Hi, complete newbie here.  I want to be able to scan in a line drawing and have the router carve it out.  How would I go about that.  Also, I want to be able to cut gear wheels, how can I go about that.  At the moment it is very intimidating and I am using the free to air version of mach2.  I have no problem uprgading to mach 3 if that becomes necessary.  I would like to know first if the program can help me and do what I want it to.

Sorry if I have posted in the wrong forum and thanks in advance.

Roly

Hi Rory,

converting line drawings to a CNC program is not a problem there a several programs to do this, have a look at these web sites :-

www.softcover.com

www.vectric.com

As for the gears, it depends what type of gears you are talking about,  if they are none precision then maybe, otherwise no.

Give us more detail on the types of gears.

Graham.

Download the latest version of Mach3 (its also free, but with limitations) and under the file menu you will get LazyCAM, this may help you with carving your line drawing, if not then check out Vectric Vcarve, http://www.vectric.com/WebSite/Vectric/vcp/vcp_process.htm
 Depends whether you are meaning a true gear or just an approximation, if its a true gear then you will need a fourth axis (manual or CNC) and something like NewFangled Solutions addons for Mach. If its just an approximation of a gear then you could draw it in lazyCAM.
 With the free versions of Mach you will be limited to 1000 lines of code and a line drawing may go well over that.
Hood

EDIT
 see Graham beat me too it, I type too slow

Thank you very much Hood and Graham for your rapid reply.  I will take the advice given gladly and I think, having had a look at the sites that they will help me do what I want. 
Graham the gears I want to cut look very similar to the ones on the first page of the Vetrice site so I will have a good look there.  Thank you again

Roly