CAVD

Violin: a bowed stringed instrument having four strings tuned at intervals of a fifth and a usual range from G below middle C upwards for more than 41/2 octaves and distinguished from the violin in having a shallower body, shoulders at right angles to the neck, a fingerboard without frets, and a more curved bridge.
The front and back of a violin are not flat. The question is: What shape do they have?
The shape of a cross section of either side has the same curve as a crossbow.
This curv is a trachoid and is given by the following formulae:
``Rolling circle''
Drawing these curves by hand is tedious.
It is easy to write software to plot trachoids, and if we do a descent job and have a reasonable printer, the violin maker can use computer plots rather than draw these curves by hand.