None that I have seen, or worked with. Maybe others have seen different. You need a CAD file that can be put through a post-processor for the particular machine, generating G-Code to run the machine. Do you have a drawing that you need made into a file? Lots of folks can do that for you, I'm sure.
No as the sign font has some curly cues etc and i'am a fraid it would be a bit pricy, to get to get a cad file made up Yrs ago I had some parts flame cut on a 12 head cutter that ran off of a pencil lead prawing, that was pretty slick and thought the water cutter would do the same DND
I cannot say that there is not one out there. There are more things in heaven and earth, than have been seen by me. Do you already have it in an electronic format? There are electronic converters online, even some free ones.
There is some truly amazing programs out there that can replicate some real intricate stuff. I would search online for converters like gimpy said, and at least talk to someone who makes programs to at least get an experts opinion on if its doable. I would imagine in this day and age someone can help you out
I believe laser cutting will follow a pencil line....but no good on alloy. alloy needs to be cut with water jet.
Some company can scan a drawing and convert into dxf files or whatever to be used by the cutting system, i often give the company a scale drawing that they scan and once in the computer he can blow it up to any size you want.
They make scanners that will convert it directly to a DXF file. All you should have to do after that is clean it up a little and set the tool path Depending on the waterjet (flow, omax...). Shop I worked at in college had one. Pretty easy to convert from JPEG or other file to DXF to in most programs. Just ask a local shop, might not be a big deal to make you a cad file made up
Our family business is flat bed die cutting. We use plotter printers that draw a design on the die board we use. We can take a drawing, scan it, convert it and print it out. The water jet is just a print process with it's own language. Any good pre production art shop should be able to do the needed file. The shop with the water jet will convert it into the water jet language
I'am 75' and from the old school and still use paper and pencil for my prints, so this cad file stuff is way over my head Will make a few calls and see what I can find out for the best cutter for this project, that will not leave too much slag on the cut edges DND
I have seen one of these " tracer" eyes that was hooked into a plasma table. Could be adapted to water jet I'm sure. It was way cool from line drawing. Trace. Cut. Quickly.
Your local office supply store, or FedEx Office can scan a drawing into a digital format. From there, it can be converted into a CAD file.
Just an idea, but if you feel this is over your head Im sure a local tech college teacher would be more than happy to take your drawing and walk his students through the process we are all talking about. Back in tech college my teacher gave us a welding demo about stick welding a cracked cast exhaust manifold that a local guy brought to him. Teachers at small colleges like that seem to love finding real world examples of the course work to slide into class.
Thanks guys for the good tips and ideas also my sign painter fellow might have some ideas too, since there will be 2 signs made one fabed for outdoors and one painted for inside Just not sure what material to use yet for the outside one DND
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