Ahead, below, somewhere here are 15 pictures showing the basic steps I go through to redraw MIKE 41's drawings which are in PDF format. The program I use accepts the pdf's but will not create a "Toolpath" for the CNC to follow. Well actually it could BUT it would follow EVERY single line in the drawing! So what I need is a single line drawing.
In this image the whole pdf has been imported, the white area is 297x210 mm / 11.5x 8 in. All I am concerned with is the parts including the spreader bar.
Demo 2, everything other than what is in this image has been deleted and the page changed to 4x12 in. the size of the board they will be cut out from.
Demo 3, the part in pink has been selected........
Demo 4, part 1,1 being selected has been "Grouped" i.e. clicking on any area selects the entire part as opposed to a small part if NOT grouped, and all other parts moved out of the way so that I have a clean work area.
Demo 6, Lines are drawn around the part using the slanted "Z" tool on the left above middle, this is the most laborious task as a line is drawn to match each "Facet", see the facets in DEMO 8, then grouped.
Demo 7, mmm, seem to have jumped a step, I move the part number out of the way, a lot easier to work on the main part.
Demo 8, shows the original part with the new lines overlaid. Much later I removed all the circles as I will drill them later at assembly time.
Demo 9 shows a closeup of one end, once again, much later I shifted the pink vertical line to the outside of the oblique facet. See note at end end.
Demo 10, original selected for deletion.
Demo 11, finished.
Demo 11a, all parts with the exception of two have an opposite, in this case 1,1 has 1,7, so instead of redrawing all I have to do is create a copy.
Demo 11b, copy created by simply selecting then copy and paste (ctrl-C then ctrl-V) then use the cursor keys to shift it.
Demo 11c, see Mirror choices in Demo 11a on left. The part is flipped horizontally, the number changed and the original deleted.
Demo 12, shows all the parts relevant to Frame 1 positioned on a 4x12 in "board" ready to be cut out using a 3mm End Mill cutter, the G-Code for this image takes up 118 A4 pages (single column) !
Note at end end. After changing the drawings so thet the lines are on the outside, when I onverlaid the parts onto the full frame I found that the parts were overlapping increasing the overall length of the frame by almost a 1/4 inch, nothing that can't be fixed at time of assembly.
Hope you found this enlightening.