Help with TorchMate

[fixinto]

I am a teacher and just bought a Torchmate 2 for my Industrial Maintenance class. We put it together and have it running. My question is do we have to use the cad design software that came with the Torchmate. It requires a dongle which I think is a lot of trouble, especially if it were to get lost or damaged. I called Torchmate and they wanted $150 for another one. I am guessing but can I use any design software and import into Torchmate cutting software?
Thanks

[Metal Lee]

Hi Fixinto,

You should be able to use any design software as long as you can save the file in an extention that your cutting software will support eg. .dxf, .plt, .svg.
What file extention will your cutting software support?
Personaly I use Corel Draw X3 and it works well for me.

[fixinto]

The design software is Torchmate Cad. It requires a security dongle. The cutting software is Torchmate 3. It is a seperate program. I have access to a AutoCad Light and was wondering if I could use it to create the designs. Torchmate Cad allows me to save files as .dxf but the instructions for a sample drawing says to save as "polyarc" dxf. I am not sure what that is.
I have only used the cad a couple of times and didn't know if I had to use that program or if I could use another design program and it still work with my cutting table.
Thanks for the reply

[fixinto]

did you buy the software from torchmate?? for about 950.00 if so it comes with the dongle have you used autocad ?? you can use any cad software to make your dxf files the torchmate software is easy to edit the dfx before saving to cut the item. The torchmate comes without any cad program to make files this is an extra it does come with a cut program pics below the other pic is of the cad program that you need the dongle did you buy the cad program ??

I bought the torchmate 2 kit. It came with the software. the software is good except for the dongle. i am afraid something may go wrong with the dongle or it may get lost. i keep it in my pocket. i guess i could lock it up. i just think since i paid for the program it shouldn't have the security device. anyway, i see a lot of you are using corel draw. does it have much of the same commands,i.e. make path, make cut path, show cut path etc. i have autocad light and have not figuired out how to tell it to make cut path or make path. i have a friend that may be able to show me how to set autocad up. i'm not completely lost just a little aggrevated at torchmate. they want $150 for another dongle for a backup. if i was not in a school enviornment i would not worry. i do like the program. the instructions that came with the torchmate cad program are really vage. i think playing with it i can figure it out though. thank you for your replies. you guys seem like you know a lot. i'm just starting and will probably have a million questions.

[admin]

Since your in a school environent AutoCad makes the most sense to learn as it is the "industry standard". It would be beneficial for your students to learn.

Save your AutoCad design as a .dxf type file and your Torchmate cutting application should be able to read it and cut the parts.

Hope you continue to find this forum useful.

Admin

[fixinto]

Thanks. I agree with the autocad program. I will try to create something and see if my torchmate cutting program will import it. the torchmate design program has too many steps to set cut paths etc. after you design a drawing. Hope this works.

[admin]

Good luck, let us know how it goes.

admin