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hand drawn plans to lazer cut parts???

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hand drawn plans to lazer cut parts???

Old 12-02-2005, 08:31 AM
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c-grain
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Default hand drawn plans to lazer cut parts???

Hi fellow scratchers,I was wondering if anyone could help me understand how to take my hand drawn plans and convert them into .dwg or .dfx files so that I could get lazer cut parts of great accuracy.I've been drawing my own plans for over25 yrs.now,and I can never match the accuracy of lazer parts in any reasonable time.I can get very close sometimes when I really concentrate,but it seems that at my age it's getting harder and harder every year.Wish I could run a cad program,but have only scratched the surface.Is this task of converting from hand drawn even possible or worth it?As with almost all drawn plans there are small mistakes in the dementions and measurements.Will the conversion process correct these small mistakes or just repeat them?Any help on this subject will be greatly appreciated!
Old 12-02-2005, 08:49 AM
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DICKEYBIRD
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Default RE: hand drawn plans to lazer cut parts???

Unless you want to pay someone to redraw your plans in CAD to get the .dxf files, I'm afraid you're stuck with learning CAD and redrawing the plans yourself.

If you already have drafting skills, you can learn CAD. It's much easier if you choose a program that has a user friendly interface such as TurboCAD. Here's a free download of TurboCAD LE (Learning Edition) that will do just fine and doesn't cost a dime! http://www.al-ki.com/tcad/download.php#TurboCADLE

Good luck!
Old 12-02-2005, 01:31 PM
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Default RE: hand drawn plans to lazer cut parts???

There's options for scanning in the originals but the line width will kill any true accuracy. To get the benifit of the laser cutting fit that you're looking for you'd have to scan in the plans then either "trace" over them with CAD lines or do the raster to vector conversion and doctor up the resulting salad of nonsense these programs typically produce to get a file that would be useable to a laser cutter.

Remember that the laser only cuts what it's told to. If the parts do not match on the drawing to the nearest thou or two then the laser parts won't fit any better than the hand crafted ones you're doing now.

Not the answer you're looking for I know but I suspect it's the practical truth.
Old 12-02-2005, 04:10 PM
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Chad Veich
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Default RE: hand drawn plans to lazer cut parts???

As BMathews pointed out, you can't simply "trace" the original plan in CAD and get any better results than with hand cutting. Faster yes, more accurate no. To really take advantage of the accuracy of the laser cutter you must redraw the plans in a CAD program. It's not as difficult as you would think and, since you already have the design established, you won't spend any time engineering, just re-drawing what you have already engineered. Download TurboCAD and just start playing with it is about the best advice one can give. Good luck with it, Chad Veich.
Old 12-02-2005, 05:20 PM
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c-grain
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Default RE: hand drawn plans to lazer cut parts???

Hey,You guys are great!!!Quick too!!You have helped me immencely.I will get Turbo Cad and give it a fling.I have Auto Cad,about a 4yr.old copy,but can't do much with it-all those "snapps" and such.It sometimes makes me feel stupid,but even wheen you do some exercises with it the results are different from the manual-go figure.Will I have to re-measure all dims. again off the plan(basic dementions)and let it fill in the blanks?Oh well,I'll do my best to learn it this winter-way too cold to fly most of the time anyway.Here's some pics of the "Lithium Falcon" finished and flown.It was my first jet design.The plan pics are of the one I'm working on now.They are very similar in size-56-59"L. and 48-50.5"spans,the "LF"being the larger of the two.They are both designed for E-power.
Thanks again,R.L.Karp
"Zooming around @ 8000' in the Rockies"
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Old 12-02-2005, 06:47 PM
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SoCal GliderGuider
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Default RE: hand drawn plans to lazer cut parts???

I would add that not only will you have to trace the scanned drawings but you have to go back through them making sure everything fits. Nothing like making a full set of bulk heads and ribs and misc parts to find something was a bit off. You will be sanding and recutting parts just like before all the effort.

The snaps that you mention are the core function of a CAD program. All lines must end at another line. You can't have gaps. Most CNC and laser cutting drivers will choke on any gap even if it is 1/20,000th of an inch. Learning CAD is a state of mind. Most every tool you use in hand drafting is available in a CAD program. Acad is daunting because the command set is so immense. Still there are just a few basic commands that are used 95% of the time.
Old 12-02-2005, 08:43 PM
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Default RE: hand drawn plans to lazer cut parts???

Cgrain, look into my Baker's Dozen TurboCAD tips in the FAQ thread at the top of the listings. It's Post #8 in the Software and CAD thread. It'll help you through the most important points to learn to begin using any CAD program effectively. As SoCal said you gotta learn dem snaps. It's very important to doing accurate drawings. But it's truly not as hard as you may think.

Start with something simple like little sheet balsa gliders so you can concentrate on the CAD tools and steps.

You'll soon be like me where I can safely say that other than little idle time doodles for shapes and inspiration that I can draw with CAD far faster than I can with a pencil and paper now. As soon as you need to pick up a ruler to go with that pencil then CAD is faster once you know what you're doing.
Old 12-02-2005, 10:47 PM
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CoosBayLumber
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Default RE: hand drawn plans to lazer cut parts???

I usually like to keep quiet on who has best CAD systems. Many readers buy into a certain CAD more for the price than for what it can do and then after a year or two they then post another note here or at some other web location trying to figure out a way for their CheapCAD to do a certain function. Contrairy to CheapCAD the Autodesk web site has support forums for their products going back 15 years now. As you will soon find out, it is difficult to explain here but to say CAD is simply different than graphic systems, and is not cross platform compatible with different brands. As I and others have mentioned, here before CAD is not simply drawing a bunch of lines, for a bunch of lines does not make a plan,..... it only makes up a drawing. CAD is also a SYSTEM, it is not simply software, for moreover you will work up a routine to be used over and over again to complete your project. There are many more items to be learned and many of us have spent the $30 for a semester or two of adult night school. My standard statement is NOT to buy any CAD system until you first know how to operate within any of them, and then can make an intelligent purchase and ask intelligent questions about the software as to if it meets your needs or not.

As has been mentioned here before, not readily apparent is that a good quantity of firms find no reason to upgrade past Autocad Release 14, for they have already made tens of thousands of dollars off these obsolete systems which are very stable and support a host of hardware items. The next near equavalent has been Autocad LT2000. There must be an unspoken reason as to just why the older and obsolete versions of Autocad are being passed on for prices ranging in hundreds of dollars, when other vendors are offering their new in the box software for 1/2 the price. Autodesk products work with most any Windows operating system from 95 through XP, and have a host of inborn system drivers that work around the limitations which Microsoft (secretly) installed, and as you will eventially find is very, very important. The other CAD software systems try to emulate the drawing formats native to Autodesk, (and seldom to another competitor), for back several years ago, a group of disgruntled Autodesk employees went and wrote the code for Intellicad. There for a while it became the closest thing to a compatible low-cost CAD software, however customers too found it is not 100% compatible and once again it used many of the Microsoft OS defaults as a shortcut.

If, after a few drawings get under your belt, you should be all familiar with how to XREF in a drawing, work within Paper Space, use a LISP file, know how to alter the pen settings for one drawing, alter the text font and size in one step, and a host of other things. Then you can go to the CAD instruction pages at my web site noted below and read about how to create those parts.


Wm.
Old 12-04-2005, 09:22 AM
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daven
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Default RE: hand drawn plans to lazer cut parts???

Check out this website for NorthEast Aerodynamics. John Marien there converted my hand drawn plans at a very reasonable (in my opinion) rate.

http://www.ne-aero.com/

I know its not a real complicated desing (Q500), but I thought he did a great job. He also added tabs and slots on all the parts for easy construction.
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Old 12-04-2005, 10:42 AM
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c-grain
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Default RE: hand drawn plans to lazer cut parts???

Daven,thanks for the help,however I have someone who has already to take on the conversion to .dwg&.dfx files.All he asks is to be able to use the plans to build one for himself.I'll have to send him something more for his efforts and for being so nice to not ask for money!If It doesn't work out for some reason,I'll sure keep your ref. in mind.Thanks Daven,R.L.Karp

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