Before this: Edit the outline, rocker and thickness.
You’re going to check your board’s tail at full size, fix its faults in one click and, if you want a different tail, graft a real one from the library after seeing how it looks.
You need an .s3dx open. It doesn’t work with an STL: convert it first.
1. Open the workshop
- In the right-hand bar, click the tail button (Check the tail).
- If the editor was closed, it opens by itself.
Result: Workshop · Tail opens full screen. At the top you see the Tail type (pin, round, squash, square…), the Width at the tail, the Tail kick and the Volume.
2. Read the views
The workshop draws three things of the tail:
- Tail outline: both halves of the outline. Under the title it tells you which zone is checked: the first 20 % of the length.
- Centre-line profile: the bottom and the deck at the tail.
- Tail sections: six sections spread over that zone, with their points.
In all of them, the dashed grey line is the tail when you opened the workshop (before) and the coloured line is how it is now. Everything is at the same scale: the tail isn’t distorted.
3. Fix the faults
The Faults tab lists what’s wrong, in order: Error first, then Warning and Info. Among other things, it looks for:
- handles that are almost 0 long or much longer than their segment;
- kinks at points that should be smooth;
- curves that go backwards in the tail;
- loops in the closed tail section.
- Click a fault: its vertical mark is highlighted on the outline. In the sections, the points with a fault are drawn bigger.
- Click Fix on that fault, or Fix all for the ones that can be fixed automatically.
- Watch the Volume at the top: it tells you how much it changes.
Fixes only change the length of the handles or line up the two handles of a smooth point. They don’t move points.
The ones marked Warning only: check it by hand have no automatic fix. Correct them yourself in the editor.
Common mistake: expecting Fix all to fix everything. It leaves out the ones marked May be on purpose (a V in the centre): fix it only if it is not. If it isn’t on purpose on your board, click its own Fix.
4. Pick a tail from the library
- Switch to the Library tab. There are 55 tails taken from real boards: pin, round, squash, square, diamond, swallow…
- Each one has a thumbnail of its outline, its name and its type. Click one.
Result: a third line appears on the Tail outline with how your board would look. Below, under Preview, the volume before and after.
5. Adjust the graft
Under Preview:
- Where the grafted tail ends (% of length): from 3 to 30. Default, 12.
- Blend (% of length): the stretch where the new tail merges into your board, from 1 to 20. Default, 6. It must be shorter than the tail length.
- Width: this board’s scales the tail to your board’s width where the graft starts. the chosen tail’s copies its proportions relative to the maximum width.
- Also copy the tail kick: copies the lift of the bottom at the tail. The thickness doesn’t change.
The preview updates as you move each control. Read the Warnings if any appear: for example, if your closed tail ends up open or the other way round.
Tip: start with this board’s. That way the tail changes shape without touching the board’s width at the seam.
6. Graft and accept
- Click Graft this tail.
- Check the Faults tab: it now shows the faults of the new tail.
- Click Accept to keep the changes, or Cancel (or Esc) to leave the board as it was.
When you accept, the changes go into the editor’s HISTORY. Ctrl+Z undoes them.
7. What isn’t copied
Some tails in the original board don’t come from the curves alone: they’re made with a 3D layer. That’s the case with the swallow tail or the diamond cut. That layer isn’t copied: only the outline and the tail kick are. If you pick one of those tails, the workshop tells you under Warnings.
Save with Save s3dx… as usual.
Always check it in your design program (open it and check the volume) before you build.