looking for some help with some cad work

[jakeass]

I have a cnc at my work that i have been dabbeling with and we use alphacam advanced router program for programming our northwood cnc router. I have a 2D imaget that i want to be able to convert to a useable image file for alphacam so i can add tool paths to and router out some acrylic pieces. can anyone give me any insight as to what direction to take or what program to try.. the image is a jpg but i have adobe PS, and Illustrater available to me to make a vector file if need be.. thanks
-J

[roninB4]

I may be wrong but there's not as much that can be done accurately (relative word here) with a raster image like a jpg file. You can sometimes import an image and then trace the geometry over it for use but I've never used that method. I've heard that you can also use Illustrator Professional to create a vector image with but I've not used that either so perhaps somebody else more knowledgeable can chime in on that.

When I need to create something for machining, manual or CNC, I make a CAD model so I know what my geometry should be. As far as I know, anything that uses a raster image or an optical/laser derived dimensions is subject to a built in degree of inaccuracy, +/- .007 is about as good as it gets. For lots of work this is just fine, it just isn't close enough for what I do.

Sorry I couldn't be more help.

[ger21]

can Illustrator do a Rastor to Vector conversion? If not, try Inkscape, it's free. COnvert to Vector and export in a format that Alphacam can read.

[draftingrus]

Raster to Vector Add-In

• Much improved Raster to Vector add-in incorporates a new engine, providing much better results.
• Resulting geometry can now be created as Splines to allow for fine tuning of curves.
• In addition to external images, can now vectorize images that are embedded within the active Alphacam drawing
• Full set of user definable vectorization settings gives the user much more control over the end result and can be saved as reusable configurations
• Now included with all product levels at no additional cost!

[ger21]

• Now included with all product levels at no additional cost!

Provided you have the most current version.