Vector Art Mega collection

[phil_o]

I'm considering purchasing the Vector Art Mega collection offered by Shopbot. Is it worth $299? If you own it I'd like to know if you are glad you bought it. It's hard to judge without seeing the collection.

[srwtlc]

Yes and no. It depends on what you do a lot of. There's a fair amount of stuff that can be v-carved , some that you can just cut on line with a small point cutting/V-bit, and some that you could scale up for sign/design work. You can explode and use just parts of the designs also. Then there's a lot of stuff that would be usefull mainly for vinyl cutting and laser engraving. I'd say that for me it's about a 50/50 thing. I really only spent $100 for it because I had two shopbot demos with a later purchase so I got $200 Shopbot dollars that I put towards it while at last years Jamboree.


Here's a gun box that I use a small point cutting roundover to cut the design 1/32" deep.

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[paco]

Nice work Scott!

[bleeth]

Phil: You can browse their collection here:
http://www.vectorart.com/
I have found that it can be a very useful tool for quick demos and frame borders. It's usefulness will definately hinge on your intended usage of your machine.

Dave

[matt_r]

Phil,
I too have found this collection useful. I'd say about 1/3 to 1/2 of the collection is useful to me as a shopbotter. Many of the borders are great, as well as some of the scenery. If I had to do it again though, I might just visit http://www.vectorart.com, and from there can buy it by the image. Usually $1 an image.
The price looks to be coming down on the whole collection. You might want to check out http://www.jsisign.com/products/clip_art.html They have both VectorArt I and II, for $149 and $199 respectively.

Regards,

Matt

[phil_o]

Thanks for the help, I bought the mega collection v.1. I'm happy with it. Is there a way to preview the images. I've got the book but often I like to see a preview before I import it into a project.

[Brady Watson]

Phil,
I use PaintShop Pro's Browse function to preview the AI and EPS files before I import them into PartWizard. It makes it easy to see what you are selecting when you are too lazy to get up and pull the book off of the shelf!


-Brady

[phil_o]

Brady,
I see we're afflicted by the same malady. Thanks

[sawkerf]

Scott, how did you "draw" the outline of the pistol and clip? I've got a nice new Smith & Wesson I'd like to make a case for.

[srwtlc]

Kip,

I do it either by scanning the the gun into CorelDraw and tracing it with the bezier tool, or I will take a drafting pencil and extend the lead out far enough to allow just the lead to touch the gun body and trace around it. I then scan that into CorelDraw and trace it with the bezier tools. After tweaking the outline, printing it out full size, and verifying that it will work, I use Vector to make the pockets at the various levels for the trigger, body , etc. I prefer the drafting pencil as it gives a better representaion of the gun shape. I will also use a circle the size of the bit that I'm going to use to drag around and check that I'll get into all the corners as needed.

I'm sure you could use a probe if you had one, but I don't. I can do it pretty quick with Corel though after doing as many as I have.

Get this, The one shown above (Glock 17 9mm) was actually my wifes Christmas present! I've got a Taurus 357 mag that I need to make one for sometime when I'm not makeing them for other people.

BTW, the lock opening in the bottom is cut from both sides and then plugged on the back.

Here's another that was fun to do.

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Scott

[sawkerf]

Very nice work! Thanks for the tip. Kip

[sawkerf]

Scott, What version of corel draw should I get? I don't have a clue. Thanks, Kip

[srwtlc]

Kip,

I've been using v12 lately and used v9 for quite a while before that. I really haven't had any big problems with either. I think the inbetween versions weren't quite as good, but I've never tried them. If you can find v9 anywhere you might save some money. V9 worked just as good as v12, but v12 has a nicer looking interface with XP. Both of them are poor .dxf exporters so I export as .eps and use TurboCad to save as a .dxf when needed (for Vector).

I made a CD of some short videos showing some of the basics of using Corel a little while ago for another shopbotter, if you would be intrested in one, email me for details.

Scott