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Hey All,
Our company is looking to purchase a digitizing table.
Wondering what brands are out there, recomendations on pros and cons of the different brands, and if possible if we could have a visit to your shop to see the digitizer in action.
We are located on the West Coast and are looking at the outline technologies digitizer in particular
Hey Dennis,
I have one but the company is no longer in business. You can stop by and see it, but you wouldn’t be able to buy it.
I met the guy with Outline Technologies and he seemed real nice and they have been around awhile.
If you have a CAD system, buy a digitizer that just digitizes. The CAD on your computer can do everything the digitizer will be able to do. The reason I mention this is because you will pay more for a system that has all the bells and whistles. You may just need the board and nothing else.
The digitizer my employer has is from Outline Technologies. In the four years that I have been there, we have only had to recalibrate it once. That was after moving it across the shop, and it was easy to do. It is amazing how accurate it stays with all of the dust. It is simple to import the digitized files into AutoCAD. I haven’t ever used any other brand of digitizing board, so I can’t compare it to others but I can say that I think it would be a good choice.
Have a nice evening,
SethThe LT-55 can digitize hard templates in the shop, and gather digital info on the jobsite…..and is in general cheaper than a Digitizing board.
Where are you located? I travel a ton, and would love to give you an in house demo.
Eric Patterson
Laser Products Regional Manager
630-605-0902
There is one for sale used 1 year here http://www.granitemachines.com
Posted By Eric Patterson on 02/13/2008 2:19 PMThe LT-55 can digitize hard templates in the shop, and gather digital info on the jobsite…..and is in general cheaper than a Digitizing board.
Where are you located? I travel a ton, and would love to give you an in house demo.
Eric Patterson
Laser Products Regional Manager
630-605-0902
How do you digitize a template with the LT-55. Do you need anything else along witht he laser?
Andy,
It is real easy….Just trained a customer on it yesterday.
All you do, is take two sawhorses….and make a table. Than, best way I know….
You get a half inch piece of foam board. Place the foam board on the table.
Place hard template on table, and secure….so it does not move during the process.
Than LPI offers pin targets that poke into the foam board. Place pin targets as needed and shoot away.
Best part is…..once you are comfortable with the laser, you can take it into the field and eliminate this step.
The LT-55 is an amazing tool!
And…..It is made in the USA
Thanks,
Eric Patterson
Since we have the laser, we very rarely use our digitizing board. Only when we fab for other companies that still use sticks, cardboard etc. I would not use the laser for digitizing these, we would have to set the template on a table, use targets, then hit it. But that would tie up a section of my shop. If you can get both, now thats the way to go, but the board collects dust most of the time, but it does make a good area to spread out big prints to examine, plus the magnets hold it in place.
John
Just get the lt55 then you dont need a dig table. You simply digitize right in the customers home, take back to the shop and import to cad. Bam your ready to go. We also have a cnc and a vinyl cutting machine. ON stone jobs we cut vinyl templates and Solid surface goes directly to cnc.
I can also use my cnc as a digitizing board but have only used that feature a few times.
Andy,
The LT-55 comes with the pins ewric mentioned. But they also have clear acrylic (or plexi?) bases that allows the bottom of the pin to protrude downward. Line up the pins at the high and low points for scribe, and hit those pin targets with the laser. Works pretty well, but we mostly use the digitizing feature of the AXYZ. It lets us offset for different overhangs, etc.Offsets can be easily added on the LT also….
as well as radius, chamfered corners and sharp corners!
DXF files can be completely modified in the field with no cad experience….
Thanks,
Eric Patterson
630-605-0902Eric,
Don’t get me wrong, I love the LT-55. I wish my hard and shiny guys would learn how to frickin import and transfer the files.
That having been said, the [edit] LT CAD software that I have absolutely sucks
I say that out of love, but still…
You know, we used a LT55 for about 3 months, and I hated the thing. There were too many jobs where it wasn’t practical, or it took longer than making a stick template. There are several other large shops around us that also have used it and dislike it.
We do a lot of remodels and custom work, and you can’t do fine details with a laser. A lot of customers like to visualize how there top is going to look (i.e. overhangs, raised bars, etc.) The laser or phototop do not allow this. Plus if you are taking to the customer and being thorough, you are going to be there for a while anyways.
And I would never let someone modify a DXF that has no CAD experience, because I prefer to make sure that my drawing is an accurate one.
We outsource our Granite fabrication to a manual shop and they require physical templates, so there is no point at this time to go all digital.
Right now I am either drawing the tops in AutoCAD, or digitizing them on the AXYZ, but that is to slow of a process, and not accurate enough. Using the Laser in shop, is not an option either, because that would take up too much space.
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