new

[redheadwelder]

I just joined. I just bought a used vicon cnc machine. im new to cnc so its going to be a learning curve. trying to figure out how to trace physical parts.hope to here from somone familiar with vicon machines. thanks the redheadwelder

[adbuch]

Welcome aboard Red! What size and kind of physical parts are you wanting to trace? And how accurate do you need? Are these brackets with holes or something similar? I was just reading up on the Vicon software, and it doesn't appear to have an auto-trace option like the Arclight Dynamics tables do. If your controller uses either Mach3, EdingCNC, or LinuxCNC then you could possibly add an auto tracing/scanning function using the Scanything software package. I have this installed onto one of my cnc routers and it works great. Total cost is under $200.

http://www.plasma-automation.com/Vicon- ... ftware.php

Another option is to use a digitizing board like the GTCO Calcomp with Logic Trace software.

https://www.logicgroup.com/LogicTracerD ... ablet.html

Some cnc plasma control software allows the user to manually jog the torch around the table and mark the torch location as a series of dots on the screen. You can then connect these dots with smooth curves to create the outline of the part. Plasmacam Design Edge offers this option.

If you part is small enough that is can fit on a flat bed scanner, then you could do a hand trace of your part onto a piece of paper and then scan in the drawing to create a digital copy which can then be converted to vector format for cutting.

It is also possible to work from a photograph of the object. When doing this is is best to have high contrast between the part and the background. Placing a dark colored part onto a large sheet of white paper and then photographing straight on will produce the best results. Then a program such as Inkscape can be used to convert the photo to a vector file ready for editing/scaling and creating cut paths.

Perhaps take a picture of one of the parts you wish to trace and post it here and we can help guide you thru this process.

David

[plasmanewbie]

David has some great points. What software will you be using to create your drawings? That also has a lot to do with what might be suggested for you in regards to tracing parts.