coreldraw-->sheetcam-->mach3

[Teknition]

Hello to all

I'm totally new to cnc and I'm anxiously awaiting my Dragoncut 620-5 plasma kit from Tom at CandCNC.com as well as waiting for PrecisionPlasma to get some parts in so I can order a gantry kit from them. Then I will be posting in the build thread on the 5x10 table I'm going to build.

In the mean time, I figured now would be a good time to get familliar with the software I will need to operate the table. I've purchased CorelDraw Graphics studio X5 but the main problem I'm having is that it will do so much, I'm not really sure what I should be concentrating on learning. Could someone list the steps involved in Corel to export a usable DXF to:

1) draw a simple square bracket (say 2"x4") with a hole in the center?

2) Transform a jpeg photograph into a sillouette?

I know the photo transformation may be very involved, but what parts of Corel should I study and become very familliar with? For example, I dont think using various brushstrokes, colors, and fading is something I will need to know right away.

Any help is much appreciated.
Brad

[Torchhead]

1. Open CorelDraw. Start a NEW drawing. The toolbar on the left has your "cursor" tools. Find the one with the square icon. Click on it and then go to a spot on the page and drag the rectangle. If you want a perfect square hold the CTRL key while you drag. You can click on the square and grab it (hold the left mouse key down) in the center and drag it anywhere on the page. In the upper left part of the upper toolbar you will see 4 boxes with numbers. There is an XY position (where it is in relation to where you have the drawing zero set) the other two are for the XY SIZE. You can tyoe in a precise size up to 3 decimal places.

Once you have the square then go get the the circle tool and holding the CTRL key gives you a perfect circle. Once again you can drag it anywhere in the page. If you have the object snaps turned on (Alt Z) you can snap the center of the circle to any part of the square (including it's center). You can rest the drawing zero buy using the general object picker (top arrow in the side toolbar) and clicking in the upper left corner of the ruler and draging the point to snap on an object. Say you want a 1/2" dia circle in a 2 X 4 rectangle and you want 1.25 inches from the left and up 1.25 inches from the bottom. Make the bottom left of the rectangle be 0,0 on the ruler and then just type in the XY position when you select the circle of 1.250X and 1.250Y. The whole process should not take over 15 to 20 seconds. You have other tools that are handy. The shaping tool allows you to weld and trim objects to/with other objects. The Fillet/Scallop/Camfer tool lets you round or angle cut one or all of the corners of an object.

Most import key combo is CTL Z (undo). You can go up to 10 layers of undo by default.

The next thing to get a good usable DXF for SheetCAM is invest in the Standard edition of DXFTools (CorelDRAW Tools). It is a plug-in DXF export tool that is far superior to Corel's DXF export filter. Works perfectly with SheetCAM.

2.. Going from a JPeg (or any bitmap) to a vector drawing is not a painless process, If the bitmap is a simple high contrast drawing with nice defined edges or a B&W high contrast original and high resolution then corel's Auto trace (Corel Trace) program included in the Suite works pretty good. If the bitmap is a photo or of low resolution (like a screen file off the web) the results are laughable. Even the best auto trace program will leave you with lots of cleanup. The worse the original the more cleanup. There comes a point where it's easier to import the bitmap and hand trace over it using the drawing tools than to do all of the cleanup.

If your intent is to cut decorative stuff and you want to use text and be able to import objects then the clipart at Vector Art by Holmes & Cottrell - highest quality electronic clip art, clipart, for sign industry, vinyl ready, easy to color fill for large format printing, great results for routing and engraving. (mega collections) can be purchased ala carte. You can trace you own from books of line art. There are several reasonably priced plasma art CD's (and some not so reasonably priced). There are sources of free DXF. You will get 50 or 60 pieces of clipart in our software bundles.

The thing to concentrate on in Corel how to use the vector drawing tools and text tools (first 11 icons on the left toolbar). Draw some basic shapes using the shape tools and then use the node edit to go move the object nodes around. Learn how to change a straight line segment into and arc and how to use the node edit to "stretch" and warp an arc using by just grabbing the arc and pulling on it and then how to use the end nodes to do the same thing.

Play with some clipart (vector type) and learn how to over lap two or more objects and weld them together or use the trim tool.

It will be frustrating at first but in a short time something will click and it will all start to make sense.

There are some pretty good tutorials on CorelDraw. You can pick up the basics (90% of what you will need for line drawing) using any tutoral back to Corel version 9. the main tools have not changed that much. Concentrate on the vector drawing and editing tools and what you can do with text. The other artsy stuff like Fills and Shadows or extrusions are great for illustrations but not useful for CNC.

TOM caudle
www,CandCNC.com

[Teknition]

Thank you very much for taking the time to type all that out Tom, that helps out alot with the huge software learning curve. I played around with the squares and holes a bit and I think I have the hang of that now. Tomorrow nite after work I will have a go at bitmaps/jpegs/vectors.

Along with the clipart on your disc, there are a huge amount of clipart, bitmap, and vector image files included with the Corel GS X5 I bought so I dont think I''ll have to buy any more in the near future, at least until I'm well versed on running the table.

I've watched at least 100 corel tutorials and tried to pick out what would be usefull for cnc and what wouldnt be. Most of the tutorials are aimed more at graphic artists and shirt printers that are dealing with colors, fades, and such. You have made it much easier to narrow down what I need to know.

Is the DFXTools included with the artisan software I got from you?

Thanks again

Brad

[Torchhead]

The clipart Corel includes is vector BUT you will find it mostly done for illustration where they use objects on top of objects on top of objects to simulate shading and depth. Getting it down to simple outlines can be a tedious task. There are some simple outlines but they are mostly (believe it or not) Fonts. You just pick that font and type the letter and you get the silhouette. What we found in 5 years of doing decorative plasma cutting was that most people go with art that is meaningful to them. Where we are in North Texas it's about cattle, ranching, and Texas stuff. We did up a state of Texas outline with a rose cut in the middle (popular symbol based on the "Yellow Rose of Texas" theme) that sold well. In the end what made us successful was personalization. Corel's ability to handle any Windows font and quickly do things like draw a circle, Type out the text in a bold font and wrap it to the circumference of the circle/arc made personalization quick and easy.

You will find in the long run that most of the artwork you end up using will be your own or derived from something basic. We found several sources of open line art that was legal to reuse, rework and sell. A lot of it had to be traced to get it to vector. Not a big deal for us because we had a graphics art business back in the 80's and started using Corel at version 3 on a 286 based PC. I have taught classes on Corel and SheetCAM to MACH and typically I can teach a semi computer literate person the essentials for CNC cutting in two days.

The Artisan Pak does include DXFTools Standard so you are set.

One little secret about CorelDraw is over the years they have included more and more Technical Drawing tools so don't hesitate to use it for doing mechanical drawings as well. The object snaps and movable ruler really speed up doing precision drawings. There are a couple of tools you can buy for corel (and other free ones) that expanded the general drafting capabilities to things like Isometric drawings. It's not true 3D like you would get with something like Rhino 3D but for illustration it's pretty neat. It's a good way to close a sale on a lage custom gate design or overhead is you can shade it and given it some simulated depth to show the customer what they it will actually look like.

TOM caudle
www.CandCNC.com

[Teknition]

Thanks for the additional tips Tom. I did a bit more practicing with drawing plates tonight, a bit too tired to concentrate on bitmap conversions. I managed to make a simple plate and then c&p to get 2 of them as well as sort the order to cut from the inside to the outside.

I wish I was alot closer to Texas, I'd jump at the opportunity for a class on this stuff. Learning is so much easier if there is someone there to give a bit of instruction. Maybe you should consider making and selling an instructional DVD that covers the basics of Corel, Sheetcam, and Mach just for plasma applications. I'm sure you could sell a bunch of them, I know I'd be first in line. You would be rich in no time lol

I'm not very artistic so I would much rather come up with some products to sell. Maybe fire rings or BBQs... stuff along those lines but not stuff that has been done by everyone already, like the fire rings. I already have the tools and knowledge to weld just about anything, so no problem there. Probably one of the first projects for the plasma table will be to cut out components for a small press brake so I can bend up plate as needed.

brad