Before I start making chips I want to make sure that the plan I have is correct. Just thinking that your idea is right doesn't make it so. If I conclude that the outside cross arches are cycloids and the inside arches are catenary curves, I better be able to back it up. I made 13 cross arches using the long arches my curves came up with, and guessing at the width of them. Then by checking the resulting thicknesses across the whole width of the curves I can see if the widths I chose were right. So far I've moved them around some, but my first guess wasn't bad. My curves aren't drawn perfect, the programs I have won't talk to each other so they are drawn as splines. I don't think any curves I carve will be that perfect either, so close counts, as well as trends. I haven't finished the belly design completely yet, but it is close.
I've been a machinist for 30 years so I'm used to working with blueprints...plans to show me exactly what I have to do. Even then, sometimes the prints I get at work don't tell me the things I want to know, only the things the designer thought about. Violin makers have to make do with much less than I'm used to. I don't think that the old masters did extensive planning. Sure they had a plan, but it was simple, they did it the same basic way all the time, and the adjustments for wood stiffness was a natural part of the finishing up. It's easier to do something that you know how to do, than to figure out how someone did something when there is no one left to tell you.
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