Hello everyone!

[BeeSpoolin]

Hello everyone. My name is Brock, located outside of London, Ontario.
My father and I just put an order in with Tracker on a 4x8 ProTable with hypertherm 45xp(for now while power is limited). Mostly for hobby use but eventually into a business.
Currently I'm researching software, pricing breakdowns, material suppliers. any tips are greatly appreciated im all about efficiency.
So far I have 3 custom files designed that I have self taught, after reading through some of the topics here on your forum it has come to light many improvements I can make for my first cut file. I'm excited to learn as much as I can before the table arrives. So far using CorelDraw and Command N' Cut has been a great learning experience. I have trialed a couple other programs (fusion360, Carbide Create) to see if UI suits better.
Fusion 360 is solid as usual but unsure if worth the cost for our application. Carbide create is good for offline work, but it seems clunky.
Most of our work that will be produced will be metal art/signage, automotive parts, light-medium industrial and farm repair.
We are a family of elevator techs so electro-mechanical machines are right up our ally of interests. We already have thoughts on how to adapt a router to our CNC gantry. I am curious if anyone has done this to a Tracker table yet.
All in all looks like there is an abundance of information here to sift through.
I'm excited to share our story as it gets written, so thank you for stopping in to say hello!
I'm sure you will be seeing me from time to time in the threads!

Cheers to a great day!

Brock W.

[cuttinparts]

Welcome Brock, exciting for you and your father I am sure! I also have a tracker table I am happy with and I am sure you will be happy with it also. As for software Corel is great for the artistic designs but is very cumbersome for mechanical design in comparison to Fusion. You may want to use both pieces of software depending on the project at hand. With the design of the drive system and lightweight gantry on these tables putting a router on that machine will not work out well. Nothing wrong with the design of it, just wasn't designed for machining applications. Good luck and be sure to show some of your work!

[BeeSpoolin]

Welcome Brock, exciting for you and your father I am sure! I also have a tracker table I am happy with and I am sure you will be happy with it also. As for software Corel is great for the artistic designs but is very cumbersome for mechanical design in comparison to Fusion. You may want to use both pieces of software depending on the project at hand. With the design of the drive system and lightweight gantry on these tables putting a router on that machine will not work out well. Nothing wrong with the design of it, just wasn't designed for machining applications. Good luck and be sure to show some of your work!

Cuttinparts, thanks for the warm welcome.
I'll definitely start playing around with fusion 360 more. As for the table, how often do you find you have to adjust or "tune" the gantry / torch head? Trying to plan some sort of routine. Once we've got the machine and got some of my pieces worked out I'll be more then happy to share some of the work we accomplish.

Cheers

[cuttinparts]

I have never had adjust or tune the gantry. Best thing you can do is blow the plasma dust off of the rails and gears it after every use and wipe down the v bearing rails with a scotchbrite pad after every use. Aside from that there is really nothing to do.

[BeeSpoolin]

Great, just stumbled on some people talking about alignment adjustments. Must have been for DIY tables or alternative brands. Thanks for your input, I figured due to the rack and pinion setup that they would be relatively easy to maintain.
Trying not to miss anything crucial to use and upkeep.

[cuttinparts]

For sure, doesn't hurt to find out as much as you can. These tables are not the most advanced these days but they do a great job and are simple, easy to use, and easy to maintain.

[tinspark]

Fusion 360 is solid as usual but unsure if worth the cost for our application.

Brock W.

I have been using Fusion 360 (free version), It allows for 10 free project pages. But 1 page can have an infinite number of drawings on it. However I usually just save the DXF file that it produces on my PC and in the cloud, and then delete the file in fusion. If I need to modify it , I can always open the saved Cloud file in Fusion 360and modify it, and resave it. All free.
Also, for artwork you may want to learn inkscape. This is a good program for this type of stuff, and free as well.
I only use fusion 360 for mechanical parts however

[BeeSpoolin]

Tinspark,
Thanks for your suggestion about Inkscape. I have heard it's a pretty common tool to use. I have yet to try it out but will push that up the priority list. Great tip on fusion 360 I'll definatly make use of that!

[tinspark]

Thanks for your suggestion about Inkscape. I have heard it's a pretty common tool to use. I have yet to try it out but will push that up the priority list. Great tip on fusion 360 I'll definatly make use of that!

There are many Inkscape tutorials on this site which links to YouTube. It will be well worth the time to learn Inkscape, especially for images and artwork type of stuff, which most people really like. You can use the search box to find help with this. Plus, many here are well versed in it and would be willing to help if you get stuck. However, most things can be worked out just by watching videos and then trying it out as you go.

[adbuch]

Welcome to the forum Brock! Fusion 360 is free for hobbyists and students/educators. Since you are just starting out with your new hobby - I would say by all means download it and get started learning how to use it. I made the transition from SolidWorks to Fusion 360 several years ago, and yes - the Fusion 360 user interface is great - much easier to use than SolidWorks to accomplish the same thing.

I would recommend Arnold Rowntree's excellent Fusion 360 instructional tutorial lessons. I went thru them twice when I was getting started.



As Doug has mentioned, Inkscape is great for more artistic projects, is free, and pretty simple to learn and use. Logos by Nick has some great youtube videos and he offers an online course at a very reasonable price of only $17 for lifetime access.

https://logosbynick.com/inkscape/

logos by nick master course.jpg

There are also specific Inkscape and Fusion 360 sections of this forum where you can ask questions to get additional help. I would recommend that you become a Contributing Member (only $20) so you can have full access to all the files, photos, etc. that Plasmaspider has to offer.

Good luck with your new hobby!

David

[adbuch]

We already have thoughts on how to adapt a router to our CNC gantry. I am curious if anyone has done this to a Tracker table yet.

Although Tracker does not appear to offer any optional upgrade/add-ons such as engraver, router attachment, auto tracer, etc. it would appear to be fairly simple to unbolt the torch mount from the Z plate and attach a router mounting bracket. From the photo it looks to be attached by 4 bolts. So with you mechanical skills this should be a "walk in the park".

David

tracker torch mount attachment locations.jpg

[adbuch]

So far using CorelDraw and Command N' Cut has been a great learning experience

Brock - I purchased a copy of CorelDraw 2020 about 6 months ago and so far it seems to have pretty much the same capabilities as Inkscape. I have been slowly learning to use it, but do find Inkscape easier to use for my purposes - particularly the Inkscape auto trace feature which seems to provide better results than any of the others I have tried. If you are just starting out with cad/cam - it is probably better to stick with one drawing program and learn it well. If you like CorelDraw, then stick with it and get a SheetCam license for your cam/post processing.

David

[acourtjester]

From someone who has adapted optional attachments to my DIY CNC table, you should go for the router update. It will open up another grouping of projects for you to explore. Using Inkscape to generate DXF/SVG files I have created many wall hangers/plaques for fun and profit. Inkscape allows me to deconstruct clip art images to form DFX/SVG files to create G-codes. I have also attached a Drag Knife for sign vinyl, Ink Pen for plotting parts or machine writing of fancy fonts. Diamond scribe for metal etching, Diode Laser for other projects like back lite signs.

DSCN4153.JPG

DSCN4366.JPG

DSCN0283.JPG

DSCN0087.JPG

[adbuch]

Tom - nice! I think they refer to your setup as the "Full Monty". Very impressive work you are doing - not only with the parts but with all the diy table you have constructed. Keep it up!

David

[BeeSpoolin]

Adbuch, thank you for all the useful information. I definitely plan to rig up some sort of attachments for the table nothing to extensive. an engraver or scribe would be nice to add some extra details into the work piece, I'd love to figure out a lightweight router for soft wood/ plastics but definitely going to take some thought if gantry is as lightweight as others have mentioned. I'm sure a set of extended guide rails, additional guides with a wider footprint will help stabilize the extra weight and control some added inertia. will have to look at the XYZ axis motors and see their capabilities. may have to upgrade those to accommodate as well. As for the software, sounds like I'll be playing with inkscape today. I did use the auto trace feature on Corel Draw and it worked well but did create a bunch of clean up for me as it traced the colour layers Aswell as the outline. does Inkscape support .PLT file types?

[cuttinparts]

Adbuch, thank you for all the useful information. I definitely plan to rig up some sort of attachments for the table nothing to extensive. an engraver or scribe would be nice to add some extra details into the work piece, I'd love to figure out a lightweight router for soft wood/ plastics but definitely going to take some thought if gantry is as lightweight as others have mentioned. I'm sure a set of extended guide rails, additional guides with a wider footprint will help stabilize the extra weight and control some added inertia. will have to look at the XYZ axis motors and see their capabilities. may have to upgrade those to accommodate as well. As for the software, sounds like I'll be playing with inkscape today. I did use the auto trace feature on Corel Draw and it worked well but did create a bunch of clean up for me as it traced the colour layers Aswell as the outline. does Inkscape support .PLT file types?

I would suggest that since you now must learn design software that you focus your efforts on Corel Draw which comes with your system. Corel and Inkscape are very similar and both can accomplish the same thing. The advantage to learning Corel is that you will have the support of Tracker which you paid for and I also find it a little easier to use than Inkscape. Auto trace is not what people think it is, sounds great but realistically only works really well on simple black and white images with good resolution. The cleanup required on color images makes it useless almost and your better to draw from scratch than try to clean up an auto trace.

[adbuch]

does Inkscape support .PLT file types?

You can use Convertio to convert your plt file to another format, then import to Inkscape.
Also - for auto trace I have achieved better results with Inkscape than CorelDraw.

David

https://convertio.co/plt-jpg/

convertio.jpg

[adbuch]

Auto trace is not what people think it is, sounds great but realistically only works really well on simple black and white images with good resolution. The cleanup required on color images makes it useless almost and your better to draw from scratch than try to clean up an auto trace.

Not necessarily true. I have had excellent results using Inkscape for color as well as black/white images. Also, you can open your color image with Paint.net or equivalent and quickly convert to black/white as well as adjust the brightness/contrast for possibly better results when using the Inkcape "Path, Trace Bitmap" tool.

David

[adbuch]

I did use the auto trace feature on Corel Draw and it worked well but did create a bunch of clean up for me as it traced the colour layers Aswell as the outline.

Post the images you were attempting to auto trace with CorelDraw and I will check them out with both CorelDraw and Inkscape.
Thanks,

David

[cuttinparts]

I'm with David on the Inkscape auto trace being superior to Corel's, however you will still face the same issues with most images you trace.

BeeSpoolin is asking if Inkscape will OUTPUT plt files since that is what the Tracker system prefers over dxf, and it will but you may have some issues with plt export from Inkscape.

My suggestion is still to stick with Corel.

[adbuch]

Maybe I am missing seeing it, but as far as I can tell the version of Inkscape I am using will not save as plt. I am using version 1.2.2.
David

no plt.jpg

[cuttinparts]

My version 0.92.4 does have a plt save option, I guess they got rid of it. All the more reason to stick with Corel.

[adbuch]

I have personally never had the need to save and/or open a plt file. I think both CorelDraw and Inkscape are both great programs, and I use both of them - although I have had more practice with Inkscape than CorelDraw. In particular I do like some of the CorelDraw manual trace tools.

David

[BeeSpoolin]

here are the two base files i auto traced then modified to suit. i mostly needed the outline of the piston for a portion of it. the colouring added much work. i didn't do too much digging online just grabbed the first image that popped up as an experiment. definitely will convert to black and white before initiating auto trace. the last two are the designs i have created using those images. the auto trace worked really well with the gremlin logo being black and white. the piston required about 45mins of editing and connecting line segments.

[adbuch]

no cd.jpg

Here is your gremlin decal in dxf format. I did a quick Inkscape auto trace of your image.

David

gremlin decal.dxf