Hello again, would like to know how to get from a plan drawing of a ship part, into candle , lets say, so as to generate to gcode for a router.
You can try fiverr, here is an example.
www.fiverr.com
Once you find someone you like contact them to make sure they can do exactly what you need.
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www.fiverr.com
Once you find someone you like contact them to make sure they can do exactly what you need.
no must be away to do it our selves
Took a quick look, and it looks to me like candle is just a machine controller. Basically a free version of Mach 3 with less features.
You need to get an electronic drawing of the part. The file type will depend on the drafting software, often the drafting program exports the drawing in dxf format.
You then have to generate G-Code by uploading the dxf drawing into a CAM program and processing the drawing. The cam program takes the drawing and the definition of the machine you're using along with the type and size of the tools (ie a 3 axis mill with a 1/8" ball end mill for instance) and makes the g-code file. It sets the spindle speed, drive speed, cut depths and tool path that the tool will follow. If you have a 1/8" mill the tollpath is 1/16" inside or outside a contour for instance because if you cut on the line it'll remove an extra 1/16" of material. Basically the cam program figures out how to manipulate the cutter to produce the part in the drawing.
It looks to me like candle just opens the G-Code and tells the machine what to do. You can use candle to manually operate the machine and likely write a g-cade file manually but that very quickly becomes to much to do.
There is software that will do machining with raster images but I've only seen it done with engraving on a laser. It was some seriously high dollar software as well.
If you're starting with a image like a jpg or a pdf type of file of say a rudder, that you want to cut out on a mill or router you'll first need to convert that to a vector drawing. I have seen software that will convert raster based images to vector but like is typical the better it works the more it costs. The ones I've played with required a lot of re-drawing to produce an accurate part because the line widths typically make it hard for the software to figure out a part is supposed to be say 2" instead of 2.13". Typically you'd be ahead just drawing the part in a cad program yourself.
You need to get an electronic drawing of the part. The file type will depend on the drafting software, often the drafting program exports the drawing in dxf format.
You then have to generate G-Code by uploading the dxf drawing into a CAM program and processing the drawing. The cam program takes the drawing and the definition of the machine you're using along with the type and size of the tools (ie a 3 axis mill with a 1/8" ball end mill for instance) and makes the g-code file. It sets the spindle speed, drive speed, cut depths and tool path that the tool will follow. If you have a 1/8" mill the tollpath is 1/16" inside or outside a contour for instance because if you cut on the line it'll remove an extra 1/16" of material. Basically the cam program figures out how to manipulate the cutter to produce the part in the drawing.
It looks to me like candle just opens the G-Code and tells the machine what to do. You can use candle to manually operate the machine and likely write a g-cade file manually but that very quickly becomes to much to do.
There is software that will do machining with raster images but I've only seen it done with engraving on a laser. It was some seriously high dollar software as well.
If you're starting with a image like a jpg or a pdf type of file of say a rudder, that you want to cut out on a mill or router you'll first need to convert that to a vector drawing. I have seen software that will convert raster based images to vector but like is typical the better it works the more it costs. The ones I've played with required a lot of re-drawing to produce an accurate part because the line widths typically make it hard for the software to figure out a part is supposed to be say 2" instead of 2.13". Typically you'd be ahead just drawing the part in a cad program yourself.
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@MystRacing: Just a small coment Jodie. I think PDF in itself is basically vector graphic. Drawings in PDF may very well be raster rather than vector. But if it is a technical drawing made by the original producer, and not a copy/scan made by third party, I would expect it to be vector (easy to see if it is vector or raster e.g. by zooming like a 1000% or so).
Also I think there are plug-ins for CAD/CAM programs such as Autocad for vector PDF.
Also I think there are plug-ins for CAD/CAM programs such as Autocad for vector PDF.