WELCOME!


It is hard to believe that it was only seven years ago I witnessed a CNC router in action for the very first time. I was fascinated and simply had to have one! Although I had been in the creative end of the three dimensional sign business for most of my life I didn't really know what I would do with one - but I just knew it could do fantastic stuff.

Through extensive research I quickly found out that with the relative simplicity of EnRoute, CNC routers were capable of just about anything imaginable. This journal will chronicle that journey to date and continue each week with two or three entries as we continue to explore just what is possible with this wonderful software... -dan

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Mining for GOLD

The old time logo was drawn in Illustrator and then imported into EnRoute. It was a bit rough, especially on the droll but I planned to redraw that portion in any case.


The first order of business was to add a border around the letters. This was done using the outline tool.


A second, much wider outline was added to form part of the outline of the sign.


I then traced the various layers of the scroll.



Then it was time to start building reliefs beginning with the sign background.


I aded a bitmap texture to the background using a small portion of the horizontal sandblasted wood pattern.


The letter border was then created as a new relief, nudged to the proper height in relation to the background relief and then merged highest.




The small lettering was then created by modifying the base relief using the bevel tool.


Then it was time to create the big lettering making the bevel a little larger.


 Then I created the various levels of the scroll, one level at a time. Once I was done they were combined with each other and then the base relief.







The last item of business was to add the lettering on the scroll.




The file is now ready to tool path and then send to the MultiCam. I'll be routing two of these from a 2" thick piece of 30 lb Precision Board. Once they are routed I have a trick up my sleeve to do something different to the cut pieces. Stay tuned...

-dan