[louieatienza]

You know.. It just might.. I know it didn't have mac software... So I stuck it in a drawer and forgot about it... Used iPhoto, Photoshop, ImageReady, etc...

I've only owned a PC for a few weeks.. First one ever.. If it was a Mac, I have about $30K worth of audio/video/animation software (which being several years old now, is worth exactly twenty seven dollars and fourteen cents... LOL), and I could do what I needed..

But I is a PC No0b..

But now the question remains.. "which drawer did I stick it in?".... There's only about 10 drawers stuffed full of CD's to choose from...

I wonder how long a vid the Cannon will capture?.. has a 1G card so it's gotta be able to hold a 'little' anyways...

That is one reason why I hate Macs! Actually I was looking into a 17" MacBook Pro, so I could install Windows7 on it and piss off the crowd at Starbucks...

[Mountaincraft]

Does V Carve allow you to take a bitmap drawing or sketch, and vectorize it? Input an image and turn it into a relief model (ie a company logo becomes a 2.5D carving for a sign)?

[Mountaincraft]

No worry, people are already watching you through your cell phone camera anyway.

CarveOne

So 'that' is what all the laughing is about! I thought I was becoming sybil!...

[louieatienza]

So 'that' is what all the laughing is about! I thought I was becoming sybil!...

Like the movie about the girl with multiple personality disorder?

[Mountaincraft]

Like the movie about the girl with multiple personality disorder?

Yep.. that's the reference I was trying to make.... (chair)

[CarveOne]

Does V Carve allow you to take a bitmap drawing or sketch, and vectorize it? Input an image and turn it into a relief model (ie a company logo becomes a 2.5D carving for a sign)?

VCP v6.0 lets you import a b/w or color image and then trace it. You have some control over how it does the trace. I have not used it for anything yet, just played with it to see what it does.

CarveOne

[louieatienza]

VCP v6.0 lets you import a b/w or color image and then trace it. You have some control over how it does the trace. I have not used it for anything yet, just played with it to see what it does.

CarveOne

V5.5 does it too, though I havevn't used it yet (haven't the need yet...) My experience with such software, however, is that you get better results by 'dumbing down' the image to the lowest color pallete that stil gives you a clear image (like 256 colors) or 16 shade b&w. Of course, if it's a known brand, it may be found online as a vector file...

[Mountaincraft]

Kinda figured a reduced color palette would be part of the process...

Was just curious if that was a V Carve feature and how well it worked... As I will need to do some of that for at least one project someone wants to use me for in the future (once this thing is running and I know what the heck I'm doing with it)...

[zool]

To change a raster image to a vector image use HyCAD and WinTopo. Its easy.

Go to cnc4free.com and get chapter 3 of Yohudi's book. It will take you about one-hour to read though the chapter, then about 30-minutes to do the Tasks [aka exercises] and after that its the same operations over and over.

AND, both the software packages are FREE!!!!

Ignore anyone that says CNC Tool Kit does not work, and is not easy to learn. Especially Louie!!!

[louieatienza]

To change a raster image to a vector image use HyCAD and WinTopo. Its easy.

Go to cnc4free.com and get chapter 3 of Yohudi's book. It will take you about one-hour to read though the chapter, then about 30-minutes to do the Tasks [aka exercises] and after that its the same operations over and over.

AND, both the software packages are FREE!!!!

Ignore anyone that says CNC Tool Kit does not work, and is not easy to learn. Especially Louie!!!

It's easy to learn, as long as you can devote half you life to it and your significant other can tolerate it... LOL!!!!

[ger21]

V-Carve Pro let's you adjust the # of colors in the image, as well as a tolerance setting prior to doing the trace. It's probably the best and fastest raster to vector converter I've ever used.

I should add that for cutting parts, I'm not a fan of any raster to vector conversions. Hand tracing gives a much more efficient, and cleaner toolpath. But it works great when doing V carving. You can go from an image to V-Carving code in a few minutes.

One thing to keep in mind. Cut2D was never intended to be a design program. It's main purpose is creating g-code from drawings done in other apps. That's why it's toolset is limited, and why it's 1/3 the price of V-Carve Pro. Most users that want a single design/CAM app choose V Carve Pro, or Aspire.

[louieatienza]

V-Carve Pro let's you adjust the # of colors in the image, as well as a tolerance setting prior to doing the trace. It's probably the best and fastest raster to vector converter I've ever used.

I should add that for cutting parts, I'm not a fan of any raster to vector conversions. Hand tracing gives a much more efficient, and cleaner toolpath. But it works great when doing V carving. You can go from an image to V-Carving code in a few minutes.

One thing to keep in mind. Cut2D was never intended to be a design program. It's main purpose is creating g-code from drawings done in other apps. That's why it's toolset is limited, and why it's 1/3 the price of V-Carve Pro. Most users that want a single design/CAM app choose V Carve Pro, or Aspire.

More like 1/4 the price!

I used to do a lot of raster to vector conversions when I worked for an awards company, and sign shop, both who used CasMate Pro. It's great to get the basic outlines, but to get crisp artwork, it almost always requires cleaning up. Just setting cleanup tolerances and corner sharpening doesn't cut it. Before I worked for them, they would engrave straight from the raster tracings, which contained thousands of close-spaced nodes, and their NewHermes machine controllers had a hard time handling them, often stalling and skipping steps. Sometimes it's even easier to have the bitmap in the background or on one layer, and draw over it, using the closest matching font you have. If your customer had a logo made, it's more than likely that their print house or the designer has a .eps or .ai file that you can import directly in.

In fact, for the first month or so, I used a bargain bin version of CorelDraw as well as CasMate to draw my parts, and import into Cut2D...

[zool]

Louis says: It's easy to learn, as long as you can devote half you life to it and your significant other can tolerate it... LOL!!!!

Oh yea of little faith.

1. Spending 1.5 hours learning two programs hardly seems "half you[r] life"

2. As for "your significant other ... tolerat[ing] it...", I told ya, ya gotta train 'em!

[louieatienza]

Louis says: It's easy to learn, as long as you can devote half you life to it and your significant other can tolerate it... LOL!!!!

Oh yea of little faith.

1. Spending 1.5 hours learning two programs hardly seems "half you[r] life"

2. As for "your significant other ... tolerat[ing] it...", I told ya, ya gotta train 'em!

1. We shall see, or more like, we shall see how good Louie's comprehension skills are...

2. Don't let your wife find out your CNCZone password!

[Mountaincraft]

Well, A family member donated a 14 x 16 SS hoffman box to the cause.. It arrived today (talk about perfect timing!)... A little tight, but I think I've figured out how to get everything crammed in there (the secret is 'layers')... It didn't have a back board, but that's cool.. I can use the extra space..

Gecko Drives should be here tomorrow afternoon...

Man I have a lot of work to do yet before power-up... Hopefully this weekend... Maybe..

[Mountaincraft]

Super PID questions...

Two firmware versions are available.. One for a knob at the controller and one for controlling speed from within Mach 3..

Yet, there is a jumper that is changed when using one version vs the other..

Is there an actual difference between the chips/firmware, or is the only difference the jumper?

Reason I'm asking, is that I'd like to have the ability to do 'either'... If I were to remove the jumper altogether, and then solder three wires from a DPST switch to the jumper pads, would the unit behave properly when switched from one mode to the other?

Or is there a different curve depending on which firmware version I order regardless of the jumper?

If so, which firmware version should I choose? If I chose the Mach 3 firmware, could I make up for the distorted curve on the pot, by installing a 'fine speed' pot in series with the one that comes with the S-PID (say a pot that is 10% of the value of the supplied pot)?

If I chose the manual adjust firmware, is there a way to adjust the curve response in Mach 3?

[ger21]

The chips are different. The manual curve gives a more linear response from the pot. The Mach3 version gives you accurate rpm's from what Mach3 commands.

I use the Mach3 version, and have no use for the pot at all. There's a spindle speed override slider in Mach3 that allows fine tuning the speed, and you can always type in a different rpm.
If you want to switch to the pot, it'll still work fine, the response just won't be a linear ramp from the pot.

I don't believe Mach3 can compensate for the manual curve, which is why the Mach3 version exists.

[Mountaincraft]

The chips are different. The manual curve gives a more linear response from the pot. The Mach3 version gives you accurate rpm's from what Mach3 commands.

I use the Mach3 version, and have no use for the pot at all. There's a spindle speed override slider in Mach3 that allows fine tuning the speed, and you can always type in a different rpm.
If you want to switch to the pot, it'll still work fine, the response just won't be a linear ramp from the pot.

I don't believe Mach3 can compensate for the manual curve, which is why the Mach3 version exists.

So basically, if I want the dual use, I should order the Mach 3 firmware, and then just deal with the non-linearity of the pot in manual mode?

[CarveOne]

So basically, if I want the dual use, I should order the Mach 3 firmware, and then just deal with the non-linearity of the pot in manual mode?

V1 firmware chip is the original manual mode only. V2 is the one that gives both manual and Mach3 control modes. There is also a version that handles the higher current of a Porter Cable 7518 and other 3-1/4hp routers. Both of mine have been converted to V2 firmware. One of them is also the high current version.

With the V2 version you will notice while turning the pot that as you increase the rotation the rpm will change more rapidly for a given amount of degrees rotation. It may become a little more difficult to set it to a particular rpm at the higher end of travel. Once you hook it up for Mach3 control you probably won't want to use the pot anyway.

CarveOne

[louieatienza]

V1 firmware chip is the original manual mode only. V2 is the one that gives both manual and Mach3 control modes. There is also a version that handles the higher current of a Porter Cable 7518 and other 3-1/4hp routers. Both of mine have been converted to V2 firmware. One of them is also the high current version.

With the V2 version you will notice while turning the pot that as you increase the rotation the rpm will change more rapidly for a given amount of degrees rotation. It may become a little more difficult to set it to a particular rpm at the higher end of travel. Once you hook it up for Mach3 control you probably won't want to use the pot anyway.

CarveOne

I believe the V2 board supports up to 15A... I also believe that a few folk here have the 'jumper' hooked to a switch, for either manual or Mach3 control. Unless you know absolutely sure what spindle speed you need, the switch might be a good idea. You could switch to manual for a test cut, and adjust the speed then, before letting Mach3 take over. Unless you have a pendant with spindle speed control, it might be easier to turn a dial, rather than using the mouse and clicking the buttons on the Mach screen...