STAINED GLASS SOFTWARE

John - as suggested a few years ago you can download full copies of hte software available and use it for 30 days for free. Just make sure you can allow yourself the time to play with them and work through the tutorials to see what the capabilities of the programmes are and if they are right for you. Many people seem to wait till the

29th day to do this and dont give themselves a fair trial! I have been using GE2K for a couple of years now and have updated to the pro+ version this summer and would recommend it as worth the money if you need to draw up lots of cartoons etc. For showing potential clients I find it excellent as I can scan in a black and white sketch or design from another drawing package and then use the autotrace to get the design on screen quickly and fill with glass samples, change lead face widths etc to give a fair impression of what the final panel will resemble. Clients can change colours easily while making their mind up and are always impressed by the 'experience'. It also has the ability to work out panel dimensions if you want to design a panelled lampshade as well as being able to give you an indication of costings which many people use to decide how much to charge.

This package looks pretty neat. Tried to find the specs on their website but couldn't find it - what is the maximum size patterns it can make? Bart.

custom compensated banjo bridges, tabs, stained glass:

**may your moments of need be met by moments of compassion**

I dont think there is a maximum size stated - I have been able to draw designs over 50 feet wide when trying to show clients how various panels will relate to each other but I didnt try to print it out! I have printed cartoons for panels measuring several feet by several feet and stuck the many pages together without distortion. You could email them and ask - Michael and Mark are always helpful I have found.

snipped-for-privacy@stainedglass.co.uk (Elizabeth in UK) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com:

I have plotted windows as large as 12'x 6' on HP roll plotters with distortion over the full length of less than 1/8" (most likely from the plotter).

The software is well worth the money if you like to use the computer. I still use hand cartoons for some of the simple stuff though.

The new pro version has an auto tracing function that is fairly good when you need to capture stuff like stock bevel clusters or line art. It is also nice to ba able to quickly resize a pattern. I have used this on more than one occasion when my client changed frame styles after the art was done. I just shrunk everything proportionally 2". (Beware- don't scale all when using stock bevels or other fixed design elements)

Regards, G^2

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I wish GE had printer support for cad printers. That's there only downfall. Scotch taping a bunch of sheets together gets tiring. Liam

GE doesn't compare favorably with professional illustration software packages or or even basic CAD packages, Liam. Its got plenty of downfalls.

"Liam Striker" wrote in news:pEwmb.146$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr23.news.prodigy.com:

I use B size and Roll plotters all the time with GE. It uses whatever you can find a windows driver for. My preference is the HP755cm, but have plotted to files for output on some big oce' laser plotters at the local graphics house with no problem.

It is not a CAD program it is for SG design and it does it well in my opinion. I have and use AutoCAD and CorelDRAW for many other purposes. They are both way overkill for SG work. In addition, they are not as fast or convienient in my opinion. I like having a lead line that I can turn the face on and off. I like being able to color with glass. I like the idea of having it auto count pieces and calculate sqr. in. of each glass. There is much more I like... Lamp patterns with automatic deductions for the angles (lamp wizard) and more.

Just my two cents.

Regards, G^2

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interesting. GE used to only support 11x17. Must be new for ge2000. Off to ebay now to find a plotter

Liam

I email glasseye printer files (B size) to Kinko's (local 24hour copy/print shop) and have them print several copies and laminate one of them for me. Works well, is cost effective, and I don't need to find space for yet

*another* printer in my somewhat cluttered apartment. :-) Kinko's supports a file type of "kdf" which I suspect is their proprietary version of a "pdf" file.

How do you save to this format? Mine only seams to want to print to .eye format.

Liam

You need "Kinko's File Prep Tool" which you can either download from

or go to your local Kinko's and get the CD. Install it, and it shows up as another printer in your printer list. Select the papersize of B1, and the printer type of the Kinko's tool. It saves the output to a file which you can either email to Kinko's or write to a disk/burn to a CD and take to your local store.

"suzilem" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@texas.net:

This works fine some of the time... I did this once or twice and once it worked... The problem I have with this method is the Kinkos is not set up for large format to scale printing. If their printer / plotter is calibrated to the .kdf format then it will work. I was getting errors of

1/4" on a 'D' size plot. The printer was not calibrated. I have found the best way is to find a place that will work with you. Find out what model of plotter they use and get the driver for it. Most are free. Oce' and HP I know for sure are free. Load the driver as a plotter on your machine but send the outpot to a file. Then just take the CD or ftp the file to the shop. It will yield far more precise results. If your Kinkos has someone with a brain (mine is opperated by a toad; and that is giving him something) they should be able to accomodate this, or calibrate to the .kdf to yield good results. The other thing is that the drafting / repro house I use charges way less than Kinkos. Kinks gets something like $10.00 or more for a 'D' size and it is the same price for multiples. The repro shop charges me a couple of bucks to setup (load the file) $7.00 for the first copy and $5.00 for each after of the same image. Their Oce' plotter is whipping fast too. It can shoot 96" off a 36" roll in about 1 minute. Oh yea. Kinkos doesn't understand about non standard sheet sizes... These plotters can concievabley plot any length on one sheet off the roll. I have done up to 160" with very little error.

Good luck. G^2

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Good points. We have multiple Kinkos here in town (Austin) and several of them are infested with toads. I did find one branch that employs a manager who knows what she is doing. Printers are calibrated, and my outputs have been acceptable. I hadn't considered a repro house. There is one that I use for drymounting large photographic prints. They should be able to accommodate printing. Thanks for that suggestion!

Sue