Suggestions from a luthier

I am having a blast playing with Easel! The more I experiment, the more complex designs I’m able to put together, it’s a really great tool, so thank you Inventables.

  1. From a guitar making perspective, there is one function that would make this a one-stop app for luthiers, and that is a gradient tool. Right now while I’m designing in Illustrator CC, I draw lines and import them as .SVG files, then give each line a seperate depth setting in Easel (for simple sloping contours along one plane).

The ability to draw a line from one point in the design to another, then input into text fields the two different heights of the gradient, would be a huge design feature. Then Easel would fill in the gradient between those two values, along the path. An even better feature would be to import the outer boundary of your gradient via .SVG, and select it like you would a fill (except it’s a gradient where you can input the values as I mentioned above, and the gradient direction).

With a ball nose bit (bowl cutter) you could add a whole new level of depth to Easel designs.

I’m not sure how you could eventually incorporate the kinds of gradients you would find in the rear contours on a Stratocaster guitar for example, but I’m hoping that feature is in the works as well!

  1. Adobe-style draggable guides. Not sure they are an essential feature, but I’d like to register a vote for them.

  2. I’ve posted this in the relevant topic, but I’ll mention it again here- Plus and Minus buttons in the preview window for people with odd mouse configurations (like me) :smile:

Thanks again team! I’d love to hear from other forum members about their hacks and ideas too…

What you would like to do is 3D contouring. I don’t use Easel but it is my understanding that at the present time it does not support 3D.

Fusion360 will let you design in 3D so you get the contour you are looking for on your instrument. I don’t know if the CAM part of Fusion360 supports 3D contouring but my guess is that it does.

I think there is another thread on the forum that talks about the same thing.

Dave

Thanks Dave, I understand all that, which is why I posted this as features future upgrades of Easel would be great to have.

Do you have a Stratocaster Body Vector or SVG file you can share?