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Activity 2 - ArtCam Vector CreationICE3M 4M Unit 1: Computer Interfacing CNC

Machines & VectorsComputer Engineering

Name: Date: September 3, 2007

Instructions: Goto my website (brweb.hcdsb.org). From the Main Menu choose ICE4M Computer Engineering. Asubmenu should appear in the menu bar. From that choose CNC Reference Notes. From there choose

Activity 2- ArtCAM Vector Creation. Do the tutorial and answer the following questions.

Task 1. Start ArtCAM. Open a New Model 30 x 30 (775 mm x 775 mm). Create the following shapes as shown on thediagram: (metric values on next page)

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2. After all the above shapes are created, do the following:

2.1 Wrap the ArtCAM Delcam Text onto the ellipse2.2 Try the options in Text On A Curve

3. METRIC VALUES FOR DIAGRAM:

Text Font = ................................................................ Arial, Size=25Ellipse Start Point = ........................................................ (380,635), Height=125, Width=400Rectangle Centre = ......................................................... (100,510), Size=125x125

Circle Centre = ................................................................ (400,460), Diameter=125Star Centre = ................................................................ (580,350), 1st radius=100, 2nd radius=50Polygon Centre = (100,300), radius=65Polygon (triangle) Centre = (300,300), radius=50

Arc x2, sketch by hand

Polylinestart at (75,75)length=100, degree=45length=100, degree=0DX=25, DY=50

Polyline sketch by hand

4. After all the above shapes are created, do the following:

4.1 Wrap the 'ArtCAM Delcam' Text onto the ellipse4.2 Try the options in Text On A Curve

5. Save this as ArtCAM Act2.art in your H drive

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Task 2: In this example we will be using the buttons on the VectorToolbar to create a VectorImage withinAr tCAM for a Christmas Card design as shown below.

First we need to open a new model.

1. Set the Height to 220 mm & Set the Width to 220 mm.

2. For training purposes, we want to be able to calculate things quickly, so setthe Resolution to be 400 x 400 points.

3. In order to help with the design,ArtCAM has a few features to help positionthe vectors accurately. Rulers, Guidelines , and a Object Snap.

4. We will be creating two Guidelines to begin with at positions X 110, and Y175.

5. Place the cursor in the Ruleron the left-hand side and drag a Guideline intothe centre of the 2D View ,

6. Put the cursor over the vertical Guideline so that a double-headed arrowappears and click the Right mouse button.

7. (This tells us the current position of the Guideline (110), and allows us to edit the position more accurately, ordelete the Guideline if required.)

8. Make sure the position of this Guideline is exactly 110.0, and click OK.

9. Place the cursor in the Ruleron the top and drag a Guideline into the centre of the 2D View ,

10. Check the position of the second Guideline using the same method and ensure that it is set to 175.0. We willbegin by using the Draw Vector Toolset flyout, select the Create Polyline button to create the outline of the

Christmas Tree.11. Enter the Start point of the Polyline by clicking the Left mouse button at the intersection of the

two Guidelines that you created. The object snap cursor will be a circle with two cross hairs.The cursor should snap to the intersection as shown, and as you move the cursor away, adotted line shows you the polyline.

12. Enter the second point as an incremental co-ordinate ofdx 35, dy 50.

13. Click theAdd button to enter the point.

14. The polyline looks like this: ------------------

15.16. Enter the third incremental co-ordinate as dx 20, dy 0 and click theAdd button.17. Now enter the rest of the co-ordinates as follows, clicking theAdd button after each point.

dx dy-35 -5020 0-35 5065 0

18. The polyline looks like this: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

19. Finish the line and exit PolyLine CreationMode by clicking the Close button on theAssistant page. Since thishape is symmetrical, we have only created half of the shape. It will be mirroredlater on to produce the whole shape.

20. Now we can create the candles that can also be mirrored. This will be done usingrectangles,ellipses and Grid Snap. Select the option Snap Grid Settings fromthe Bitmaps pull down menu-Views.

21. Tick the options Draw Snap Grid, and Snap To Grid.22. Set the Grid Spacing to 5.23. Click OK.24. Using the Draw Vector Toolset flyout, click the Create Rectangle button.25. Zoom in on the corner of the Christmas Tree as shown:26. Click the corner of the vector with the Left mouse button and hold the button down. The mouse should snap to

the Snap Grid.

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27. Move the cursor a distance of1 dot of the Snap Grid across (5mm) and 4 upwards(20mm), and let go of thebutton. As the cursor moves off the point, a dotted line shows the rectangle, and when you let go of the mousebutton, the rectangle should look as shown:

28. Click the Create button to finish the rectangle and stay in Rectangle Creation Mode.29. Click the Create and Close button to finish the rectangle.30. Holding down the Ctrl key, select the rectangle as close to bottom left corner as is possible. While still holding

down the mouse button, move the copy of the rectangle to the next point on the tree. The object snap shouldmove it to the appropriate place, if it does not, use the arrow keys to adjust it.

31. Using the Left mouse button and Ctrl key, create the last rectangle the same as the second one on the lastremaining point of the tree.Now we can use the Create Ellipse button from the Draw Vector Toolset to create thflames for the three candles.

32. Enter the values as shown below: ------------------------------------------------------

33. Click the Preview button to check if the values are correct.

34. Click the Create button to accept the Ellipse.

35. Click the Close button.

36. To create the other two candle flames, we are going to copy the ellipsesusing the Ctrl key while moving them to correct position using the snaptools.

37. If necessary, use theArrow keys to move the copied vector to the top of thesecond candle. The Snap Grid will snap it into position. Now we will createthe Star for the top of the Tree. This will be done using the Create Starbutton from the Draw Vector Toolset.

38. Zoom in on the top of the tree as shown:

39. Enter the Centre Point for the Starby snapping to the end of the Treepolyline with the Left mouse button.

40. Move the mouse until theAssistant shows a Radius o f First Points asapproximately 15. It does not have to be exact.

41. Click the Left mouse button to enter the point.

42. Move the mouse till theAssistant shows a Radius of Second Points close to 7.5 and click the Left mouse button to enter the point.

43. Change the Radius o f First Points to be exactly 15 and the Radius ofSecond Points to be exactly7.5.

44. Click the Create button and the Close button.

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45. The design so far looks like this: -------------------------------

46. A polygon will be created for the base of the Christmas Tree. This will be done using the Create Polygon buttofrom the Draw Vector Toolset.

47. Enter a Polygon Centre ofX 110 Y 5, and a Radius of25 as shown:

48. Click the Create button and then the Close button.

on the card, and also for the text to wrap around. This will b

50. g the Left mouse button, and theAssistan

51. thing like this:===============

. This is

53.n, Bold Italic and Size 20 mm.

55.

56. an begin to edit the vectors to finish the design.

57. e we will begin by using the Vector Tools Toolbar.

58. It needs to be edited by mirroring the half tree and candles to produce the other side, then the whole tree has to

60.l vector, but we want to mirror them as a

62.y to select more than one.

olset.

49. A circle will be created to frame the Christmas Treedone using the Create Circle button from the Draw Vector Toolset.

Create a circle anywhere in the 2D View with a radius of80mm usinto enter exact figures.

The design looks some

52. We need to create the text for the front of the Christmas carddone using the Create Vector Text button. Click the Left mouse buttonsomewhere in the White Model space (2D View) to position the text.

Change the settings in the Font Selectordialog box to Times NewRoma

54. Type the words Merry Christmas.

The text will look like this:

We have now created the main vectors needed, and c

Vectors can be edited in several ways. In this exampl

be scaled so that it will fit inside the circle, and the whole design needsto be centred on the page.

59. Finally the text needs to be edited so that it follows the curve.First we need to group the half tree and the candles. At the momenteach section is an individuagroup.

61. Select the tree vector with the Left mouse button.

Select the six vectors making up the candles while holding down theShift ke

63. Select the Group button from the Group Vector To

64. `The vectors we have grouped need to be mirrored. This can be doneusing the Mirror Vectors button.

65. Make sure the group we have just created is selected.

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66. Check the box to Copy the Original Vectors.

67. Click the Mirror Horizontally Right button.

68. The design looks like this:

69. M) Now the Christmas Tree can be scaled to fit inside the circle.

ke up the tree need to be grouped. Vectors can be scaled using the Transform

g tan

e four sides allows the vectors to be stretched.

73.

the circle.

76. . In order tottons onat can

77.78. circle vector with the Left mouse button, and click the Centre

The first vector selected will b

81. with the Left mouse button.

e Align Vector Toolset.

earlier

Click the Wrap Text around a, Combine Trim Vectors Toolbar.

86. select the

t

89.

91. r the baubles on the Tree, and some stars

93:

70. First all the vectors that maVectors button.

71. NOTE: Alternatively since this is a grouped vector, in this case we can use the mouse interactively. Draggincorners allows the grouped vectors to be scaled (holding the Shift Key down ensures a proportional scale),

dragging any of th

72. Group all the tree vectors together. Open Transform Vectors.

Enter a New Height of150. ClickApply and then Close.

74. Using the mouse, move the grouped tree approximately insideUse the Shift key to stop the vectors snapping to the grid

75. The design looks like this:===========================

The tree and the circle now need to be centred on the pageposition the vectors exactly in the centre of the page, there are buthe Position, Combine Trim Vectors Toolbar for aligning vectors thbe used.

Firstly, we want the circle to be in the centre of the page.Select theIn Page button from the Align Vector Toolset.

79. Now the tree group of vectors needs to aligned to the centre of the circle vector.moved to the centre of the second vector selected.

80. Select the tree group of vectors first.

Hold the Shift key down and select the circle vector

82. Click the Centre Vectorbutton from th

83. The design looks like this:

84. Now the main vectors are in position, the text that was created

needs to be wrapped around the circle.Curve button from Position

85. It is important to select the curve first.

Select the circle vector with the Left mouse button and thentext while holding down the Shift key.

87. Make sure the Text Position is set to Base Line, the Text Alignment is seto Align to curve, and click the Select button at the top of the page.

88. Before exiting the Text on a Curve mode, the letters can be draggedaround the curve they have been wrapped onto using the Left mousebutton. This can be done either individually, as whole words or asseparate letters by using the options available at the bottom of the text

window.Note: Once Text on a Curve mode has been exited, the text can nolonger be edited in this way.

90. To finish the Christmas Card, simply add a few vectors.

Create some circle vectors foaround the page to finish the design.

92. The finished design looks like this:========================

Save this fi le as XmasCard.art

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Vector Editing Car Logo

Task 3: In this tutorial we will be going through how to use ArtCAMs vector fitting and editing tools in conjunctiowith a picture image. We wil vectors to an image so that we can

.

l explore different methods of fittingacquire vectors to be used when building the 3D relief. This process of fitting vectors to this image isdone mostly using the manual method but it will hopefully demonstrate to you how fast, easy and flexiblthe software can be for Vectorizing a raster image

Getting Started; Opening Image

We will begin the project by loading in the starting artwork-image that we are planning to use to acquire the design

1. Click on the Open

vectors.

file option in order to choose the image to load in.

2. Be sure to change the Files of type option in the open dialog box to display Bitmap files

4. e the units toinches and adjust the Height to be 1, Click OK to

ectorizing The Image

(*.bmp,*.pcx,*.gif,*.jpg,*.jpeg,*.tif).

3. Select and load the file called VWLogo.jpg.

On the Set Model Size page changaccept.

V

We will begin the project by getting the image ready to work with and then we will move onto manually drawing vectors t

urs Toolset use the Reduce Colours

fit the image.

From the Colo option and reduce the colours of the model from 53 to 2.The first few vectors that we will fit to the image are going to be the circular ring vectors. Be aware that the circles may n

circles we create all share a common centre point.

match up perfectly with the raster image.

We will ensure that everything is symmetrical later in the project so there is no need to worry if the vectors are not exactn the bitmap. It is more important that theo

1. Click Create circles from Draw Vector Toolset with the circle centre at X: 0.5X Y: 0.5 Start owith a circle Diameter size of 0.4 and hit the Preview button.

Use your own juimage. The circl

2. In the work screen area use the adjustment-sizing node to enlarge the size of this circle to match upwith the image.

dgement and create the circle to a size where we can move the vector around and adjust it to the logoe we ended up fitting was 0.675 Diameter.

3. Create the circle.

4. Close the circle creation menu.

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5. On the Layers Tab change the vector colour on the default layer to Pink so that there is a contrastbetween the vector and coloured image.

6. r and use the arrow keys to move and adjust it to better

7. me will position the vector fairly central in the raster image.

8. e Right Click Menu select the Edit Circle option. This will

9. Hit Apply to confirm that you want to leave a copy of this circular vector in the current position.

r size in order to create a vector for the next required

e X: 0.4963 and Y: 0.5075. The adjusted

12. satisfaction, hit the Create button in the circle editing menu.

r required.

14. Create button and Close the Circle Editing menu.

In the work area select this circular vectomatch the image.

Nudging it Up 2 times and to the Left 1 ti

With the circular vector selected, from threopen the Circle creation menu.

10. After this circle has been re-applied and created it is now possible to adjustthe circle to a largearea.

11. Sizing node has been circled in red to assist with sizing for the second circle.The new circle centre location will bcircle Diameter size is 0.8524.

Once adjusted to

13. Again use the sizing node, adjust a third circle to suite the final circular vecto

Hit the

15. To further help and assist with seeing the vectors in the 2D viewwork area try changing the slider bar on the 2D bitmap contrastlevel.

16. With the circles fitted to the logo we are now ready to move onto the centre of the logo and finishfitting the design vectors.

17. From the Draw Vector Toolset, select the Polyline Tool to begin tracing the inside detail. Start at thinside top of the logo and work your way down towards the bottom.

18. Review the pictures below to help get an idea of where and how to trace the inside details:Remember that using the TAB key when creating Polylinesis a fast way to close the shape. Dont worry about theoverlap of the vectors that you are about to trace sincethese will get trimmed shortly after all inner vectors arefitted.

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w is an image of all the inside vectorslogo.

Belofitted to the

In order to ensure that the vectors you have just fitted by hand are symmetrical to the centre point that is being used weare going to need to split the difference of the geometry that we have drawn.

Be aware: due to the fact that we have nudged and adjusted the original first circle we drew on this logo the main centrepoint for these vectors is no longer the centre of the model!!

To achieve the difference and ensure the shapes are symmetrical to the rest of the geometry we are going to use aspecial trick of mirroring the vectors about the true centre of the geometry, mirroring the vectors across this centreline anthen merging the results with the original. Doing this will ensure any deviations are removed and that everything issymmetrical.

ctors to the logo.

menu.

guideline to open the Position Guide menu.

7. guideline at the X value you recorded. This location should be the centre point for all ofdrawn.

8. he menu.

9. From the Draw Vector Toolset, select the Polyline Tool and draw a straight line vector through the

logo to split it in the X. When drawing this vector line: Watch for the snap curso

We must first figure out where the true centre of o r geometry lies.

1. Select the first circle that you drew when we began fitting ve

u

2. From Right Click Menu or using E on the keyboard open the circleediting menu.

3. Note-record the X value for the centre of the circle.

4. Close the circle editing

5. Drag a guideline into your2D work area from the Yaxis ruler.

6. Right mouse click on the

Position thisthe geometry that you have

Hit Apply and OK to close t

r to indicate yoe the CTRL key to allow you

In order to keep ggle off the guidelines.

10. At the intersection of the X and Y axis toggle the guideline visibility OFF.

are snapped on the guideline before you begin to draw the line and usdraw a straight line quickly.

things simple and clear you may wish to to

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11. Select the centreline first then V-shape vector at the top of the inside detail.

Open the Mirror Vectors menu12. .

Tick the Copy the Original Vectors check box and then use the About Line as your mirroring option.13.

14. Deselect all vectors by clicking off in a vector free area of the model.

the centreline vector first and then the.

A pe shape in the bottoto be necessary to ha

tre of the logo.

appears on the right hand side of the logo.

15. Now mirror the second set of vector geometry. Again selectingvector to be mirrored. Keep and use the same options as abov

16. Again deselect all vectors and move onto the next shape to mirror. Do the tycentre. For the two shapes left at the bottom outside of the W it is only goingone of them. This is due to the fact that these are located away from the cen

17. Delete the vector for this area that

Before we mirror the final shape across the centreline we need to verify the two areas where this vector intersects theinner circle.

You will want to make sure that the vector extends far enough past the circle vector sothat when the vectors are trimmed we end up with good results.

OK OK

18. Mirror the adjusted vector about the centreline.

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BAD --------------------------------

Now we need to address the double vectors in the three areas on the inside detailsof the logo that we just created using the mirror function.To do this we are going to use the Vector Merging function Weld Vectors. Doingthis will combine the two vectors together and basically leave us with nicesymmetrical vectors.

19. Start off at the top and select the two V-shaped vectors.

20. Use the Weld Vectorfunction to combine these two vectorstogether.

tor that a

21. Repeat the same process with the next set of double vec re in the shape of a W.

22. Finish off the merging process by doing the third area at the bottom thats shaped in the form of an

23. At this point it is now necessary to go around using the trimming tool to clean up all the areathat overhang the circle vector. In the diagram below we have done our best to outline all theapproximate areas that are going to need to be trimmed out using the scissors-trimming tool. Pleasekeep in mind some of the areas may require more attention-trimming then what is outlined in thediagram below.

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24. From Vectors Tools Toolbar, select the Trim Vectors toIntersections tool and begintion t

eget areas that need to be trimmed out:

The logo should appear as follows when you are complete with theabove step.

The vectors that have been fitted and trimmed to the inside details look ok but in reality theyare all individual little sections of vectors. The final step in getting these vectors fitted to thelogo is going to be joining them all together.

25. Select all the vector detail on the inside of the logo.

trimming the necessary areas. When finished this first trimming opera he vectors outlining theinside detail of the logo should look much cleaner. There is going to be a second trimming operatiorequired on these inside vector details. Before you trim these areas it would be a good idea to eithemove the centreline vector to a new layer or it could be deleted. The choice is yours. See the imagbelow for the tar

26. From the Join Vector Toolset, select Join vectors with coincident

start or end points .

he Number of Vectors Now and Number ofVectors After display to make sure that the defined tolerance is goidesire.

28. Hit the Join button.

29. Select each vector entity individually to verify that they are all now joinedis now complete.

27. Use a Tolerance of 0.01. Take a second to notice tng to join the vectors the way you

-closed vectors. This proje