Moose Head Family Sign

[cuttinparts]

Well, I don't know how some of you folks do it...I actually tried on this and it just looks cheesy.

I typically just cut mechanical parts but a friend gave me a quick doodle of a moose head sign he wanted with his name in it and this is the best I could do. I would be embarrassed to tell you how long it took me to get to this point.

Anyway I think I am done with trying to draw my own artistic stuff and just stick will gussets and flanges

MooseHeadFamilySign.dxf

[Larry83301]

Don't know about others on this board but I remember back when and it took more than hours, it took weeks before I cut my first thing that I drew. I had lots of training on drawing things in CAD and several high cost programs and it still took lots of time to make anything even HALF as good ass yours looks. Fact is I had around 10 years using CAD programs and several classes on different CAD programs, 2 years as a Beta tester for Bridgeport on a program they wanted to bring out for their machines. I think you did great, keep up he good work and don't worry if someone doesn't like your work just remember you can't please everybody!


Larry

[ROKCRLER]

Design looks good, dont beat yourself up for how long it took. Somethings come quick, others take time trying to figure out how to do them.
A few artsy additions under the name would spruce it up a bit.

[adbuch]

I think you did a great job! Nice clean file that your friend should be proud to have cut. Thanks for sharing your design.

David

[acourtjester]

It does take time to develop the method for the arty things, after a few of them you will get the big picture and it will make sense. I use Inkscape for the things I do, it free and has lots of tools to manipulate creating a file to use. there are many YouTube tutorial videos to help get you going. One of the great ones is "Logos by Nick" many of the video are instructions on a single topic (tool or technique) so you can just figure out what you want to do and google to find how to do it. Also google clip art for a group of drawings, they are cheap many are on a single buy plan, here is one I did for both plasma and routed wall hangers. You can also download files from here and pick parts from them or make changes to some part of them to use to help you develop you techniques. there are lots of tutorials posted here for Inkscape, David has done some really involved one, they bridge to Design Edge and other programs to show connections. Many programs have the same techniques they just call them different names.

caveman 15 inches tall.JPG

Man Cave 2 (1).JPG

DSCN0285.JPG

[adbuch]

Tom - those are some great suggestions! Logos by NIck and Bad Dog Metal works are two that I normally recommend. I agree that it can be a slow learning curve, especially making the transition from mechanical parts to the artistic ones. I have received great advise from Rokcrler, yourself, and others as I have moved along my own learning curve. And as you say - sometimes it is a combination of several programs to create a design and have it come out right.

David

[cuttinparts]

Really appreciate the positivity and knowing that struggling with artistic stuff is common and i’m not mentally challenged
I actually did plan on some evergreen trees or something in the name area to spruce it up but with so much time invested in what you see here and not liking it i just packed it in.
Thanks again for all the feedback and suggestions, will put some time into them. Hopefully my next share will be an improvement. Love this community

[adbuch]

I actually did plan on some evergreen trees or something in the name area to spruce it up ...

Maybe something like this. I've added a few trees. I also smoothed it to reduce node count so perhaps is might cut smoother.
David

MooseHeadFamilySign rev.1.dxf image.jpg

MooseHeadFamilySign rev.1.dxf

[warpedredneck]

Whatever you do, do not beat yourself up, it took me months before I cut my first design, It looks good, just let yourself "evolve" as you get more comfortable.

[adbuch]

Whatever you do, do not beat yourself up, it took me months before I cut my first design, It looks good, just let yourself "evolve" as you get more comfortable.

Very well said Warpedredneck! It took me quite a long time to get where I am now - basically the last 6 or 7 years since I purchased my first Plasmacam table.

David

[cuttinparts]

Whatever you do, do not beat yourself up, it took me months before I cut my first design, It looks good, just let yourself "evolve" as you get more comfortable.

Appreciate that, glad to hear this is not un-common. Guess I just need to put some more time and suck up the failures.

I actually did plan on some evergreen trees or something in the name area to spruce it up ...

Maybe something like this. I've added a few trees. I also smoothed it to reduce node count so perhaps is might cut smoother.
David

MooseHeadFamilySign rev.1.dxf image.jpg

MooseHeadFamilySign rev.1.dxf

David, your edit is a big improvement, thank you! The emotional trauma from my original design process is just healing now so I have yet to cut this but will certainly be cutting your version Thank you! The tress are a huge improvement for the overall look and definitely right along the lines of what I had in mind originally

[adbuch]

Cuttinparts - you are quite welcome! Happy to help. What program did you use to create the original file? I added the trees using a combination of Inkscape and Design Edge. But it could just as easily be done with just Inkscape. I will be happy to show you a quick step-by-step if you like.
Thanks,
David

[adbuch]

Cuttinparts - Here is the process to add the trees to your file using Inkscape. I don't remember where I got the trees I used for the file I posted above, but in this example I just used another one I found.

It's really not as complicated at it might look. It's just basically 3 steps: Import image file to Inkscape, auto trace to create a vector file from the tree image, and then scale/position the tree file on top of your existing file. Sort of like "cut and paste".

David

pine tree 1.jpg

pine tree 2.jpg

pine tree 3.jpg

pine tree 4.jpg

pine tree 5.jpg

pine tree 6.jpg

[adbuch]

pine tree 7.jpg

pine tree 8.jpg

pine tree 9.jpg

pine tree 10.jpg

pine tree 11.jpg

[acourtjester]

the only thing I would add is the stroke width, keep it low to maintain the detail, I like to use 0.004". But this does make viewing of larger drawing a little wispy (light looking).

[cuttinparts]

Thanks a million David. I used Corel to create the original, I'm not much of an Inkscape user but your step by step was very helpful and I was able to find similar functions in Corel and accomplish the same thing, they just name the functions different. Appreciate all the help guys

[adbuch]

the only thing I would add is the stroke width, keep it low to maintain the detail, I like to use 0.004". But this does make viewing of larger drawing a little wispy (light looking).

Tom - I'm pretty sure that when you say "keep it low to maintain the detail" you are talking about being able to view the detail for purposes of editing from within Inksape, particularly node editing. Once saved or exported in vector format, the line width (stroke width) should not make any difference to the cam program. Unless of course your were using "Stoke to Path" as part of your vector processing in Inkscape.

David

[adbuch]

Thanks a million David. I used Corel to create the original, I'm not much of an Inkscape user but your step by step was very helpful and I was able to find similar functions in Corel and accomplish the same thing, they just name the functions different. Appreciate all the help guys

Happy to help - as always! I wasn't sure what program you were using. I know many do use CorelDraw, and the process is basically the same. Import and auto trace trees, place over your existing Moose sign (with some scaling and perhaps some clean-up of the trees) and then export as dxf. I don't really use CorelDraw much, and it is unclear to me if the objects need to be grouped before exporting. When I open the exported dxf with Design Edge, it looks the same either way.

David

CorelDraw - Add trees to Moose sign 1.jpg

CorelDraw - Add trees to Moose sign 2.jpg

CorelDraw - Add trees to Moose sign 3.jpg

CorelDraw - Add trees to Moose sign 4.jpg

[acourtjester]

David I usually use "Object to Path" in Inkscape. My lack of knowledge with conversions of files from DXF & SVG to G-code I assumed the finer the stroke width the closer the tolerance of the movement under CNC control. this was the reasoning behind my comment.

[adbuch]

Tom - I think that when you say "closer the tolerance of movement under CNC control" you are referring to the node count, or distance between nodes along the cut path. I did a little sample test showing how stroke width and object to path vs no object to path affect node count.

nodes count.jpg

In general having a reduced node count for the same file will produce a smoother cut.

David

[acourtjester]

I used stroke to path on these 2 top on 0.025" and the bottom 0.005". I'm sure the node count would be the same, my thought is with the thinner stroke have closer tolerance in the G-code numbers. Something like drawing with a pen verse a sharpie, I have no bases for my assumption.
Would a thinner stroke deliver a cleaner cut???? The bottom image shows the thicker stroke has both an inside and outside node display??

tom stroke.JPG

tom stroke 2.JPG

[adbuch]

David I usually use "Object to Path" in Inkscape. My lack of knowledge with conversions of files from DXF & SVG to G-code I assumed the finer the stroke width the closer the tolerance of the movement under CNC control. this was the reasoning behind my comment.

Tom, I was responding to your statement above that you usually use "Object to Path" in Inkscape. Under that scenario, stroke width has no effect on node count. Object to Path converts an object such as a square, circle, star, etc. to a more "editable" path, but does not increase of decrease the actual node count and should not affect the "tolerance of movement under CNC control".

If you are using Stroke to Path, then that is a different story as the Stoke to Path operation will normally provide a duplicate path offset from the original path by the specified stroke width. Of course this generally results in double the node count due to the duplicate paths. The node count of each path will be unchanged.

David

[adbuch]

Tom - here is an example showing a comparison between the same 4 inch circle, but with two different stroke widths - 0.004" and 0.020". I have saved both versions as svg, imported to SheetCam and created the g-code file for each stroke width. As you can see, the g-code files are identical (line-by-line) regardless of stroke width.

David

4 inch circle Inkscape with 0.020 inch stroke width.jpg

4 inch circle Inkscape with 0.004 inch stroke width.jpg

sheetcam settings.jpg

g-code for 4 inch circles - comparison.jpg

[acourtjester]

Thanks David for the demonstration, this should help us to understand the inner workings of how G-codes are generated. As I stated this was my assumption and had no bases for that, more just my way of doing it.

[ROKCRLER]

Thanks David for the demonstration, this should help us to understand the inner workings of how G-codes are generated. As I stated this was my assumption and had no bases for that, more just my way of doing it.

Tom... i thought it worked just like you did.
Thanks David for the info