Making an autocad drawing

Hi,

I have a few paper drawings ( guess u call it blue print). I was wondering if I could turn them into CAD drawings for CNC applications. Can this be done ? How ?

In theory, yes but in practice I wouldn't waste your time trying. There are a variety of software program's that will covert raster images (scans of the drawings) into vector models (cad files) but the results aren't accurate and usually made of thousands of lines which make it impossible to work with. There are quite a few other posts in this forum on the subject and I would say the consensus of opinion is you are better off starting from scratch. If after reading this you still want to try there is a freeware version at www.wintopo.com.

What tolerance do you require? I agree with BBB658 to draw them in ACad based on the measurements provided on your print. If no tolerance is required and near enough is close enough (common in a lot of artistic applications) the above referenced raster to vector may work. There are better raster to vector programs out there but they can be pricey.

I will second (third?) what has been said before and add that particulary if you want the drawing to be compatible with a CNC, it can't be made up of hundreds of little lines.

What I do is I take a scan of the drawing, insert it in AutoCAD as an OLE and then trace the drawing so I get most of the information outlaid in a rough fashion then I go back and tweak as needed.

I agree with Tiger scan the plan bring it in rescale as close as possible to true size then draw over, if lots of lines are square then use ortho and enter measurement its pretty quick to do and you maintain your true dimensions. the main reason to draw over the scan is so you can see easily what you have done.

Well in my opinion if the drawing has readable dimensions then no need to scan and trace. Just draw it out based on the dims if that is possible/doable.

I will 5th on the raster to vector conversion. Don't waste your time.