I've long been a fan of Doug Drury's amazing work where he leaves out segments and in many cases, LOTS of segments. Now I may have done this by mistake, but he does it on purpose. So that we get started on the same page, this is one of Doug's bowls in the Gallery:
That's a LOT of lost wood. I began to wonder if I could help him with the design process by letting him see what the finished result would look like before going into the shop. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to do this programmatically using my software Segment PRO. I pretty much had it all figured out when it dawned on me that maybe it could do it already.
In Segment PRO, it is likely that 100% of the species ever used are jpeg files but they could also be PNG files. A difference between these two image types is that a PNG can have a transparent background. Could it be that simple? Could you just use a transparent species just like any other species to lose sight of segments?
To show you how it worked, this vessel has six painted bands and six bands of Lost Wood and so there are 12 bands with 6 segments each for a total of 72 segments per row. Here is how I painted it. I painted only the six bands and the top ring. All of the dark segments are simply a default species (Species #1 of the current pallette).
I then changed the default species to transparent.png and returned to the Bowl View. (I could have done this for any of the 10 species of the pallette).
And here's what it looks like on the lathe. It's also the world's larges egg beater!
So I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to do something it could do already. I'm surprised that I didn't think of this sooner. It will certainly save me a LOT of programming. Of course, I was hoping to make it as a new feature and charge $100 for it.
If you'd like to try it yourself, you need a BLANK, transparent png file. Do a internet search for 'blank transparent png' and click on Images. Right click on any one that you see and save it to My Segment PRO > Species with the name 'transparent.png'. Now create a new Plan or open an existing one and change a species that has been used with the species named 'transparent.png'. Return to the Bowl View and be amazed. :->
Remember that if you open a saved Plan, you will always be using the Palette name 'Saved Plan'.
Thanks for the inspiration, Doug!
Lloyd
That's a LOT of lost wood. I began to wonder if I could help him with the design process by letting him see what the finished result would look like before going into the shop. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to do this programmatically using my software Segment PRO. I pretty much had it all figured out when it dawned on me that maybe it could do it already.
In Segment PRO, it is likely that 100% of the species ever used are jpeg files but they could also be PNG files. A difference between these two image types is that a PNG can have a transparent background. Could it be that simple? Could you just use a transparent species just like any other species to lose sight of segments?
To show you how it worked, this vessel has six painted bands and six bands of Lost Wood and so there are 12 bands with 6 segments each for a total of 72 segments per row. Here is how I painted it. I painted only the six bands and the top ring. All of the dark segments are simply a default species (Species #1 of the current pallette).
I then changed the default species to transparent.png and returned to the Bowl View. (I could have done this for any of the 10 species of the pallette).
And here's what it looks like on the lathe. It's also the world's larges egg beater!
So I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to do something it could do already. I'm surprised that I didn't think of this sooner. It will certainly save me a LOT of programming. Of course, I was hoping to make it as a new feature and charge $100 for it.
If you'd like to try it yourself, you need a BLANK, transparent png file. Do a internet search for 'blank transparent png' and click on Images. Right click on any one that you see and save it to My Segment PRO > Species with the name 'transparent.png'. Now create a new Plan or open an existing one and change a species that has been used with the species named 'transparent.png'. Return to the Bowl View and be amazed. :->
Remember that if you open a saved Plan, you will always be using the Palette name 'Saved Plan'.
Thanks for the inspiration, Doug!
Lloyd
