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AutoCad Forever
It seems a lot of people are using the purpose written signwriting softwares (e.g. artcut) for thier vector manipulation. Having tried basic linework and curve drawings in artcut, I would have to say that AutoCad R14 simply obliterates this software.
For large image tracings an AutoCad polyline round the lot followed by splining and then pulling the points to smooth it out seems not just far quicker but massivly quicker than jerking around with the limited functionality of artcut.
For tracing text on an image I rotate the text to be perfectly parrallel to the ucs using a baseline created from a point at each end. I then draw the lines on followed by filleting for the corners using a set radius. After that I then space the text out exactly. The result is more accurate than the original** with the minimum of arcs & curves.
** I seem to be tracing some text which the original designer has perhaps missed out a row or 2 of pixels for the vertical sizing of individual lettering. It’s unnoticable on the cut but over the top consistency is the key 😉
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5 Replies
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i have been a strong believer in the first software tool you learn and master becomes your toolkit. Yours is Autocad, mine is Corel. I did learn Autocad at college and I did have a job running CNC plasma/oxy on metal once. But I was faster at preparing my files in Corel.
I cant speak for Artcut, no idea about that.
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I use Autocad plenty but its bugbears are that it is a VERY pricey package and has a steep learning curve. Maybe if you can get an educational version of 12/13/14 its cheaper than a full liscence.
I dont think Acad is very good for signage personally , I use Corel which is far more flexible , even tho I am a very experienced Acad user – from 85 or so. In 1985 there was *only* Acad to drive my CnC engravers (which are still operating with it) so was forced to get it down pat real quick.
Be careful with Splining it’s bad news for some engravers and other machines like lasers that can use acad , the spline segments make the machine execute 10000’s of steps or not interpolate arcs etc in any sensible way which either slows them down or sends data to the machines at incredibly slow rates as its sending 10000’s of instructions to do small vectors.
Use a Polyline for the Text thing and then fillet all the corners in one go
If you do the line segment thing , convert it to a Pline after – in the first place you have a closed entity , a single entity and in the second , sending it to a program like Corel stops it being in a zillion bits and will generally cut in a single pass on other machines
Often sending it as straight lines that are filleted after can result in the cutting machine jumping around , like cutting the lines first and the fillets after. -
Rodney, we had that same problem sub-contract out to a local CNC laser, they use Acad.
We plan in Corel and end up with lots of problems Exporting to DXF/DWG, mainly too many nodes. (If I recall DXF is an interchange CAD format)What is the best solution?
If not, Seen any nice utilities to assist in conversion?
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Never even heard of ArtCut.
Sign software has other advantages, eg. welding, compounding, shadow effects, distortions etc. that I doubt would be easy to produce in Autocad.
I suggest you try Flexi or SignLab and then let us know what you think of Autocad for doing signs.
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I still use AutoCAD quite a bit, but Signlab & Illustrator now do the lions share of our work.
Used to receive a lot of DXF/DWG files for routing and used AutoCAD to tidy them up for use with the router package. We commonly got circles looking like 50p pieces which generally could be fixed by increasing the value in the VIEWRES command. Wee often need to submit drawings to building companies, local authorities planning departments or architects and find AutoCAD is perfect for this as generally most people in that line of work can open files created in it.
You can create some great 3D renders in AutoCAD also and export them to Studio 3D max to create walkthroughs, although I haven’t done that for a while.
For general day to day sign work and design though we are definitely finding it easier and a lot quicker to use dedicated sign software.
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