CNC: from the drawing to the machine

A CNC job from a drawing

V-carve a sign

From a picture to a carving

A photo carved as lines and as dots

A relief from a depth picture

Controls: switches, rules and motors

A slide turned back at each end by limit switches and rules, a control panel of buttons, lamps and an alarm running a barrier arm, and a beam that counts pegs and steps a dial.

Drawing and snapping

How drawing works: click or type a size at any time, shapes, a real part outline, points that wake up and the lines through them, every kind of snap, angles taken from a line, and the small things that save time.

Editing: change it without drawing it again

Corners rounded and cut, outlines offset, pieces trimmed and joined, parts moved, copied, turned and mirrored, holes repeated in rows and circles, parts stretched, sizes locked, assemblies, layers, and the room working parts need. Then shapes made from shapes: welded, cut away, kept where they overlap, and tidied for cutting.

Every tool, shown

All forty-four tools in the palette, each demonstrated by the program itself on a scratch drawing, with the tool's name, its key and what it does beside it. Chapters for every tool.

From a blank drawing to a cut part

One job all the way through: a jig plate drawn from nothing with every size typed, made a CNC job (holes, a pocket, the outline on tabs), its G-code written, and the cut watched in the simulator.

How to, and things that move

The program's demonstrations of snapping, typing sizes, angles, editing and notes, then the fourteen on things that move: joints, motors, springs, weight, struts, and parts that stop each other.