Carbon Fiber Mach 2 Screen

[Dan S]

I'm working on making my own personal screens, for mach2 and i can't seem to get a realistic CF background. I made this one in photoshop. So i just gota ask, does this look like realistic cf to you?

[CNCadmin]

Yes the looks like CF.

[Dan S]

I wish i could make it look this good.

Belive it or not, this a rendering , I found it on the net.

[ynneb]

Dan, why dont you try this program http://www.mediachance.com/realdraw/
You can download a 30 day fully working trial from here. Its such an easy program to use. This is how I did my screen. I am keen for others to also make some screens and post them online for others.

When designing a mach2 screen make sure you just make it one big Bitmap other wise you will get into trouble with the layers in Mach2 screen editor.

[cadcam]

carbin fiber actuly has a ble and grey fibers in it. but this dose not look bad at all.

[High Seas]

Maybe you could find a background file on one of the CF/fiberglass supplier sites or a non copyrighted photo on eBay of some CF that you could use/compare to yours. It looks pretty good as is.
Jim

[Dan S]

It’s slowly coming along, can’t work on anything else at the moment so I will keep fiddling with this. I need to thank ynebb though that program is helping. I stayed up late last night learning its features (a little to late actually) and this is what I have got so far.

Thanks for all the comments and words of encouragement.

[High Seas]

That's Slick!
Have you seen that Kevlar/CF comes in various colors? Like a red/black, or blue/black, or yellow/black? Might give you some latitude for creative placement, etc. Thats way cool - I'm looking forward to the end product.
Cheers - Jim

[Dan S]

OK guys

I sat down and did some serious home work, and learned enough photoshop to do this, so what do you guys think now, looking anymore realistic?


I can change the color of the cf with one mouse click,

[High Seas]

Dan - that's KILLER!
And with such a high gloss, you musta really worked the clear gel-coat -- hope you added some uv protection too!.
Of course I'm kidding - but thats how real it looks to me!
Cheers - Jim

[ynneb]

Hey Dan, I was hoping you were going to use the knobby thing and make an interesting screen using that. On each knob you could have a invisible button that switched screens to certain control sections.

If you are going to use the latter drawing then why dont you make an irregular shape so that it show lots of gloss.

Keep up the effort.

[Dan S]

Ynebb

I’m so new to cnc that I’m not even sure what buttons and displays I need. I was pleased as punch when I was able to load mach2 on to the old pc, and figured out that it was fast enough for what I needed.


Is it possible to have several bitmaps in mach2, so that you can different screens?


I always like to keep my screen free of clutter, so for my main screen, if I can have more that one, all I would want on it would be;

1) tool path display
2) g code display
3) axis readouts
4) start, stop, pause, and rewind buttons
5) reset button
6) zeroing buttons

I’m struggling right now, with just learning the digital editing stuff. It’s been a long time since I used the art side of my brain.