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Thread: New to the CNC world and need help with CAD questions

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    Default New to the CNC world and need help with CAD questions

    First off I would like to say Hello and to let you know how excited I am to be getting into the CNC world!

    Background:
    I am building a 3-axis CNC with different attachments for a laser and/or dermal that will be primarily used to cut custom foam inserts for different objects. The overall cut area I am aiming for will be 40" long by 14" tall. I plan to buy all my electronics as a package that will include all the step motors and electronics boards needed to run a standard 3 axis mill.

    My Questions:
    I need to find either one or two programs to take a picture, trace the item and be able to scale it to the right size and transfer it to another program for the x-y-z coordinates.
    How do I find the proper scaling from a picture so when I go to cut it out it is the correct size?

    My intent is to be able to take a picture of a item, trace it into a CAD program to get the proper size and fitment, then transfer it to the final program that will run the CNC. Please understand that I am new to the CNC and programming word so I may be missing information needed in order to answer my own questions. Please ask and assist as much as possible.

    Thanks all!!

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    Default Re: New to the CNC world and need help with CAD questions

    I don't think this will work very well. Tracing a photograph isn't going to give you an accurate CAD drawing, no matter how careful you are about it. The problem is that no matter where you stand to take the picture, there will be some distortion in the image due to perspective and lens effects. You'd be better off measuring the object you want to reproduce, creating an accurate drawing in CAD, and working from that.

    [FONT=Verdana]Andrew Werby[/FONT]
    [URL="http://www.computersculpture.com/"]Website[/URL]


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    Default Re: New to the CNC world and need help with CAD questions

    I thought the same thing and was hoping there would be some way to take an item from my table and be able to put it into a CAD program and then into a CNC program.



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    Default Re: New to the CNC world and need help with CAD questions

    I do it in solidworks and hsmworks. We are talking 2d pics for logo's or what not. I have done it in 3d as well. Either way, as mentioned, you are just guessing at it doing any 3d work. But only you know if that matters. In my case I traced a spiderman mask in 2d and made it 3d. It did not matter how correct it was just that it looked cool.



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    Default Re: New to the CNC world and need help with CAD questions

    Yes, it can work for artistic sorts of projects where exact dimensions aren't important. But the OP was talking about making inserts that would fit, so that's not the right method. 3D scanning can capture the whole object without distorting it. Once you've got the object in the computer, you can reverse-engineer parts off of it that will fit, if the tolerances of your scan match up with those of your project. But if your tolerances are high, that requires a pretty expensive scanner, not to mention the reverse-engineering software.

    [FONT=Verdana]Andrew Werby[/FONT]
    [URL="http://www.computersculpture.com/"]Website[/URL]


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    Default Re: New to the CNC world and need help with CAD questions

    What type of scanner are we talking? I have seen scanners just none on a hobby level so to speak. We demoed a Faro Arm. It was cool. But certainly not hobby prices. What kinda precision you think you can get?



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    Default Re: New to the CNC world and need help with CAD questions

    I wasn't talking about any particular scanner; you can get them in a wide range of resolutions, with the more accurate ones costing more. Usually the resolution varies with the size of the bounding box around the object being scanned, so you get better resolution on smaller things, and it gets sparser as the size increases.

    I don't know what your specifications or expectations are. Is this for a hobby, or a business? (Some people spend a lot on their hobbies.) But in general, scanners will not have the same problems with distortion as cameras do, since they aren't trying to flatten a 3D object into a 2D space. If all you're trying to do is capture an outline, an arm device might be the solution. Faro arms are pretty expensive, but maybe something like a Microscribe could work. You can use them to pick points individually with the stylus, and connect the dots into fairly accurate lines and curves in your CAD software, if it supports the device.

    [FONT=Verdana]Andrew Werby[/FONT]
    [URL="http://www.computersculpture.com/"]Website[/URL]


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New to the CNC world and need help with CAD questions

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