i was wondering if any of you knew of an effective vector based program that can be used with CNC machines, as we have some at uni that i want to take advantage of. the technician told me to use illustrator and save the files as .SVG but i cant get the hang of illustrator. also i have no experience with making images for cnc machines, and i was wondering if theres a way to set up depth for the cuts in a program, or would it have to be a separate image that the cnc machine is then told to do with less power(they have laser cnc machines). on tuesday i will ask them about it, but id like to get started on some designs before then ideally. any help is much appreciated.
Tips for Illustrator; spend time in the help file and play with paths (lines) - if you can draw what you want with those lines, you're good.
Another one is to use http://www.inkscape.org/ its somewhat easier to use than Illustrator (although not as powerful or polished) and produces SVG's
the problem i have with illustrator is, that i just want to do simple outlines, but it doesn't seem to do things like snap to the length of a parallel line like in programs like sketchup. ah it seems that sketchup can export as DWG should be able to use that then. i think the reason they said illustrator to me was because at the time i was thinking about including text. but for this work i dont need any text included so hopefully they will accept DWG files.
I would also recommend inkscape. It seems to be way easier to use than illustrator. It do have some bugs, but it's bearable. The thing i hate about illustrator is that to bend a line you have to use those damn handles, while in inkscape you can just click on the line. makes things much easier.
That's more of an industry-standard thing. After close to 18 years of graphic-design, it's second nature for me personally to use them. I can recall since version 88+, Illustrator has always been that way. Corel has the same or similar feature regarding the use of 'handles' as well. That's just how it's always been done!
Perhaps "Solid Works" ? All depends on the depth wise complexity of what you want to create I guess. I would reckon that if you bring your dwg with or without having your 2d extruded, they can help do that.
CNC Art Conversion Videos Agent_M, I am just putting together a tutorial series on taking an image and converting it to CNC. I use Illustrator, so you may be able to pick up some tips. The series is 13 Videos Long and I just about have them all cooked. You have to be registered on the site to get to the videos, but signing up is free. Not much of a barrier. Here is the registration link: http://www.cncinformation.com/index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=registers Have a good one, Ivan Irons http://www.cncinformation.com
