, learn to draft plans with a pencil, compass, triangle and a T-square. Use the actual guitar as the object you draw around to establish the plantilla shape.

CAD programs take a half pattern of the plantilla and flip it along the vertical axis to get a bilaterally symmetrical plantilla. And in the process of rendering the shape of the half pattern lose some of the information that makes the plantilla unique by processing through the CAD program which makes curves out of tiny straight lines.

The pencil drawings are more nuanced and often more accurate to what the original instrument looked like or even feels like. CAD drawings are better for objects that will not be built on an intimate scale like a guitar. Or objects that are more about utility in function and are outlined for mass production.

I suggest sinking the time into learning to draft with pencils and then take the drawings to a blueprint shop with a big scanning bed and have the pencil drawing scanned so it can be saved on an external drive and then printed out on a large format printer. The good CAD program will cost more than the scanning in the wide bed scanner. And if you learn to draft by hand really well you can work in the field. In other words take your drafting and measuring tools out to other folks houses or even institutions that have guitar collections and draw any guitar you want.

Probably a better way to go is investing the money in various calipers and Hackliner gauge and good rulers and drawing with pencils; plans are only as useful as the accuracy of the lines. CAD charts can list all the numbers and look organized, but not convey nuance like a pencil drawing can. And photos of details to supplement the drawings and numbers are good.

To me the best photos, numbers and drawings to some extent also suggest an order of assembly. If you can convey that truth in a drawing then that is pretty advanced drafting. Drafting is a lost art and in many ways guitarmaking is also. They belong together.

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Where to get it done? Many companies are offer scanning services and you can mail your plan to them. They use scanning beds and special large format digital cameras- for example this company found by searching *large format scanning* https://www.bellevuefineart.com/fine-art-scanning-process/

Some post punk goth chick with pink hair and a biga$$ camera will photograph and save your digitized plan and send it back to you on a disk or an external drive. How fun is that?

You can also mount photos to your plan and the camera will pick them up with precision and the sheets can be printed out on good paper. So your plans cost a bit more, but deliver three or four times as much information. Good value.