Templates for the Terrifed
Tutorial: Making a Lattice
Lattice designs are some of the most attractive and popular templates that you can make with your Craft Robo. There are a number of tutorials available that show you the basics of making a welded lattice with alternative software. This tutorial will show you how to make one without the need for this. Instead of concentration on the lattice itself, we'll concentrate on the shapes that make up a lattice design.
Requirements:
Techniques, tools and functions used:- Basics: creating, saving and opening files
- Drawing: use various drawing tools, e.g. draw rectangle, polygon, oval
how to set line colours - Editing: copy and paste, add, delete, and move nodes, mirror selections
- Selection: select an item or group of items and move or resize them
- Grids: set units and grid size, turn a grid on and off, snap to grid
- Advanced: using position settings to resize and rotate an item.
Your manual covers in detail all these functions; practice with them if you are not completely familiar with them before starting the tutorial.
Getting Started
Open a new document, size ISO A4, with carrier sheet selected. In your document, go to Edit->Grid Settings and tick Show Grid and Snap to Grid. Choose a Grid setting of 5mm. In your document use the pencil icon at the bottom of your screen to select a colour for this tutorial - use a palish colour e.g.pink. Using the rectangle drawing tool on the left hand side menu, and draw a rectangle 13 grid blocks wide by 13 grid blocks high [a]. This is going to be a set of guide lines which we can delete later. Click away from the rectangle to deleselect it, and now change the line colour to black.
Making a Basic Square Lattice
Now zoom in using the + magnifying glass on the top menu bar, to get a suitable size to work at. Using the rectangle drawing tool on the lhs tool bar, start one grid space in and one down from the top, and draw a row of four little squares, each one grid unit in size, using the grid intersections as a guide [b]. Next, use the select tool from the lhs tool bar and select them all; you can now copy and paste them to complete the lattice[c]. Use ctrl c to copy then ctrl v to paste them. They will be pasted on top of the original row, so you'll need to drag them down into position on the next row. Because you are using the snap to grid option they should pop easily into place. Repeat the pasting and moving until you've filled your lattice [d]. Select and delete your pink guide lines. Next select the whole design and go to edit on the top menu bar, and select group. This will keep all the squares together as a single unit. Finally save your file as basic_lattices.gsd
Making a Basic Diagonal Lattice in a Diamond
The quick and easy way:
Copy and paste your lattice square, and move it well away from your
original square by dragging your selection. While it's still selected,
right click within the selection; this will bring you up a list of menu options: select
Position Settings from the end of the list. In the pop up window type 45.00
into the Angle of Rotation box, and click on OK. You should
now have your diagonal lattice [e,f]. Save your file again and close it. You have now got two
basic lattice templates to work with.
See below for a slightly more complex but better looking lattice.
Working With Your Basic Lattice
Always work with a copy of your basic lattices! Select and copy, then open a new work sheet, using the same setting as specified above. Paste your lattice into this. You can now start work on it.
To make a larger lattice area, select, then copy and paste. Remember that the pasted copy is on top of the original so you'll need to move it, taking care that you keep to the original spacing; snap to grid helps you do this.
If you need to make it a specific size, you can ungroup (via edit on the top menu bar) and select an area to copy. Alternatively you can copy and paste the whole lattice, ungroup and delete the sections you don't need.
You can change the proportions of the lattice, by selecting, right-clicking inside the selection, and choosing position settings from the popup menu; fill in the height and width you want. Alternatively you can select and drag to resize it.
To make a central panel, select and delete a suitably sized area in the middle.
The Alternative Diamond Lattice Method:
Open a new file as before; set the grid to 2mm, and change your line colour to pink again and using the rectangle tool, draw a rectangle 10 grid squares wide by 20 high, to help you with positioning . Now select the polygon tool and draw a diamond shape using the midpoints of the rectangle to guide you. Click to create the nodes at the appropriate points.[g]
Change your line colour to black, and using the polygon tool draw in your diamond lattice; start at the top point of your guide lines and create your first lattice diamond by moving along the pink guide line for four grid intersections; change direction and move four grid intersections diagonally inwards - you should be eight grid squares under the topmost point; next move diagonally up four squares until you've arrived at the opposite side. You've now completed your first diamond [h]. For the next row, start at one of the side points of your pink guide lines and move round in a similar fashion [i]. Repeat on the opposite side. For the base, start as the bottom point of the pink guide lines and work your way round again. and two units in from the side, and draw your shape. You should end up with four diamonds eight grid squares high by four wide, with spaces two grid squares wide in each direction [j]. Select and delete your pink guidelines. Select and group your four diamonds, then save your file as basic_diamond_lattice.gsd.
Working With Your Diagonal Lattice
As above: always work with a copy of your diamond lattices! Select and copy, then open a new work sheet, using the same setting as specified above. Paste your lattice into this. You can now start work on it.
To make a larger diamond lattice, select, and copy your basic four diamond lattice, then drag the copy so that it sits two grid quares below and is lined with the original. Paste again and drag the copy to the left and line up the diamonds; do the same again on the right. Save your file as diamond_lattice.gsd.
To make a rectangular lattice, open your basic_diamond_lattice.gsd file and copy to a new worksheet as you for the basic square. Select, copy and paste the basic diamond, then with it still selected, drag the copy so that the outside diamonds are level and two grid squares apart. Next check whether you have this grouped, if so (with it still selected, ungroup it. Select, copy and paste the single top diamond, and drag this to the central gap. Repeat to fill the bottom gap Next select the bottom two rows of diamonds and copy and paste them. Drag the copy beneath the bottom row making sure they are all aligned correctly. Save your file as diamond_lattice.gsd, but keep it open.
At this point you can keep the zig-zag edges or infill then to make a smooth straight line. To create smooth side panels, select, copy, paste and drag two of the vertical diamonds to work with. Make sure that you have Edit->Grid Settings->Snap to Grid selected, then using the polygon tool, create a triangle to the left and level with topmost diamond: start two grid squares to the left and level with the top point, go four squares up, down two and across one square. Draw a similar triangle between the two diamonds, and again at the base of the bottom one. Select, copy and paste the whole lot, then drag the copy to the left leaving a reasonable space. Go to Edit->Mirror->Horizontal and select; this will give you a reversed image for the opposite side. A similar process is used to create smooth top and bottom rows: this time select, copy and paste a row of four diamonds to work with. On the grid line level with the topmost point of the leftmost diamond, use the polygon tool to draw a triangle. Start two grid squares to the right and go another two grid squares across then two down and one across. Repeat for the rest of the row. Finally, at the end select, copy and paste a fifth diamond. Take a copy of the whole lot as before, to make your base row, but use Edit->Mirror->Vertical to flip them.
You can now complete your lattice rectangle by selecting, copying and pasting the four side panels and dragging them into place around your lattice. If you need different sizes, repeat the copy and paste procedure until you have the correct lengths. If they are too long, ungroup and delete the surplus. It's worth thinking about saving the side and centre panels as individual items so that you have the building blocks to create different size lattices in the future. Save your file as diamond_lattice_rectangle.gsd.
For a variation on the diamond lattice, you can include a central solid panel, following a similar procdure to the basic square lattice.
To make a lattice that will fit an A5 card (A4 folded in half), open a new file with a grid size of 2mm. Either open your existing diamond lattice file and copy and paste your existing lattice, and modify to fit, or create a new lattice with eight diamonds across by six diamonds down [k]. Next change your line colour to red, and using the rectangle tool, following diagram [l], draw a rectangle two diamonds in from the side, and one and a half diamonds from the top. Your rectangle should intersect the centre points of each diamond.
Next, select and delete all the diamonds that are completely inside your rectangle [m]. Finally, for all the diamonds sitting on your rectangle, select each one individually, edit point on the left hand menu, and right click on the node that is inside the rectangle to delete it. This should leave you with a set of triangles whose edges will form the sides of your panel insert. Finally click on the red rectangle in an area away from the triangles, to delete it. Group and save your lattice as diamond_lattice_panel.
Part two will cover more advanced shapes.