Hello, I need a drawing (old fashioned, pencil-on graph paper) turned into a DXF file suitable for use with a water-jet cutting machine. My part will be a small (< 1 sq. ft.) 20 gage sheet metal item. Most aspecs of this item are easily rendered with AutoCAD. The problem is the most important shape within this configuration is a modified compound parabola. (The item will be a 'rib' component in a secondary solar reflector; it will hold the contour of the mirror sheet metal within the housing.) I cribbed the shape from a book, decreased the aperture, and tweaked the curve a bit. I do not have the math that generated the original curve.
Is there some scanning program that can look at a drawing and do this?
Is it something that can be done manually (create a curve by physically measuring and plotting thousands of points on X/Y axes ?)
I would really like to hear from someone who has some insights into the matter.
Thank you