One of the perks of being a high school teacher is that I can have students make me acrylic maneuver templates as class projects in shop.

Are your acrylic movement templates the same thickness (measuring up when they lay flat on the table) as the original cardboard ones, or thicker?

I'm concerned that if they are too thin they may warp.

Child slave labour I see much profit in your future sir!

Service learning opportunity that counts as a graduation requirement and practice with CAD for a potential future drafting/graphic design career. But, I guess I'm the resident optimist here.

Anyone actually want to help?

I recommend making them a little thicker. The warping is a bit of a problem. My 5 template is just a little bent. I just put it upside down and hold it flat. Might be how I'm storing it though. Don't expect your templates to be tournament legal though. Some of those TOs want them to be perfect. The hard 2 is the template they almost busted me on, but ended up calling it close enough.

Most acrylic templates I have seen are 1/8" thick, a standard size that works fine without warping. The cardboard used in the game is thinner than that.

I agree that all the tokens/templates I have/have seen (I have all the FFG ones and a guy I know makes them as well) are the same thickness.

I would add that I have yet to see a warped or bent acrylic template.

Also the latest tournament rules PDF addressed the legality of 3rd party templates by allowing them en masse. So, barring an obvious difference in template length or angle they will be fine for tourney use. (Obviously the TO will have the final say)

Here are the tournament rules: http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/x-wing/support/faq/X-Wing-Tournament-Rules.pdf

I think mine are pretty close to the same thickness as the cardboards, and only had one out of four range rulers get warpy.

I like that ruling because as they say, even the cardboard or official FFG acrylics can be slightly different from each other. It comes down to each game, if you really have a problem you can demand that the game use one set. I've never seen anyone make a fuss. The only one I've ever mentioned is if someone is using the Store Championship range ruler I like to compare the range lines then I ask if we can declare one ruler for any "close calls". Putting 3 lines on the store championship ruler was dumb IMO and they tend to be slightly off compared to other rulers. I don't mind slight differences as long as we declare one as the "close call" ruler.

I don't know. I have official ones and the ones that come from Applied Perspective. I assumed that there were standard sheet thicknesses that you purchased to use in the laser cutter.

I'll do mine in 3mm (1/8") which is sturdy and works fine, but I'm not sure yet if I will deviate from that for the range rulers, probably doing them in 4mm (just to be on the sure side).

The templates should just be thick enough that they sting when you smack a kid's hand if he objects, but not so thick it leaves a mark.

I have the Litko set, one orange and one black, and haven't had any warping issues.

I haven't compared them to the FFG ones, but I think Clint did on The Metal Bikini, and the there was a slight, up to 1 mm difference on some. My two sets are pretty close, and I always bring both and offer one to the opponent.

Some of the early sets were based on the cardboard templates in the core set and were off a bit. Pretty quickly the various vendors figured out the ideal shapes of all the movement templates and they are all pretty much perfect now (unless they are really old). The radius and width are very round numbers (tho I don't know them off the top of my head). I know the range ruler is 300mm in 3x 100mm bands for example.

The templates should just be thick enough that they sting when you smack a kid's hand if he objects, but not so thick it leaves a mark.

In my day (I'm so old ) teachers used old pumps to keep us in line, it built character and taught us not to get caught.

The radius and width are very round numbers (tho I don't know them off the top of my head).

I keep hearing people say this but no one seems able to actually provide those numbers for the benefit of those of us that want to make our own.

The radius and width are very round numbers (tho I don't know them off the top of my head).

I keep hearing people say this but no one seems able to actually provide those numbers for the benefit of those of us that want to make our own.

42.

The templates should just be thick enough that they sting when you smack a kid's hand if he objects, but not so thick it leaves a mark.

In my day (I'm so old ) teachers used old pumps to keep us in line, it built character and taught us not to get caught.

The same people who swear by that method sue us five seconds after we do it to their own children. Its a hypocritical world.

You could even have them make templates for your favorite podcast hosts who covered your favorite SWminis game. :>)

How's that for a reference from your distant past?

The radius and width are very round numbers (tho I don't know them off the top of my head).

I keep hearing people say this but no one seems able to actually provide those numbers for the benefit of those of us that want to make our own.

probably because we want to sell you ours .-)))

Service learning opportunity that counts as a graduation requirement and practice with CAD for a potential future drafting/graphic design career. But, I guess I'm the resident optimist here.

Anyone actually want to help?

so u use CAD design software? microsoft? apple?

im also a design/workshop teacher. just looking into getting a laser cutter at my school (here in NZ).

i am really interested in your setup costs for your design software.

The radius and width are very round numbers (tho I don't know them off the top of my head).

I keep hearing people say this but no one seems able to actually provide those numbers for the benefit of those of us that want to make our own.

See what I mean. 5 days and still no one wants to actually provide the measurements the bloody things are supposed to follow.

I made some on the laser cutter at my school (woo for being a teacher!). It took a long time to work out the turns and banks as they aren't based on a circle. Also the banks aren't symmetrical (try taking two 2 bank templates and laying them in top of each other). I did mine on 2d design. PM me if you want a copy of the file.

I have the measurements somewhere. I'll put them down. I had to fish them out of a handful of measurements so that I could have precise movement in the vassal module of x-wing

All distances are in mm.

Forward templates:

Each '1' is 40 mm, the same length as the side of the small ship plastic base.

Fwd1 = 40

Fwd2 = 80

Fwd3 = 120

Fwd4 = 160

Fwd5 = 200

Hard turn templates:

Turn # - Inside radius - Outside radius:
1 - 25 - 45

2 - 53 - 73

3 - 80 - 100

Bank turn templates:
Bank # - Inside radius - Outside radius:
1 - 70 - 90

2 - 120 - 140

3 - 170 - 190

I haven't had anyone directly challenge these measures, but I did exchange info with one company making acrylic templates available on the market and we disagreed very slightly on two measurements for the hard 1 and hard 2 turns, but I find it minor enough to not care.

Their average radius for the hard turn 1 and 2 gave: 36 and 62, while mine are 35 and 63. I have no idea what their inside and outside radii are for those moves. Everything else was identical.

What triggered this intensive search:

exposition of the problem: http://teamcovenant.com/mu0n/2013/10/22/the-most-urgently-needed-fixes-for-the-x-wing-modules-of-vassal/

details of the problems: http://teamcovenant.com/mu0n/2013/11/28/the-road-to-4-6-0-and-better-firing-arcs/

Useful information

Thank you very much. I really appreciate that. Now I can go back and actually fix mine.