# Announcing: Rhinestone Resizing and Re-spacing Methods (which will work for most programs)



## SandyMcC (Jul 23, 2009)

Rhinestone pattern resizing is a relatively easy process and most everyone here probably already has their own method, depending on which software they use. My new customers often contact me for guidance so I decided to make a video for them, as well as create a simple Excel calculator to make the process simpler.

But re-spacing the circles in a pattern is a different matter. This has come up dozens of times and, until a few weeks ago, I typically said that you are stuck with what you get in the original design. However, that's not true. I pondered it for a while and then spent an entire weekend "doing the math" and came up with a method whereby an existing pattern can have the circles moved closer together or farther apart, while maintaining the exact same pattern design and circle size. The most obvious application for this would be when a pattern is resized for a different size stone and the spacing between the circles subsequently becomes too large or too small. But it can also be used when designing with rhinestone fonts in which the spacing is already determined based on the font design. If you do not like the spacing, then CHANGE IT using my method and the rhinestone spacing calculator (anther Excel spreadsheet I've created). 

So, the links to the tutorial videos are below. If you cannot open an Excel 2007 spreadsheet, no problem. Accugraphic is working on making these two calculators available on the Internet. Note that while the videos were made using functions in ACS and KNK Studio, I'm fairly certain these same functions I'm using can be found in the other major designing programs, such as Corel Draw, Funtime, and WinPC Sign. 

Resizing Rhinestone Patterns

Re-spacing Rhinestone Patterns


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## Leg cramps (Feb 9, 2009)

awesome!thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:d:d:d


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## SandyMcC (Jul 23, 2009)

You are VERY welcome!  

I forgot to thank Mike (mfatty500) who first came to me in mid-July with the question of needing to resize a rhinestone font title because the circles were too far apart. I came up with one method but it was a trial and error process and I wasn't particularly happy with it. That's why I just kept pondering the issue and finally sat down and started modeling various scenarios. THEN I got into the mathematics and figured out a precise way of doing it.


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## Boomerbabe (Sep 5, 2009)

I had figured out the resizing, but by trial and error, thanks for the math formula. The respacing I will have to see if it works in Corel, but have been trying to figure that one out. You just saved me a ton of stress and frustration. Thank you.


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## SandyMcC (Jul 23, 2009)

Boomerbabe said:


> I had figured out the resizing, but by trial and error, thanks for the math formula. The respacing I will have to see if it works in Corel, but have been trying to figure that one out. You just saved me a ton of stress and frustration. Thank you.


You're welcome! It really should work with any program where you can resize by using a scaling percentage... and I think most vector programs have that. And then if you can contour an image in the program, either expanding it or contracting it, should allow you to do the circle spacing, as well... fingers crossed!


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## ccourtenay (Aug 11, 2008)

Sandy I bow down to the QUEEN of the KNK software!! That is awesome girl!! Now here is someone who is EF Hutton!! When she moves her lips, great info comes out, not only for her customers, but for everyone else. Kudos, Kudos..

Oh, a little fyi, for those that don't have excel, you can download office org and they have a program that will open all the excel files for free..


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## SandyMcC (Jul 23, 2009)

ccourtenay said:


> Sandy I bow down to the QUEEN of the KNK software!! That is awesome girl!! Now here is someone who is EF Hutton!! When she moves her lips, great info comes out, not only for her customers, but for everyone else. Kudos, Kudos..


I'm blushing now!  Thanks for the kind words!



ccourtenay said:


> Oh, a little fyi, for those that don't have excel, you can download office org and they have a program that will open all the excel files for free..


Thank you SO much, Cindy!!! I vaguely remembered that there was "something" out there that would open Excel files but couldn't remember the name. I'm sure this will work great!


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## rhinestoneshirts (Mar 15, 2008)

Nice video Sandy
I can't use excel so what is the math forumla you use for the re-spacing


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## mrblfx (Feb 18, 2009)

Thanks for the great post....

Another great job..You're are one of the reasons that the forum is just a great place.

Once again thanks many times over

JIM


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## SandyMcC (Jul 23, 2009)

rhinestoneshirts said:


> Nice video Sandy
> I can't use excel so what is the math forumla you use for the re-spacing


I'm getting my notes typed up and then I'll release this as a PDF.  Just need to proof read it!


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## SandyMcC (Jul 23, 2009)

mrblfx said:


> Thanks for the great post....
> 
> Another great job..You're are one of the reasons that the forum is just a great place.
> 
> ...


You're welcome, Jim! Thank YOU for such a kind post!


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## SandyMcC (Jul 23, 2009)

Here is the documentation for this Rhinestone Re-spacing Method. I listed the formulas at the top so that you don't have to muddle through the math to get to them. But I did want to include the math part to support the method I developed. 

I respectively request that this work not be plagiarized. I was hesitant to share this because, in the past, I have found my work copied almost word-for-word without any acknowledgement... sometimes within 24 hours of release! I don't mind these formulas being used in your own PERSONAL calculating programs but if you decide to copy my work and publish it or sell it, without my permission, I will make your life miserable!


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## Kim_t2_au (May 24, 2010)

Oh my, that is amazing. THAAAAAAANK YOU

Kim


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## ashamutt (Feb 22, 2008)

Thanks once again SandyM! 

YOU Mrs. SandyM are a BRAIN!

How blessed we all are to have your engineering degree/brain helping us here at TSF!
And to think, you could have charged for this special "resizing & re-spacing calculator" and made some money for yourself, but instead decided to share it freely with all of us!

Kudos to you Mrs. SandyM!
You are truly an exceptional person - helpful, kind and very giving.


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## mfatty500 (Jan 18, 2010)

Thanks again Sandy!


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## lizziemaxine (Nov 14, 2007)

SandyMcC said:


> I pondered it for a while and then spent an entire weekend "doing the math"
> 
> Resizing Rhinestone Patterns
> 
> Re-spacing Rhinestone Patterns


I am so thankful that you are a part of this forum. Just reading the words "doing the math" gave me a headache. I wouldn't have known where to start to come up with this like you did. I can spell math, but I'm not very good at doing it.

Thanks so much for your hard work and willingness to share it.


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## SandyMcC (Jul 23, 2009)

lizziemaxine said:


> I am so thankful that you are a part of this forum. Just reading the words "doing the math" gave me a headache. I wouldn't have known where to start to come up with this like you did. I can spell math, but I'm not very good at doing it.
> 
> Thanks so much for your hard work and willingness to share it.


lol You're very welcome! I've always loved math, but we each have our own individual aptitudes. For example, I wasn't very good at history... BORING!  Or geology! VERY BORING!  Or the worst... biology??? YUCK! 

It was really exciting to find a new use for algebra skills after so many years.


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## SandyMcC (Jul 23, 2009)

The on-line calculators for resizing and respacing rhinestone templates are now available:

iloveknk.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Re-SizingCalculator.htm

iloveknk.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Re-SpacingCalculator.htm

Please let me know if you have any questions or problems using these.


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## irish (Dec 13, 2008)

My hubby thinks I do nothing but watch videos all day 

Thanks Sandy


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## SandyMcC (Jul 23, 2009)

You're welcome!


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## Eview1 (Apr 29, 2010)

Jim you said exactly what I wanted to

Sandy you are THE WOMAN

Evie





mrblfx said:


> Thanks for the great post....
> 
> Another great job..You're are one of the reasons that the forum is just a great place.
> 
> ...


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## vgary (Mar 31, 2010)

HELP! Has anyone tried Sandy's calculations with SmartCut Pro? How, where do you find the tools in the program to correlate to her calculations? I have a design I really, really need to resize the spacing. My stones are way too tight. Your help is most appreciated.


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## SandyMcC (Jul 23, 2009)

Well, let me do my best until someone with Smart Cut Pro can step in to help. First of all, can you find the outlining/contour function that would be used to make an outline either larger or smaller around an image... like how we create the outlines for cutting the decal material.


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## vgary (Mar 31, 2010)

Sorry, had to leave, but I will check back tomorrow. And yes, Sandy, thanks, I can find that tool in Smart Cut Pro. What next?


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## SandyMcC (Jul 23, 2009)

Now, with that tool, you just need to make sure it works the same way that ours works in KNK/ACS. If you enter a value of, say, 0.5 mm, it would make a 3 mm circle become a 4 mm circle because it would be adding 0.5 mm around the entire outside. I'm sure that's how it works, but it's a good idea to confirm.

Then see how you would do the opposite. Instead of adding 0.5mm, can you subtract 0.5 mm? In our software, we check the Inline box instead of the Outline box. And then use the same 0.5mm. In some programs, you still use the same function but you input a -0.5 mm (a negative value). So, figure out how that would work.

The other function you need is usually called Scaling. It's a way to increase or decrease the overall dimensions of an object. In the case, you select your entire pattern (or all the circles of one color if you have more than one color) and when you scale it to a different size it changes both the sizes of the circles AND the distance between them at one time. That's how it differs from the above function. For example, let's say I select my entire pattern and enter 50%, then my entire pattern would become half the size. 

So, if you can also find where you would perform that particular function, then it should work! If you cannot locate something like that, then if you can see the overall dimensions of your project (and I'm sure that's available), then I can actually modify my calculator so that you will be able to simply input your pattern size and then it will tell you how much to change the pattern to get it to be the correct size.

OR... there may be a much simpler way to achieve this already in Smart Cut Pro? I'm sure this has come up before? I was being asked frequently about changing the spacing in existing patterns by customers which was the reason I knew I had to figure out a method for us to be able to it.


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## RockRebel (Feb 15, 2008)

Sandy, thank you for all of your helpful posts. You are a gem!


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## SandyMcC (Jul 23, 2009)

My pleasure! I enjoy helping at this forum.


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## DivineBling (Sep 14, 2010)

Wow! I just watched the spacing video and learned several new tricks! I laughed at myself every time my jaw dropped open because you showed a shortcut that will totally save me time! Thanks, Sandy!


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## SandyMcC (Jul 23, 2009)

That's great news!!!

There are SO many similarities between Bling It and KNK/ACS Studio that I think you might pick up more when you have time watch some of the other videos. I've been working with CADLink's software for almost 5 years and it's loaded with cool stuff!!!


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## DivineBling (Sep 14, 2010)

That's super cool! I'm actually using OOBling so I was looking to see what the differences are between our workspaces. One key difference is that I work with rhinestones instead of circles so if I want to change the stone size, I just select whatever size I want to change and utilize the Replace with Rhinestones feature. However, that doesn't help if I want to adjust the spacing so that's where this awesome video comes in! I've already saved it to my computer and I will be infiltrating your website looking for more cool tips and tricks! 
Thanks!


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## keetch (Mar 12, 2010)

hello, i just watched the re-spacing video but the re-sizing video will not come up, what am i doing wrong lol
sue


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## SandyMcC (Jul 23, 2009)

Try this link instead... 

http://www.iloveknk.com/Support/Rhinestone/Videos/RT09ResizingRhinestonePatterns.wmv

Once my basic tutorial videos went past 9, I renumbered them. However, this message board doesn't permit on to go back and edit messages that are more than... I'm not sure... maybe 2 weeks old? So, I cannot fix my older video links. I'll send the new link to Rodney and maybe he'll fix it for me. : )


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## keetch (Mar 12, 2010)

ok thank you Sandy


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## Pearls (Jul 28, 2011)

Thank you Sandy for all of this information. The videos, pdfs, help with different software are a great asset in my learning toolbox. Thanks again.


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## SandyMcC (Jul 23, 2009)

You're welcome!


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