French curve
From Free net encyclopedia
Image:FrenchCurve 1000.gif A French curve is a template made out of plastic, metal or wood composed of many different curves. It is used in manual drafting to get a smooth curve of varying radii.
The curve is placed on the drawing material, and a pencil, knife or other implement is traced around its curves to produced the desired result.
Modern computer CAD drafting systems use vector based graphics to achieve a precise radius, so no template is required.
French curves are not used as much nowadays because of today's modern vector-drawing computer programs.
[edit]