ArtCAM Tips & Tricks

ArtCAM Tips & Tricks

Below are a few little gems, written by our dedicated software engineers to help you use your ArtCAM software. These tips and tricks are just a taster of what is available in the customer training courses, ArtCAM User Groups and our ArtCAM Advantage site.

1 - Changing the start point in ArtCAM Express:

In Express you can change the start/plunge point of a toolpath by changing the start point of the vector.

ArtCAM Insignia, Pro and JS have options to interactively change the plunge point, however in Express this must done manually from the vectors.

To do this select the vector and press N to enter node editing. Right click on the node you want to be the plunge point and choose Start Point. Next calculate your toolpath.

2 - How Open GL2 works with ArtCAM:

OpenGL2.0 makes ArtCAM even faster & more responsive. If your computer is OpenGL2.0 compliant and you have ArtCAM 2009 you can benefit from these changes.

This is how it works: Relief data has been encoded in a cleverer way so that the amount of data that needs to be exchanged between the PC and the graphics card is reduced. As the relief content changes ArtCAM re-encodes it to represent the relief shape more efficiently using as few triangles as possible, while maintaining the quality of the visible model within a fixed tolerance. We use the processor on the graphics card to calculate some of the maths we need to draw the relief in 3D. This reduces the load on the CPU (Central Processing Unit), and can occur in parallel. In addition the performance now improves with the available power of the PC hardware (in particular the graphics card).

The default tolerance of your toolpaths may not be suitable for all so try changing them if you encounter difficulties

3 - Font types in ArtCAM:

ArtCAM allows the designer to use a number of font types to create their text based artwork. Not only does ArtCAM use all True Type fonts that are installed on your computer but any other True Type fonts that are downloaded and/ or installed from other programs. These appear in ArtCAM’s font list with the letters TT in front of the font name to denote they are true type fonts.

Because ArtCAM also allows you to design your own fonts with the Font Editor these fonts appear at the beginning of the fonts list with the letter A in front of them.

4 - Nesting multiple copies of a vector:

In Nesting it is possible to make multiple copies of one of your vectors. Simply select the vector you want nesting and then enter the required number of copies in the Part Count box and hit Apply. This will nest your desired number of copies while nesting all other selected vectors as usual.

5 - Importing PDF's into ArtCAM.

While importing the PDF files ArtCAM does not convert or create the vectors from the Bitmap. Instead PDF's that contain vectors are imported to vectors in ArtCAM, similarly PDF's that contain bitmaps are imported to bitmaps. PDF's that contain both are imported to both in ArtCAM.

If you would like to find out more about ArtCAM Advantage and the benefits it can bring to your business please visit the website or contact your reseller.

ArtCAM also offers a number of training courses, please contact your reseller for more information.

* *Delcam is not liable for any 3rd party software installed.