Steve Abbott's Computer Drawn 3D Knots with KnotTyer3D

Welcome to the KnotTyer3D site!

Updated 11 January 2009 with v1.19b which allows users to tell Windows that a .kt3 file should automatically open with KnotTyer3D

KnotTyer3D does what it says. It ties knots in 3D. It ties simple knots (Figure of 8, Reef knot) and complex knots (Alpine), it ties scouting knots and fisherman's knots and, well, all kinds of knots.

It's simple to use. You load a .kt3 file that contains all the information about the knot, then animates the knot in 3D.
You can view the knot from any 3D angle, you can watch it tie from any 3D angle, you can print it, you can do just about anything you want with it.
It can also output the knots in various 3D formats including VRML for viewing in browsers.

And you can create your own 3D knots with the KT3 Editor
If you have a picture of a knot, the KT3 Editor lets you point and click with your mouse to define the shape in 3D.
If you have an animated gif of the knot you can even compose a knot following the frames of the animated gif

Building a library of 3D knots
At this stage there is a collection of over 50 different knots. As they are so easy to create, I hope that many of you will make versions of your favourite knots and e-mail them to me. I will add them to the 3D knot collection.
For example, Vince Shaff kindly e-mailed 9 beautiful knots that have been added to the collection and Sam Clippinger sent 22, some of which corrected my original errors and other fancy knots that were far more difficult than any I could create! David C Hurd has provided an alternative Tautline and also the Kiwika Lure. Thanks for all these contributions.
The format of the knots automatically allows for a 'Created by:' section, so each contributor will automatically be acknowledged.

The Program

Click here to download v1.19b. Unzip it into a convenient folder and it should run under XP, Vista or Windows-7 (even the 64bit version).

As some users have had problems installing it in Win7, I attach some instructions kindly sent in by one user:

1. First I downloaded the VB6 runtime that you state in the readme file from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290887
2. I was then getting errors for the comctl32.ocx file and this is how to solve it I took the comctl32.ocx file from your zip and placed it in the C:\windows\sysWOW64\ folder many of the tutorials on the web say the system32 folder but in windows 64 bit the system32 folder is for 64 bit files and the sysWOW64 is for 32 bit files (go figure but I had an hour hunt to work this out). You then have to register the file with the computer by typing "regsvr32 c:\windows\syswow\comctl32.ocx" in the command prompt (type CMD in the start menu)
3. Then you get another error when trying to run that the comdlg32.ocx is not registered, now this file is not in your knots3d package [Steve note - it's now included in the download] but I downloaded it from this site http://windowsxp.mvps.org/comdlg32.htm and I also see that it is in your knottyer3d package. Copy this file again to the c:\windows\syswow\ folder and run in the command prompt "regsvr32 c:\windows\syswow\comdlg32.ocx"

Celtic 3D Knots