need to do some artwork, try Inkscape

[swinks]

I came across this program today and it is a good, free option and not as complex as Illustrator and Coreldraw (and these are often expensive as well) allowing you to do vector art and save for printing.

Now you can play around and achieve some pretty good results if you put the time in.

http://www.inkscape.org/en/

[guyricho]

interesting what is the catch? is it a trial?

[swinks]

it might be like the CAD program DraftSight which is a free autocad program developed by the guys that do 3D Solidworks and they hope people get use to particular setups, command and function and then buy into their high end range of programs.

Here is a video of a guy vectoring some cabinet art.

utoplay=1&rel=0

[Retropin]

it might be like the CAD program DraftSight which is a free autocad program developed by the guys that do 3D Solidworks and they hope people get use to particular setups, command and function and then buy into their high end range of programs.

Here is a video of a guy vectoring some cabinet art.

utoplay=1&rel=0

Not sure if its the user or the program but the reworking done for a simple design is unreal... the first shape could have been vector pointed, converted to curves and then the lines you want curved can be manipulated. The whole shape could have been done in one working... instead it was over sized as square, then a curve added to size.. original manipulated to curve and then merged, resized etc.

Problem you find with a lot of these programs is that they don't go direct to machine and a 3rd party program needs to be utilised. Im assuming that files need to be converted to PDF, EPS etc and then fed through a program that links the plotter,CNC etc?

[swinks]

I hear what your saying Retro but for a free program it still is pretty good, just comes down to technique as some aspects of what the guy did were good and some could be approached differently but end of the day it is free and lets people be creative. I actually preferred his technique for the interrupted curve with the rectangles coming out as then you don't have to correct that one curve as in the past I have done it the way you stated.

I know for the decals I did for the snackbar mod I used Illustrator as I was not aware of this program. But in Illustrator you do your layers and the sign company could use the AI file to go straight to a printer / profile cutter. I also have taken a illustrator design and exported as a dxf and straight into a cnc machine software and cut shapes so 2 programs in this case but DraftSight is free and people can prep their own designs to a degree. When it comes to CNC you will pretty much need to run through 2 programs in most cases when artwork is involved and you need to extract a profile cut part of the design.