For those of you who cut metal art

[Metriccar]

Do you make your own metal art DXF files? Or buy/or convert images/or have someone design it for you?

Let's take for example DXF files found on Cascade Metal Designs. They are highly detailed. How many of you that run your own table do your own drawings like that? Do you get a customer ask for something like a moose in front of a tree so you draw one up yourself?

[wickedinhere]

I have all the Signtorch files and Jason's files they are well worth the money. I can normally create just about any file i need using those but sometime still need the help of plasma spider. I also use dxf graphics files.

[yeomansjon]

I think the answer here all depends on the person. Some people are more artistic than others. There are many different styles of creativity. They also have talent in different areas. I find that I am most talented in technical problem solving, fabrications, machine and tool use, etc. I am NOT talented in hand drawing or computer drawing an artistic picture. For a good laugh, i can demonstrate someday upon request. Therefore, I stick my own method where i start with what the customer wants. I break it down into these steps:

1. What type of 'thing' do you want? i.e. - wine rack, coat hangar, wall art, toilet paper holder, etc...
2. What 'theme/genre' would you like the design? i.e. dog, flower, moose, truck, tribal, swimmer, etc...
3. What customization do you want? i.e. Your last name included, inspirational text, memorial, other text, etc...
4. What finish do you want? i.e. Powder coat flat black, painted, metal patina w/ clear coat, bare metal, etc.

Step 2 and 3 are the hard part, but also the most fun. I take the requested theme and the customization aspect and start my search. I have the full Cascade collection, so I start there. The Signtorch collection is my next buy, awesome files there as well. Most of the time, I find a good Vector file I like and I use Adobe Illustrator to convert it to an outline that exports to dxf. I do all the design work in Autocad, attaching and connecting all the bits and pieces. I can't afford Designedge software for the plasmacam but I do pretty well in Autocad anyway.

That being said, I always challenge myself to improve my own artistic ability. I have been using Illustrator to hand trace photos to come up with some cool looking designs. Gary at Signtorch uses a Wacom Cintiq to hand draw most of his stuff. When I save up enough, I may try that out. But again, my hand drawing is brutally terrible so that is far away in the making.

Everyone has their niche, figure out what you are good at and focus on that but keep challenging yourself in areas you are not good at. That will keep you from getting bored!

As my g/f says "Let there be sparks!" -Happy Cutting.

[OTHill]

I have the Sign torch collection and the Cascade collection.Great collections both of them.I use some files as is but I'm doing more and more piecing together of files using Corel draw.

[Granite]

I have years of experience with Photoshop but was clueless about working with vectors when I bought my machine 18 months ago.

I'd say the first six months I used third party vector files exclusively. Then I started getting comfortable modifying third party files, adding custom text, and integrating 2 or more files to build my own composite design.

In the last six months I've become very comfortable and am starting to do designs from a blank slate. I'm doing at detailed London phone box right now for a Christmas gift. I drew it up last night and just finished cutting all the pieces tonight. (Walls, windows, and top section.) Not sure how to do the roof yet, (bending a flat piece of metal into compound curves) If I figure that one out, I hope to finish with assembly and powder coat this weekend. If it looks good, I'll post the pics here.

So at this point I am very comfortable working with vector files. But I lack the artistic talent to do animals, faces, vehicles, Etc. Most of my work is done in Aspire. (It may be overkill for someone only interested in plasma cutting. But its a good investment if you plan on doing a lot of router work.) What I do most now is purchase silhouette jpegs from iStock Photo and convert them to dxf for integration in custom orders.