Hey all,I've finally found a CNC.Someone I know has built a CNC himself, and got quite nice results from it.My question now:what is the best method to draw these (prefferably in Solidworks)?I couldn't find any tutorials on this...I managed to make the cuts without any problems,so I've got the overal shape.But when I create a sketch with the engravings on it, I can't convert it to anything, since it has openings (well, who wants to close lines anyways...)Any suggestions?How do people make them look like real panels in their renders?I managed to export the cuts and the sketch to seperate DXF's for the CNC, but this isn't the correct method imo.Thanks in advance,Toine Mercier

Hi ToineI use AutoCad, but any other program should do. The cnc machine needs closed objects. So if you want to cut a square hole, do not design a square made up by 4 lines, but use the "square" command. The linesegments need to be connected to each other.For engraving text, you will need a program that vectorises characters. Autocad is unable to do that. Use corel draw (I use BobCad for that), to vectorize the text, export to dfx and import in autocad.When further questions PM me (in Dutch?)regardsNorberthttp://home.wanadoo.nl/norbert.bosch/

Sent you a PM(in Dutch of course :) much easier)

I design the front(for engraving the text into and looking pretty) and back panels(for mounting the switches to) in CorelDraw (as Norbert said: if you make a shape up of seperate lines, you must connect them together so that they are one object).Then I export in pgl format and import that into RamsGold. I then develop the toolpaths and order that I want the piece cut. Then I generate the g-code.The g-code is then taken to my machine, loaded into TurboCNC...... and hey presto.David