[Rich Day]

Does anyone have any suggestions on the best software to make signs with a CNC Router. I have a Biesse Rover B. I am not too farmilliar with it, but I have seen Art Cam Pro at the Vegas Show. It looked pretty impressive.

[Mory Ludwick]

Rich,

I have looked at Art-Cam Pro several times and I feel it is the Cadillac of art software. I have nearly purchased it three times and we do alot of inlays and design work in countertops etc. We just keep using Auto-Cad and Photo Shop. There is nothing we can’t do with it. I just can’t release the money when another program will do just as good a job for our application. Granted we have very good Auto-Cad programmers. If you need any help or advice, e-mail or call us at the office.

Mory

[Rich Day]

Mory,

I used to think I was pretty fluent in Auto Cad, and I have some experience with Photo Shop. After reading your post, I question my abilities. How are you using the two together to create inlays? Are you using Auto Cad to trace a picture you have edited with Photo Shop? Please help, as I have both of those software programs on my computer and could impress the bosses if I could create some inlays and signs with software we already have.

Rich

[Travis Rodecker]

Sorry Rich, Mory misquoted the software we are using for inlays. What we do use is OMAX to trace images and create lettering. OMAX can then create a dxf that can be transfered into AutoCad.

[Rich Day]

I Googled OMAX, and it looks like that is software you received with your waterjet? We are anxious to better utilize our CNC (purchased FEB 2006). If anyone has suggestions for software to create inlays I would appreciate them. It sounds like I need tracing software to create the DXF file. We currently have AutoCad 2005, Photoshop 7.0, Microvellum (use for casework), and Biesse Works (A single part editor that came with our CNC).

[Andy Graves]

The latest version of Adobe Illustrator has a trace function. It actually works really well. You can open a jpeg or gif and it will trace and convert into an eps file. Which can then be converted or saved into a dwg or dxf.

Import that file into Autocad and you should be able to manipulate it any way you want.

Andy

[Mory Ludwick]

What he said

Mory

[Rich Day]

Andy / Mory

I really appreciate your input. I think I found a way to trace with Adobe Photoshop, but am having trouble figuring hot to convert the .eps file into a .dxf. How are you doing that?

Rich

[Andy Graves]

Rich,

I don’t think you can export a file in dwg or dxf format with Photoshop. Go to Adobe and download their free trial version of Adobe Illustrator. If you like it, it only cost about $300 and you can find it cheaper on Ebay.

Illustrator is the program better suited to make Vector files.

Andy

[Rich Day]

Awesome,

Thanks for the help!

Rich

[Todd Gaebelein]

I don’t speak geek (as in computer), I did however understand the $300.00.

thanks for making me feel not smart,
Gabe

[Tom M]

I’m coming in way too late for this, but I would suggest Corel Draw suite rather than Adobe. It comes with a pretty good trace-OCR program, and is easier to use. You can export in .dxf or.dwg. I have both Adobe Illustrator and Corel Draw, and I don’t have any doubt as to which I prefer.

Tom

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