What Software For Cnc Plasma Artwork

[DISCONNECTED]

I Am Using Bobcad Which Seems Good For Mechanical Parts But Lacking For The Artistic Stuff I Want To Do.is Anyone Using Corel Draw X3?

[Scratch]

X3... that's what they call version 13 I think right...?

I think most of us use Corel for artsy stuff.

I'm still using ver. 11

[Torchhead]

Been using CorelDraw for everything since 99. It's primary weakness is it's poor export choices for CNC. The DXF and PLT outputs both break the nice pretty arcs in Corel into tiny straight line segments.

The utility called DXFTool (sold by us) is a plug-in filter for getting perfect DXF exports with full arcs. Works with SheetCAM wich just happens to be (IMO) the best CAM program for 2D or 2.5D plasma and routing/milling.

You will need CorelDraw 12 or higher versions to run DXFTool. You can get Corel 12 on the web for less than $70.00 (sometimes a lot less). The versions are usually OEM versions that cannot be upgraded and may not have the clipart but they do have all of the Corel programs.

It takes some practice but once you start turning out artwork in CorelDraw you will never go back.

Besides the "artsy stuff" that is so easy in Corel you can use it as general drafting program. It is accurate to as many decimal places as you set it up for (I use 4).

Tom Caudle
www.CandCNC.com