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Hello All:
I have some helpful information I'd like to pass along to
those of you who may design a stained glass sundial someday.
I've just finished a design for an SE decliner with the technical help
of a few glass artisans on the Bunji Glass List (an email
discussion group like the Sundial List) and I've learned a lot in the past
two weeks.
1. The width of the lead that joins the pieces of glass
(called the "came") is very important to the design. Usually the came is "H"
shaped and comes in widths of 1/8" to 1". You pick a width that is artistically
pleasing for your design. You can use several different widths in the
same design if you want. The center part of the came is called the
"heart". Lead cames of all widths have hearts that are
1/16" thick. The two pieces of glass butt up against the heart
of the lead came, which means that two adjoining panes are always separated
by a distance of 1/16". (I don't know the metric equivalents of glass and
came used in Europe, but will try to find out).
2. This means that when you design a stained glass sundial
window you need to make two different drawings of the sundial face. One
drawing shows an interior view the sundial as it would actually look and
shows the actual width of the lead came. This is the drawing that you would show
your client. The other drawing is the glass cutting template for
the glass artisan. The cutting template drawing will show 1/16"
gaps between the panes. On other words, the glass template will have thinner
lines than the client's drawing.
3. It just so happens that Delta Cad is the
perfect program for drawing stained glass windows because it allows
you to draw lines of exact thicknesses. Go to "Options"
then "Drawing Data" and you can enter different values for line
widths. What's neat about Delta Cad is that you can easily play around with
different lead came widths using this feature because it will change all the
line widths in your drawing with the click of a button. Or you can change the
line width of individual lines using the edit feature. But Delta Cad will
not add color to the spaces between the lines.
4. Your client will surely want to see a drawing in color and
you will need one too. The glass artisan does not need a colored drawing
for his glass cutting template just as long as he knows what colors to use.
Since large color drawings are expensive to make, you can just give the artisan
a black and white version and write in text the colors of glass in the drawing.
To colorize a Delta Cad drawing, I convert it to a PDF and then open the PDF in
Photoshop Elements to add color. (check out the magic wand tool for this).
I found that you get very good resolution in Photoshop if you get your Delta Cad
image from a PDF. If you use a DXF or BMP exported copy, or if you use the
copy/paste method, the resolution is horrible compared to a PDF. This was an
important discovery.
5. I think it is important to test your design.
You can easily test it with a paper version with a cardboard gnomon taped to a
window or board where the window will be. (You can see test dial photos on the
Technical Page of the SGS website.)
6. I noticed when testing that it is important to take into
consideration the thickness of the glass when designing the height of the
gnomon. If the dial is painted on the interior side of the glass, then you
must decrease the height of the gnomon by an amount that is equal to the glass
thickness or else the gnomon will be too tall. This is especially
important if the dial is small.
If you'd like to see my design drawing it is now posted in the
Photo Collection in Stained Glass Sundials/ 21st Century. http://advanceassociates.com/Sundials/Stained_Glass
Hope this info comes in handy,
John
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