Paper Template Generator -- TubeNotcher Update

[Zipzit]

I'm the person who wrote the tubenotcher software at CobraTorch.net and as NovaCycles.com That software was based in Java, which hasn't kept up with the times.. There are a lot of security warnings and that kept folks away. I've been working on an update, which runs much better (JavaScript). I've also added a many new features. (Inches or MM, exhaust collector, a bit of square tubing or flat material mate up, elliptical tubes, etc...) This is my software in this video from Special Seventynine.

Paper templates offers a low budget home builder a chance to make an awesome project, with high quality, at no cost for expensive tooling.

Would love to get some feedback on this thing. Are there any special features or special joints that are really hard to do on custom bikes? The bicycle guys had a real problem on the seat stays to seat tube joint.. I added that feature for them. I've never built a custom motorcycle, but any really hard things to do there (templates? Joints??) Something I could help with?

One feature I've worked hard on is exhaust style collectors.. either used for decorative purposes, or for exhausts, or for tool stands. Is that something of interest to anybody?

         

Output is .pdf files, and that even works well for large tubing.. Adobe Acrobat allows you to print out large printouts on multiple sheets of paper. Adobe adds alignment tic marks and labels each page for you.

And hey, this software might even be helpful to the guys with the big machines. I'm not sure you could do this cut in a horizontal band saw. I just cut an accurate 20 degree angle in a 3" tube with my Portaband saw, but only because I marked out the entire cut before I started.

No cost. Click here, let me know?

LB Corney
(Former Automotive OEM Design/New Model Launch)
Freelance Software Developer, DogFeatherDesign
Las Vegas

[farmall]

You may want to throw that up on Weldingweb and the Miller welding forum. Lots of skilled folks there who work with tubing and pipe.

I don't know if there is a call for printing pipe templates on plotters in fab shops but you could ask. That could be an ideal use for your software since even if the template can't be full size they could use it for layout. Laying out pipe welds can a bitch even with the pocket guides on the subject so software could be popular among fitters and weldors.

The pipe weldors here (I ain't one) can give feedback on what they'd like to see.

[some1else]

thats awesome as hell.beyond my computer skills but for custom exhausts that would be a major time$aver as well as a neater job. good work

[bohica2xo]

Outstanding software Thanks!

I just tried it for the "Round / Tapered function & it worked out great.

Nice work.

[Nottso]

Awesomeness. Where were you when I needed you? During the second year of my Steamfitter (known in some areas as a Pipefitter) apprenticeship, we had to do all the math and then hand draw templates for a 45° 3" saddle on 3" schedule 40 pipe. We had to make one for the cutout in the run and one to make the branch. At the end of year 5 (the final year), the templates were handed back to us and we had to use them to cut and weld it as part of our final exam. it was damned tough.

[Guest]

Could you tell more about your Software "Paper Generator"? The thing is that I try to bring a lot of written work to automatism and I have read and written many reviews on similar topics for job steps. It makes work much easier. It would be interesting to listen to your point of view. What can TubeNotcher provide, for example.

[53Bash]

Pretty awesome. I can't think of any significant improvements, but if you wanted to get really fancy, templates for joining curved tubes might be nice. Given the "wrapped paper" intent, it really only would make sense for joining a straight cut tube to a curved base tube. Of course in reality its usually no problem to just ignore the curve, assuming you aren't coming in near tangential to that curve anyhow. The only use case where I could see this really being a significant benefit would be something like an exhaust manifold where the "collector" was something like a 2-1 where one branch was a curved pipe.

I'm a junior level web dev (full stack) who's worked in javascript the past couple years, and would love to do something similar for fork & other front suspension design - probably starting with basic rake / trail stuff, but working my way up to duplicating the functions of Tony Foale's Funny Front End software and expanding on them to include some designs he never included (ones with sliding elements, like the BMW Telelever) and useful default examples (like say a common springer design). I'd love to get some advice on coding and maths involved... I'll send yah some contact info in a PM so we can avoid thread clogging.

EDIT - Huh, can't PM yah, but I hit yah up through your site. Looks like some of the linkage stuff you did there can accomplish calculations and graphics similar to what I want to do.

[Zipzit]

Could you tell more about your Software "Paper Generator"? The thing is that I try to bring a lot of written work to automatism and I have read and written many reviews on similar topics for job steps. It makes work much easier. It would be interesting to listen to your point of view. What can TubeNotcher provide, for example.

Not sure what to say. I will say, I didn't even know that `automatism` was a real word till I saw this post and looked it up. Happy to help you, but I have no clue on how best to do that. I wrote the original tubenotcher paper thing for myself for a custom bicycle frame project, thought it was pretty useful. Perhaps useful to others. I added some features, cleaned it up a bit. Got some helpful feedback from some of the online forums. The guys over at home built airplanes were pretty helpful.

Pretty awesome. ...

I'm a junior level web dev (full stack) who's worked in javascript the past couple years, and would love to do something similar for fork & other front suspension design - probably starting with basic rake / trail stuff, but working my way up to duplicating the functions of Tony Foale's Funny Front End software and expanding on them to include some designs he never included (ones with sliding elements, like the BMW Telelever) and useful default examples (like say a common springer design). I'd love to get some advice on coding and maths involved... I'll send yah some contact info in a PM so we can avoid thread clogging.

EDIT - Huh, can't PM yah, but I hit yah up through your site. Looks like some of the linkage stuff you did there can accomplish calculations and graphics similar to what I want to do.

For anybody else, I'm pretty interested in mechanism design. ... Someday I'm building one of those walkers, just not in the immediate future.

53Bash,
I saw your email this morning, and responded. Feel free to call. Your email got me to checking this posting.

For anybody into software and coding, the animation stuff on that mechanism page is all javascript in the browser. I deliberately kept the code readable for anybody to figure out how it works. Chrome Dev tools is your buddy. (Chrome Browser, right click, chose Inspect...) The code is incredibly simple.

I will say, I've realized for one-off design work, one of the better tools out there is Solidworks. Using Block elements within a sketch is really an easy and quick way to verify motion in two dimensions. I do know from my grad school work in mechanism design (from decades ago) there is are some pretty good tools for Mechanism Synthesis but they aren't currently available / nor are they open source. A year or so ago, I contacted the authors (University of Minnesota) and tried to convince them of doing that, but ended up nowhere. Perhaps its time to try again.

reference notes for using blocks for mechanism design:

SolidWorks Sketch Blocks
Uploaded by Design & Motion.net, Dec 17, 2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyM0vt9kChg

Nice mechanism example, move things in sketch. This video gives you a good insight how relationships between different lines/elements work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kzRYfKcuFo

SolidWorks - Kinematics Tutorial | Creating Linkages
Uploaded by O'Reilly - Video Training, May 16, 2014
Linkages, dynamic dimensioning, align two lines (shock absorber)
Make an endpoint coincident, make both lines colinear.

--LB

[DustyDave]

Hope you don't mind, I posting this over on the S&S Vintage Tech Forum that I moderate.
Dusty