Instructions for making a sign on the CNC Router

Finding Clip Art

1 Design a sketch of your sign on a sheet of paper.

•Determine Size

•Include Words (Make sure spelling is correct)

•Include graphics

•Make it proportional

•Have your design checked by your Instructor

2 Lets begin by finding some art for our sign.

Art can be hand drawn, from an internet source, from a clip art CD that has been purchased, or many other sources.

You can get art from any source you want as long as it is school appropriate.

If you choose to use an image off the internet, it can be either line art or clip art.

3 Differences between Line art and Clip art.

Line Art is single line drawings that are typical black in color

Clip Art is a painting or thick line drawings. Can also be a picture. 4 Both formats will work. They must be saved in a “dxf” file format or they can be saved in a “bitmap” file format and then converted.

You can bring your own clip art or line art if you have it on a USB Memory stick or you can follow these instructions and get an image off of the internet.

If you bring your own image skip to slide 12 and begin editing your image. If not continue on.

5 The following instructions should be done at home or any computer at school as an out of class assignment. Not until you get to the instructions indicating that you need VCarve Pro will you need to use the computer in

6 the Woods Lab. Go to a computer (any computer at home or school would be fine) and Google search for your Clip Art or Line Art that you would like for your sign.

7 Click on the design you want.

Right click and choose

“Save Picture As…”

8 “Save Picture “ box will open.

At the top, you will see a “Save in:” line

Click on the down arrow on the right and choose your student folder to save the image.

If you are not at school, save it to a “USB Memory stick” so you can bring it into school.

9 In the “File name:” line, give your image a name to save it as.

10 In the “Save as type;” line, you want to save it as a “JPEG” file if possible.

If you can’t save it as a “JPEG” it must be saved as a “Bitmap” file.

11 This step should be done on any school computer or at home only if you have “Paint.”

On most school computers, you can open your image and modify it.

Find your image, either in your school folder or on your USB Memory stick.

Left click on it and then right click on it and use the “Open With” line.

Open your image with “Paint”

12 When your image opens in “Paint”, click on the View tab at the top.

Zoom your image to either Large size or Custom

13 Tools

Use the tools on the right to modify the image the way you want it.

You can;

Fill in

Delete

Change Shape

14 When the image is formatted the way you want it, do a “Save As”

15 In the Save in” line, make sure you are saving it in your student folder

16 Give the image a name. The same name as before would be fine.

17 IMPORTANT You must save type as “Monochrome Bitmap”. If this format deletes to much of the image, you can save as a “16 Color Bitmap”

Monochrome Bitmap is the best

18 After your file as been saved as a “Monochrome bitmap” you can still do more editing. Use the tools on the right to add in some places or remove in others.

When you are finished editing your image, don’t forget to save and then close out of “Paint”

Tools

19 You can get more clip art for your sign if needed. Follow the previous steps to get more clip art.

or At this point you can begin designing your sign. To do this, follow the steps in “Making your sign 20 Design”