The three corners of the cover can be rounded over slightly by invoking the 'Round' command. Now that the trussrod cover is starting to look roughed out, lets refine the shape a little. While this can be reversed so that the arc is drawn clockwise by changing the drawing preferences, it is quicker to remain in anticlockwise notation while the command is still active from the first arc. Clicking top to bottom would generate an arc facing the opposite direction. This is because the Arc command relies on an anticlockwise rotation when being defined. Note that this time we have gone from bottom to top. Left-click the lower-right corner of the rectangle and click again at the top of the centreline. The mirror image can be drawn while the Arc command is still active.
To complete drawing the arc click on the lower-left corner of the rectangle. While the end of the arc is 'attached' to the cursor, click in the Angle box at the top of the screen and type '45'. Using the object oriented snaps click on the top of the centreline to start drawing an arc. Type 'a2' to start the 'Arc With 2 Points and Angle' command. To achieve this we will take advantage of object oriented snaps again. To give the trussrod cover a bit more visual appeal we will curve the sides in a kind of bullet shape. Right-click to stop drawing additional Line segments and right-click again to cancel the Line command. Click the middle of the top edge to start drawing the line and click again on the middle of the bottom edge to complete the line. In our case we will draw a line from the middle of the top edge to the middle of the bottom edge of the rectangle. Other object-oriented snaps include the centre of a circle, an intersection between two objects or the end of a line, amongst others. This is an automatic object-oriented snap that allows us to select a key property of items already drawn on the screen with absolute accuracy. By moving the yellow cursor near the top edge of the rectangle you will note that the word 'Middle' appears. Same as we did to invoke the 'Rectangle' command, type 'li' to activate the 'Line' command. Click the right mouse button to cancel the Rectangle command or press. In this example it is handy to draw a centreline for our trussrod cover. These are erased when the drawing is complete. Often when drawing in CAD packages, it is useful to add guidelines to help you work. The rectangle is drawn on the screen with the exact dimensions of 35mm x 45mm. In the command line window type '35,45' and press. To complete the rectangle command we also need to specify the coordinates of the upper-right corner. With the rectangle command still active, click in the command line window where it requests 'First corner:' and type '0,0' (note the comma separating the two zeroes) and press. The command line at the bottom of the screen indicates that the rectangle command is waiting to for the user to specify the coordinates of the lower-left corner of the rectangle. The cursor will change to a set of yellow crosshairs, indicating a command has been invoked and is active. The keyboard shortcut, typing 're' activates the 'Rectangle' command. To begin with, we will draw a rectangle with dimensions of 35mm by 45mm. The underlying methods are unchanged of course. I am working in Metric, however if you choose to work in Imperial units it is easy to switch between the two units of measurement in the program Preferences. On opening QCAD the user is presented with a blank document.
#QCAD CAM ADD ON MAC#
This enables users to get to grips with the basics, and is reasonably easy for a CAD novice to understand. QCAD is also cross-platform compatible available on Windows, Mac or Linux machines, and it includes a basic CAD -> CAM interface adequately servicing our needs.
#QCAD CAM ADD ON SOFTWARE#
The software is relatively inexpensive (licenses start at 33EUR) and is available for a resettable trial period. For this tutorial we will focus on QCAD by Ribbonsoft.
#QCAD CAM ADD ON FREE#
Numerous CAD and CAM packages are available to the user, from free to painfully expensive. The simplest difference is that CAM takes work produced in CAD and uses it as the basis for a real-world manufacturing process. CAM software on the other hand is not so familiar. Let's go!ĢD or even 3D CAD software is familiar to the majority of people, with packages like AutoCAD or TurboCAD.
#QCAD CAM ADD ON SERIES#
In the final instalment of this introductory series we will set the machine to work creating a simple truss rod cover from scratch using Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Computer Aided Machining (CAM) software.
In the previous article about the small CNC router we set up and calibrated the CNC machine so that each axis was tuned to provide accurate and reliable operation ready for machining real life parts and components.
0 kommentar(er)
