Scaling An Image To Desired Size

[RayburnGuy]

Not sure how useful this will be to a lot of you, but it's an old trick from my fabrication days that I thought I would pass on. When you don't have computers or a CAD machine handy you have to make do with what you have at hand. Even if you can't use it in your lure building perhaps it will prove useful for something else.

If you want to use a photo off the 'net to model a bait after and the photo is larger or smaller than the actual size your looking for then by using this trick you can get reference points to whatever size you want to make it.

The first thing you'll want to do is create center lines both horizontally and vertically through the center axis of the photo. (these are shown as point "B" in the diagram) Next you need to mark the overall length used for reference. You will then need to create reference points on the horizontal axis which will be used for positioning the scaled image. You then connect these lines to a point on the vertical axis as shown in the diagram. In this case I made the scaled image smaller, but you can also make it larger by reversing the process. Once this is done you will need to find a point that gives you the desired length your looking for shown by line "A". This point will need to be 90 degrees to the horizontal center line. By moving this point up or down you can arrive at whatever size your looking for. In this case I used a picture of a crawfish and used the body segments as reference points. You will then connect the reference points on the horizontal center line of the photo to the center line you have chosen as your scaled down version. This will give you the same scaled down reference points to the desired length you've chosen. This can be used to mark out dimensions for carving or shaping a bait or for reference marks for a paint job. If used for carving or shaping a bait you will need both a side view and a top or bottom view to get both dimensions.

I'm not really one for explaining things so I'm hoping the diagram will help. Remember that this can be used to enlarge things to scale as well. You would just use the wide side of the "V" to start the scaling process. If things aren't clear then just holler and I will try to explain it better.

[BobP]

Thanks RG!

I won't say how many sheets of printer paper I burned trying to up/downscale drawings and pics, except to yell "Timber!". What you see on the screen ain't what you get on the printer unless you're using a CAD program. CAD programs can be expensive and hard to learn. But I looked around and found a simple FREE shareware CAD program called "Powerdraw" and it has worked great. Measure an existing lip you like in millimeters. Set up the Powerdraw screen grid to millimeters and draw the lip. Hit print and you get an image that is exactly the size you measured on screen. As well as the right size printout, It's the only way I know to make perfectly symmetrical lip templates. Save the design so you can do it again if needed, or you can modify the design to tweak future baits. Worth a little time to learn if you "roll your own" lips and have a variety of lip designs.

I'm not pimping Powerdraw. There may be better, easier, faster CAD programs out there in Shareware World. Just want to point out that such programs exist and they can help you make better baits.

[mark poulson]

Wow! That gives me a whole new "perspective".

Thanks.

[RayburnGuy]

My pleasure guys. Just hope it comes in useful for you one of these days.

[ahbeng]

Actually, you can download OpenOffice. There's a program in the suite called "Drawing". You can simply insert your picture, right click and select "Position and Size". Choose the height and width you want (you can choose to retain the ratio or stretch it to fit the size of your piece of wood). Then simply print out and it will be the exact size you want.

I usually make a mirror image copy, and paste these images on both sides of my wood.

[.dsaavedra.]

you can also use Microsoft Word to scale your picture to the dimensions you want.

[RayburnGuy]

Some of you might have missed the point.

"When you don't have computers or a CAD machine handy"