![]() However, they said their software will do this no problem. I sent them a digital picture of a line drawing I had made and photographed and they sent back a file, which, of course, I can't open because I haven't installed a CAD/CAM system yet. Re: the point Rich makes about the scan to CAD software sucking, I have been in touch with a firm in Britain called, appropriately, Scan2CAD at the website. Wow, this Forum thing really works! Thank you very much for the feedback. Some cam programs will allow you some cad ability, therefore eliminating the need for the cad software, and importing/exporting files between the two. If all your doing is making simple pockets and outlines, there should be no reason to sell a kidney and buy Mastercam or some other expensive software. If your putting this pattern on more than one door, you could also consider stacking the veneers together between the spoil boards and cutting several at the same time. Especially since your needing a reasonably tight fitment. A camera will NOT take a truly flat 2D picture, and therefore can cause all sorts of grief for you. I would stay away from taking a picture of the part or drawing, and then manipulating the picture to create a tool path. Using the same outline for both parts ensures a much better fit. Import the cad drawing into your cam program.īasically what you are doing is making an outline to use as a tool path for the veneer AND the pocket in the door. If it were me, I would choose to do it in this manner.įreehand the pattern, scan your pattern to the computer using a scanner, then trace over the scanned image in cad. "spoil boards" or "sacrificial boards" are a common reference for them. Why are you choosing to do this by hand? If your reasoning is "because the veneer is thin".Thin parts can be cut by sandwiching between two pieces of thicker material. You'll need controll software, of course MACH since it's the best in town, and a contoller composed of the power supply/ motor drives/ cables. If the pc turns out to be a problem the Super Stepper which uses the USB should be considered ( consider one right from the start). Windows XP 1 GHZ W/ 1 TO 2 GHZ ram are about norm Recommended pc for Mach should be adequate for most software. You should try a number of programs to see what satisfies yourself in a price range that suites you wallet. You can try LAZYCAM ( its beta ) which may or may not be for you, or purchase some other program. You will need a CAM program to generate the code for the profile / whatever from the dxf file. Import to CAD, scale it to size, draw over the figure, export as a DXF file. Place know accurate markings on it which are visual in the picture. You can take your picture or scan and draw over it CAD. Please post as I would be interested along with a lot of companies. Should you find something that truely works My experience is that raster to vector software "sucks" and i don't care who makes it and how much you spend. You can do a search for raster to vector file software and will fiind some posts. Or maybe one of those systems will act as the scan-to-CADer? Do I need to combine the pc requirements (ram, cpu size, etc.) for both the CAM system and the motor control system to have a pc with the capabilities to run both? I have a whole bunch of dumb questions like that, but you get the idea - I need advice, and would appreciate any help you can offer. I don't know what my next step should be, but I think I need to buy both a CAM software system such as MasterCam to translate the DXF file into Gcode, and a motor controller such as Mach3. (Do I get extra credit for run-on sentences?). ![]() The routed areas will be freeform, that is, I want to hand draw, for example, a bird in flight, transfer the drawing to the veneer, cut the veneer into the bird shape, use the cut veneer to make a line drawing of the outline of the veneer bird, take a picture of the line drawing with a digital camera, download the pic into my pc, use a scan-to-CAD system to change the line drawing from raster to vector, have it expressed as a DXF file.and this is as far as I go. I will make the inlays myself on a bandsaw, and they will be about 1/16th inch thick. I am a cabinet maker by trade, and what I want to do with my cnc machine is the make shallow area routes of flat cabinet doors so that I can inlay veneers into the routed areas. I have just finished the physical construction of a 24" x 36" router table and am now getting to the software part.
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