CNC Gurus: I need some information

[Charles L. Cotton]

I'm going to build a CNC machine for special projects using this design. (This guy is great, especially for a someone who know little about machining and nothing about CNC.) I'm also going to use Arduino with a GRBL shield as the controller. My machine will not be for engraving, but his design should work fine.

My question is about creating G code for the controller. I understand from David's videos that SpruCam software can take a CAD file and convert it into G code, but I need to know if there is a way to scan a part as a two dimensional image into a CAD program, then export it to SpruCam or some similar software. (I also don't know the price of SpruCam, but I suspect it might be pretty high.) I don't know CAD and I guess I could learn, but I can't help but think someone has come up with a way to scan a the part into a CAD program.

Any input would be greatly appreciated.
Chas.

Edit to add: I'm not talking about 3D scanners like I've had experts do for us in cases for accident reconstruction, etc. I'm thinking more like a photocopier that will generate a CAD file.

[mojo84]

Charles, You are one busy industrious man. Sorry, can't help beyond that.

[G.A. Heath]

I am unsure if this will help or not, but take a look at http://replicat.org/generators" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; it contains links to Open Source and Free software along the lines of what you are looking for.

[cb1000rider]

I haven't done AutoCad in a long time, but what I found:
Scan2CAD (software) can be used to import drawings into AutoDesk (AutoCad). You'll lose some resolution and will probably have to clean up exact dimensions.
Autocad can natively export to iges file type, which can be read by SpurtCam.

Autocad can be amazingly complex. I was taught to use it in school, but lost most of that knowledge. I started using it again about 5 years ago when designing a home and that's a very simple case. Lots of tutorials and etc on line, I'd say reasonable learning curve for 2d stuff. If you've never used it before it'd be totally worth taking a community college class on it. There may be easier and less expensive software if the case is doing CNC.

CNC is, of course, 3d.. Almost everything I can think of including simple cutting is multi-pass set depth for cutting.
Interesting project. AutoCad is very expensive of course.. If you're a "student" there many be options that make it affordable - or at least worth taking a class to become a student.

[Charles L. Cotton]

Thanks guys. Some of the software mentioned will import a pdf file into CAD/CAM that can be tweaked, then exported to G-Code. I don't need a scanner, but it would be useful if my flatbed scanner will produce a 1:1 pdf file. It will scan to pdf, but I'm not sure if it's an exact 1:1. That will be easy to test.

Thanks again guys.
Chas.

[fire128]

You might want to look at Vectric's Aspire. It has a good reputation for being able to import scanned images and convert to programming. It's been about 20 yrs since I had to write g-code as most design software does it automatically nowadays.