Suggested Software

1

Hi Everybody

So if you’ve seen my other posts, you will see I am struggling with the basics of the software I think.

I’ve got very basic knowledge of CorelDraw, and have used Illustrator. I’ve not used any other vector based software before.

At the moment, I am mainly drawing shapes such as stars, circles, hexagons, etc.

At some point I will want to trace other designs such as silhouettes (which I can do manually with Apple Pencil and iPad) or freehand draw shapes.

I am working on a MacBook at home, but if working down the studio (where the Wazer is), I need to be able to use the iPad Pro if I want to make any adjustments to a design whilst I am in middle of cutting. So, I was considering Affinity Designer, but I’ve seen on here that there can be issues

I feel totally out of my depth as to what software to be using. I thought I’d be fine with CorelDraw but it’s really not doing what I want already. I purchased a full license as I had a grant, but I am not sure I’ve done the right thing, and hoping their 30 day money back guarantee will apply to downloaded software too, otherwise I’ve spent £600 on something fairly useless.

Can I have some recommendations - easy to use/learn preferably!

2

I have zero problems with Solid Works or Fusion. Tracing a part is not my thing but downloading an image is a possibility. I have also learned anything IOS usually takes another program to make it run correctly.

3

ORU, thank you, I will look into these

4

I use QCadCAM for drawing, its open source, but I just pay for a compiled version 40 bucks or whatever.

On top of that, as far as tracing… You can print to post script, then convert postscript into dxf, and then clean it up, and drag that to WAM.

So… yes you can get a raster image into WAM fairly quickly without tracing if you go thru the motions.

(Printers are just dropping dots on a page with x/y locations, just like a water jet, so if you can print it… you can cut it!)

1 Like
5

I will be honest, I am not sure what you mean by print to post script? Is this a functionality of QCadCAM?

Actually, I’ve been able to successfully go from a raster image to vector outline previously as I’ve had to do this for laser cutting purposes. One cutter I used was far more complex in it’s needs than another - for one I’d been using Photoshop and creating a path in there, then export paths to illustrator (but I don’t have AI any more)

CorelDraw (which drives the studio laser) and tracing in CorelPaint/CorelDraw was really easy, and had line smoothing tool functionality (I know that you will know how messy a line with a million nodes exporting a raster edge to a vector path might be)

Much to learn!

6

Dawn, give OnShape a try. It’s free, works on Windows, Mac, Linux, and the iPad as it is browser-based. You can trace over an image and create just about anything you need.

I migrated away from Solidworks/Inventor and I now use it nearly every day.

Did I mention that it’s free?

Good luck.

C.

1 Like
7

Hi

Thanks for the suggestion, I will look at that! Free is always good :slight_smile:

1 Like