big problem which way to go

[planb]

Hi and thank you all in advance for your advice,, I am in the rhinestone temlate business (just starting) I am currently using corel draw to develope my ttemplates but it is very limiting,, what I am looking for is if auto cad will do what I need it to do,, and then which autocad is the correct aplication for my projects,, what I need is to set dots at different mm sizes in a alphabet whithout converting to curves, also I need the ability to import jpg line drawings and convert to vector formate so I can place the dots which resimble the rhinestones,, and then use this application to drive my laser machine to create the template,, to get a better understanding of what I am talking about, if you would please take the time to look at rhinestone machine.com and look at thier crystalcad software application,, problem is they want 3 arms and 2 legs to puchase the software there for I am looking a a more inexpensive way of going about it.

Any help you can give would be great!! And thank you for this forum

R.

[SLW210]

AutoCAD 2008 should do what you want.

[planb]

Hi, Thanks for the reply,, did you take a look at the crystalcad web site? to get a good idea of what I am talking about,, this application should be very simple I would think,, what kind of learning curve am I looking at?

Thanks

R.

[Cad64]

The way I see it, if you don't want to go with the Crystalcad program, then you will need 3 different programs to do what you need to do. First you need a program, like Adobe Illustrator, to convert the raster line drawing to vector format, (Autocad does not do that). Second would be Autocad to place the dots along the vectorized line, and then 3rd would be some type of CAM software to drive your laser machine, (Autocad does not do that either).

I think that Autocad would be overkill for what you are wanting to do, plus the price of full Autocad is about twice that of the Crystalcad program. You could pick up Autocad LT for about half the cost of Crystalcad, but you would still need the other programs I mentioned previously.

Another possible alternative might be to use a program like Illustrator or Coreldraw to create your designs and then export them as dxf to your CAM software.

It sounds like the Crystalcad program was designed specifically for what you're trying to do and incorporates everything into one program. Is price the only factor in your decision because I think you will end up spending a lot more money buying all these other programs.

[planb]

Thanks cad64,, I have corel x3 that I design with,, problem is I can do every thing converted to curves but that gives me a inside and outside , I can place the rhinestone dots and it will follow text to path,, but it will not allow me to do single lines, so when I have a custom design it compounds problems,, plus I don't know if I trust the crystalcad guys of yet,,, so I am looking at alternatives,, I may just be barking up the wrong tree at the moment,, Thanks for your advice,,

R.








The way I see it, if you don't want to go with the Crystalcad program, then you will need 3 different programs to do what you need to do. First you need a program, like Adobe Illustrator, to convert the raster line drawing to vector format, (Autocad does not do that). Second would be Autocad to place the dots along the vectorized line, and then 3rd would be some type of CAM software to drive your laser machine, (Autocad does not do that either).

I think that Autocad would be overkill for what you are wanting to do, plus the price of full Autocad is about twice that of the Crystalcad program. You could pick up Autocad LT for about half the cost of Crystalcad, but you would still need the other programs I mentioned previously.

Another possible alternative might be to use a program like Illustrator or Coreldraw to create your designs and then export them as dxf to your CAM software.

It sounds like the Crystalcad program was designed specifically for what you're trying to do and incorporates everything into one program. Is price the only factor in your decision because I think you will end up spending a lot more money buying all these other programs.

[Vince0115]

The way I see it, if you don't want to go with the Crystalcad program, then you will need 3 different programs to do what you need to do. First you need a program, like Adobe Illustrator, to convert the raster line drawing to vector format, (Autocad does not do that). Second would be Autocad to place the dots along the vectorized line, and then 3rd would be some type of CAM software to drive your laser machine, (Autocad does not do that either).

Another possible alternative might be to use a program like Illustrator or Coreldraw to create your designs and then export them as dxf to your CAM software.

I

And you don't have to spend a fortune on the CAM software. Go with an "entry level" CAM from whatever software house suits you: as an example, CNC Software in Connecticut sells "MasterCam Entry" at a far smaller price than their full 3D version. You can get a free trial demo disc from your local dealer: find them at www.mastercam.com (http://www.mastercam.com).

Good luck