I'm looking to build a form from which to make GRP shapes. I think the way
I'll go is to build a male from sheets of foam, between which will be glued
sheets of thin ply cut to the contour at that point. I'll hot-wire cut the
foam from edge to edge of the ply sheets, fill/smooth/paint the form, make
a female, then make the final items.

So if there was a simple freeware cad program that would let me make a 3-d
image and then "cut" it at 2" slices, giving me the plan view of each
slice, that'd be perfect. Is there?

"_" wrote in message
.. .
I'm looking to build a form from which to make GRP shapes. I think the
way
I'll go is to build a male from sheets of foam, between which will be
glued
sheets of thin ply cut to the contour at that point. I'll hot-wire cut
the
foam from edge to edge of the ply sheets, fill/smooth/paint the form, make
a female, then make the final items.

So if there was a simple freeware cad program that would let me make a 3-d
image and then "cut" it at 2" slices, giving me the plan view of each
slice, that'd be perfect. Is there?

Rhino will do that. The trial version lets you save 25 times. If you use
your head and avoid saving your learning steps, you can do a lot with 25
saves.

Unless your shape is extremely simple, you want a NURBS-based modeler, like
Rhino, to do a job like that.

--
Ed Huntress

I'm thinking that a "sorta CAD program" is like being a little bit
pregnant. It's like guys who have never used a forge or a grinder just
wanting to make one sword.

That hot cutting method sure sounds like a good idea. What are "GRP
shapes"?


Pete Stanaitis
----------------

_ wrote:
I'm looking to build a form from which to make GRP shapes. I think the way
I'll go is to build a male from sheets of foam, between which will be glued
sheets of thin ply cut to the contour at that point. I'll hot-wire cut the
foam from edge to edge of the ply sheets, fill/smooth/paint the form, make
a female, then make the final items.

So if there was a simple freeware cad program that would let me make a 3-d
image and then "cut" it at 2" slices, giving me the plan view of each
slice, that'd be perfect. Is there?

On Tue, 30 Sep 2008 22:07:15 -0500, spaco wrote:

I'm thinking that a "sorta CAD program" is like being a little bit
pregnant. It's like guys who have never used a forge or a grinder just
wanting to make one sword.

My current CAD program is a pencil, a straightedge and couple of french
curves, and an eraser that is getting too much use.


That hot cutting method sure sounds like a good idea. What are "GRP
shapes"?



Glass-Reinforced Plastic