Cambam / gMax

[rrc1962]

Rhino has very good DXF output.  That's what I've been using for years to draw.  I do as others have stated. Place a bitmap in the background and draw over it.  I've never had a problem importing the exported DXF's into either AutoCAD or SheetCAM.  I have an older version of Artcam Pro.  Very cool program for dimensional signs and artistic machining but not so great for precision machining.

[Bjorn Toulouse]

Nicolas,
What i do is draw the item freehand on a sheet of paper, scan the sketch and then bring the sketch ( bmp / jpg or whatever ) into CAD and draw over it.
This alows you to control the machining pathing and minimize machining time and you get a DXF for importing to LC. If your wanting to have it more automated or want 3d then you need different software.

RICH
  

Rich,

Do you add dimensions to your sketches before you scan, or dimension after you import to your CAD?

I had to dope slap myself for not thinking of the draw/scan/import option!!


Rex

[RICH]

Rex,
Most of the time I will take a high resolution picture. Then i will measure some part, or critical points and use that to scale up what is drawn over the BMP
or JPG. You can do some very accurate work based on the picture.

Here is link to some examples using the above:
http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,13398.msg87922.html#msg87922
RICH

[Bjorn Toulouse]

Thanx for the shortening of my CAD/CAM learning curve, Rich!!


Rex

[Sam]

If you work with smaller parts, you can scan them with a flatbed scanner and get very good results. Scanners, unlike a camera, are free from parallax, and will give great accuracies. Normally I will scan with 1200 or more dpi, then import the picture and scale to 8.5 x 11.7 in my cad, and the dimensions are spot on. Other parts that are unscannable, I do what Rich does. Works great.

[RICH]

Another method which gives you Gcode directly is with CopyCat. You use a webcam to trace out the profile. It also is quite accurate. For info see
the write up in Memebrs Docs on using  CopyCat.
RICH