Where are the CDR File Formats?

Number one question I get in chat on CNCKing.com is “can I get it for free” and can you guess what the second one generally is? Where are the CDR File Formats?

I find this a very odd question as in all reality, you don’t need CDR file formats when I offer AI (Adobe Illustrator) and EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) formats for all the designs on the site, you can easily import that and host of other file formats into Corel Draw and even more so, if you don’t want to buy Corel Draw, you can download a free program like Inkscape that is essentially the same but open source.

This raises a larger issue though – a severe lack of training and “play time” within the CNC industry for people entering the field and/or buying machines. I don’t have this problem with professionals… I have these issues with people in their garages.

The reason I got “good” at designing stuff for CNCs is because I played with it, I spent countless hours teaching myself what worked and what didn’t… I talk to people visiting my site and generally, the machine is dumped at their doorstep and they expect to magically press a button and automatically it will cut awesome designs for them that they don’t need to know anything about how to design or optimize.

This stuff isn’t rocket science, although you can design a rocket using these machines…

That’s David Newman’s awesome Rocket design by the way, you can find it under Collaborations / CNC Laser / David Newman.

I’ve been told that I’m very analytical…

To me, it makes no sense to buy a 50-200K CNC laser, router or plasma cutter if you aren’t willing to learn HOW to use it and HOW to optimize your files for it. There is such an incredible amount of wastage… I’ve just never understood it and I don’t think I ever will. The amount of wasted material on a CNC router is one thing but for a laser, really, there should be next to none when cutting out a design. You are eating a one-way resource, tube power… why not try to conserve as much of it as possible – this has a direct effect on your overall machine ROI and your time… you can save a lot of time optimizing!

What boggles my mind even more is that so many people balk at the idea of buying my book to learn HOW to do this stuff because it’s 35-55$US (depending on where you buy it)… so they are buying a high-end luxury car and can’t be bothered to read the manual and learn how to drive first.

I was talking to another guy earlier today who was wondering why one of my designs – proven and tested – didn’t interlock well. He swore up and down that his material was 6 mm because Home Depot told him so… I told him to take a picture with digital calipers and send it to me – of course, he didn’t have those so he went out and got a set. 8 mm… hmmm… the first thing you do before you even focus your laser should be to measure the material you are about to cut, if anything, to have an optimal cutting path. So, he had to throw everything away and cut again. I wasn’t very impressed.

I remember last week, a customer asked me why he can’t cut a 3D printer file with his CNC laser – he wanted me to convert my STL file format into a… you guessed it… CDR file format for his laser. What? His machine was easily worth 80K$US and he thought you could 3D print with a 3-axis laser, somehow generate an additive model using a subtractive method? I’d be impressed if he had a 5-axis machine but even those use STL or IGS (IGES) – the Corel Draw request was a dead giveaway. Luckily for me, most people with 5-axis machines actually know what they are doing so that was another clue that he didn’t know what he was doing.

I do have some definite ideas beyond books to help bring people up to speed FAST but if people have an issue reading a book – I doubt paying for a video series would go any better. I could show you how to do awesome stuff on a Trotec Laser but if you have a Chinese laser with a glass tube linked to a water bucket for cooling, all you will learn from the videos is ENVY and be right back where you started… asking me for a refund because I didn’t do a demo specific to YOUR machine as what I was showing just wasn’t possible on theirs.

Ah, the joys of the CNC industry… I will be sure to add a “joke section” to my next book… some of this stuff is hard to type much less read with a straight face.