Is it possible to put an optical reader on my gantry for those brackets that are easy to draw by hand, but not easy to describe or draw with CAD? I would like to be able to scan the drawing and save it to the hard drive

As I understand it (I have never tried) there is relatively inexpensive software that allows you to snap a digital pic. Run it through the software & reduce/enlarge etc. Then create a file you can create code on.

Check & post your question further down the forums list. There is an entire section dedicated to software, CAD, CAM etc.

I went down and looked, there are a lot of different forums. I'm not sure which one to post on.

Here is a short thread on scanning an image or traced outline. http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=80081

I'm sure there are others. People who do art type work can probably help you best. I think Corel Draw version 12 & up is one software that allows you to do that sort of work. www.CandCNC.com sells or at least did sell a .dxf tool that helped clean up scanned images. Yoyu might even find some help here http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CandCNCSupport/

It's a LOT easier to learn to use the vector drawing tools in a package like CorelDraw, Inkscape or one of the low cost CAD programs. Scans and photos are bitmaps (thousands of tiny dots). You have to turn then into line drawings either by using auto-trace which is okay on simple B & W scans or photos of existing line art, or by hand tracing in the software. The auto trace leaves you with artifacts to clean up. You may think something you draw has nice complete lines but scan it and blow it up and you will be amazed at the roughness and breaks in the lines.

The mastery of the software side of CNC is every bit as important as being able to build and run the machine. It's somewhat like owning a car but pulling it with your trusty horse because learning to drive looks intimidating.

To build a giant scanner with a CNC machine would not be a trivial task.

TOM Caudle
www.CandCNC.com
Totally Modular CNC Electronics