First - let me start off stating I'm no stranger to CAD systems. My first CAD system was for doing PCB Artwork design in 1979. Most of my 'mechanical CAD' software has been 'bottom shelf' stuff like the original AutoSketch for DOS (by AutoDesk people) and I still have TurboCAD on 2 floppies in my garage. But so far - Dolphin has just STUMPED me. Whatever paradigm of drawing they are using - it is not coming easy for me. That' s not negative... lets' face it, 1979 is a long time ago and some of the grey matter MAY have 'gelled' just bit since then and become a bit less penetrable.
Enough background... I don't want to go through the WHOLE learning curve to get to my wood router - I want to build MY stuff, not practice cutting and drilling shapes. I have a pattern for a guitar pick guard that I want to route. To get the shape i:
Took a picture on a high-contrast background
Loaded it into GIMP as a JPG
Adjusted the colors/contrast so I got the outline as clear as I could
Saved as JPG
Loaded modified JPG into Inkscape
Used the 'Trace Bitmap' to create the vector drawing
Removed and modified a lot of the redundant path nodes and adjusted the outline to match the bitmap
Saved as an R14 DXF (only DXF option available)
Tried to import into Dolphin - no joy - they support R12
Opened in LibreCAD
Saved as R12 DXF (an option available)
Opened in Dolphin CAD (YEAH!! IT WORKED)
So - now I have it in Dolphin - and because of the curved nature of this outline (think 'French Curve'), I have a gazillion arcs. And I ended up with 2 path nodes really close that created a tiny, small diameter arc (with 'near points' literally touching all the way around) between them - not necessary (a mistake) and won't route anyways. But I can't seem to edit this outline. I show/display the 'near points', but I can't delete them or edit out this tiny arc. I can't do anything to this drawing except draw 'new' lines and arcs.
Leaving the arc in for now - when I attempt to 'contour' the outline - it goes part way round... and then stops at the beginning of this little arch. How do I get this software to see the entire outline as a single contour? And better yet - because I really do NOT want it as single contour (I want to change tools for one small portion of the outline), how do I get this thing to start and stop where I want it to?
I've tried submitting these kinds of questions to their support email - but I never get a response. I figured I would try this forum. If I can't get this to work - I'm probably going to have to go back to all the free software I was using before and just take the loss on the cost of this software.