Software for stained glass desing - recommendations ?

Lot's of folks use GlassEye and it gets great reviews. I've never heard anything bad about it. There's always Freehand. Personally, even after 27 years of doing this I still use the old PPE program. Doesn't cost much and gives me lots of flexibility. PPE...Pencil, eraser, paper.

Chemo

Adrian wrote:

Any Adobe or Corel suite would be much more versatile. Turbocad is more versatile and less expensive. There's more to design than connecting dots, coloring and numbering the spaces between the lines. You can download nearly every product for a trial period.

HI Chemo

Thanks for the comments. OK on the pencil & paper - same system as I currently use - simple & reliable - just not so flexible (maybe?) as something like GlassEye - in terms of re-sizing designs.

I'm thinking specifically of the situation where a client says 'I need a stained glass panel to fit this window, and I've no idea what I want'. (Actual situation....)

Thought it might be quicker / easier to go through the 'design' process (which is sure to involve some 'Well - a bit like that but whit this bit moved over slightly' using GlassEye, rather than pencil & paper. Reviews speak highly of the ability to present the client with a 'coloured in' picture of how their panel would look, before taking a cutter to glass...

Many thanks Adrian

Hmm - thanks for that !

I should have made it clearer. I don't intend to make 'carbon copies' of other designs - never done that and I think I'd find that pretty boring, and it's not how I do things.

I was thinking more, for instance, of grabbing a basic 'geometric' panel design and then adapting it to suit a specific client brief....

Regards Adrian

OK. I guess it's less 'glass orientated' - but maybe that's not a big issue ?

Yes thanks - that I understand.....

True What do you use ??

Regards Adrian

The last thing I want to do is spend time in front of a computer screen drawing a pattern (although I have done it). I draw up a thumbnail for my client...pretty close to scale. They can come in and look at it and it's easy to make any changes. I pick glass suggestions. Then I take a nice 2 block walk to the blue printer and have them blow up the thumbnail to the correct size. If it's a design that's geometric I can just redraw the design to full scale. I look at drawing the design with pencil as just one step in the artistic endevor. For me, it keeps me grounded to the entire project. But that's just me.

Chemo

Adrian wrote:

I tell my students to be careful before getting involved with larger pieces. You need to not only know how to design, but how to make it structurally sound, and let's not forget about liability insurance as well. You can't get in too much trouble with suncatchers, but a real window can weather, buckle, leak, fall apart, cause house damage, cut someone, fall on their heads, and who do you think will get sued? As for software, I am not a fine artist, but have no trouble drawing up SG patterns by hand.

I use Adobe Illustrator (AI) and Turbocad (TC) for layout of leadlines. I prefer AI if I have a lot of curve work to do, and I prefer TC if I have a lot of arithmetic and snapping to precise places (Say for example I need to experiment with different mesh sizes of diamond pane, or I need to adapt a geometric design to a cabinet window shape.). I use Adobe Photoshop to experiment with color, to do complex designs, to simulate glass painting. etc. I probably spend more time with Photoshop than with the other two. For sketching and linear experiments I use a pencil. With Glasseye, you draw lines, and fill in the spaces with color. I start with Photoshop, and make an image with color and shading, and might work the lead lines into it as I go or at the end. Then I'll typically take it to TC or AI and make a cutline drawing for it. But I start with AI or TC if there is complex geometric stuff going on. I'd take any one of the three over Glasseye. The Corel products have equivalent functionality to the Adobe products for the most part.

Because of its flexibility, I use Canvas 8 by Deneba software, which is part of ACDSee now.

I believe the latest version is 10....Canvas X, here is a link to the page and free demo.

the reason I like it is that it does alot of what Photoshop does and alot of what turbocad does in one program.

It does have a bit of a learning curve, but it is a quality piece of work that you will not have to upgrade unless you want to. As I said earlier, I am using version 8 but own up to 9(which I have not used).

I draw with the lead size I want to build with, thanks to customizable parallel lines, and it has 20+ undo's, in case I just don't like something. It will snap lines to precise measurements and I print the patterns out with a 24 in HP Designjet "large format printer", so there is no trip to the blueprinter, with the associated expense.

The lines that are printed full size are in parallel, so I know where the miters will be for the lead, if I blow up the design or change the dimensions, the lines don't get fatter, they just change position, works great.

Look at it as a one time expense.

I have been using it since 1997, when I decided the time I spent on the table drawing and changing would not allow me to build at a competitive price, I needed to do something to give me an edge. that was it.

I now design for myself and 3 other studios, and have done some for people on this NG also. I have the time to design, as if with a pencil, without having to erase, or spend my time on thumbnails and then time enlarging, or paying for enlarging. the printer was a major expense, but I charge to print others work, and it works out OK, I don't get rich off doing it, but my doors are still open, when other peoples are no longer there.

this is long winded, sorry, but this program will save you alot of grief, but the program is no good without the printer.

By the way, the paper is $9.50 for a 50 yd roll, 24 in wide, ink, in Black only, which is all you need, is $36 for a cartridge. I charge,( or figure into the job), $4.00 a running foot to print. It pays for itself.