What Do You Use To Make Your Artwork ???

[plasmanewbie]

I found the Plasmacam software a little cumbersome for a lot of the work I was doing so I bought Corel Draw and it has worked out great for me. I tried AutoCad but found it to be limiting for my line of work.

Corel gives me access to all my Windows fonts for my sign jobs, and drawing almost anything is easy now that I am used to it. Tracing capabilities are also there for tracing scanned images etc. Also I just learned how to automatically compensate for my kerf width in Corel which is a major bonus. Automatic kerf compensation was a feature I have wanted for a while. Every time I use it I learn something new, it's great.

I export my files in dxf format from Corel and my Pcam software is able to open them.

[plasmanewbie]

If your using photoshop and saving as tiff's you must be having to perform a trace on all your drawings to create the cut path. Is that true? Is that how you do all your drawings? What if you were making a flange or other mechanical part that required accurate center to center distances on holes etc.?

I am not able to set the kerf in my Pcam software so I was stuck until I found out how in Corel. This will be great for others who don't already have kerf compensation.

Thanks for the response.

[Metal Lee]

If your using photoshop and saving as tiff's you must be having to perform a trace on all your drawings to create the cut path. Is that true? Is that how you do all your drawings? What if you were making a flange or other mechanical part that required accurate center to center distances on holes etc.?

I am not able to set the kerf in my Pcam software so I was stuck until I found out how in Corel. This will be great for others who don't already have kerf compensation.

Thanks for the response.

Metal Lee, I also use Corel and I would like to know how to set for Kerf compensation, is this easy to explain?
Thanks, ML

[plasmanewbie]

That is exactly what the Corel Draw tracing function does for me. Pretty cool. That is great for artistic type cutting but what about parts that require exact sizing and spacing? Does everything need to be "traced" from a bitmap image with your Torchmate software?
Sorry for all the questions, but I will be looking to replace my Plasmacam with a better machine in the future and am trying to decide between many different manufacturers. Thanks for all your input Torchmate.

plasmanewbie

[jeeplogic83]

It depends if I am doing a custom one off design I use a Light box to trace the design, then scan it in and bit map it using corel, them vectorize it in Bob-Cad. Or I use Bob-Cad to bring in DXF's and meld them together. I can have as much as 8 hours into a custom traced design.

[CPK_Jim]

I like the lightbox idea!!! I was going to take a picture and then try and use trace or outline on it, but that light box idea is perfect!!! I think I'll go make one right now....

Thanx,


Jim

[jeeplogic83]

Hey Jim go easy on the caffine

[chipper]

I use shareware to create dxfs...

Inkscape to be specific. I Use this guys dxfr12 "plug-in" and it only takes a few minutes from bitmap to dxf
http://mydxf.blogspot.com


He has a tutorial video found here, whic highlights the simplicity of using his system
http://inkscapedxf.blogspot.com/2008/11 ... o-dxf.html

[enfofan]

Corel

[jmsrbrt]

Corel Draw 12, Turbo Cad and Torchmate CAD

[jrios]

i use corel draw and it is simply the best and easiest way to make your artwork i woul reccommend all these people to stop wasting their time with these raster to vector programs that are worthless because they can only do so much and their is still much editing involed after the conversion... i was very much like them at the beggining trying to find a program that will do all the work for me because corel seemed complicated from the start...but all it takes is just weeks of playing with the program before you get it down and start makin your plaasma work which in the end works out better because their is no limit to what you can do....putting each object in a layer to folllow the order that you wanna cut very important of course a tip that i got from one of the fellows from the plasma spider forumm thank you very much dudes you have all been very helpful.....