PANELS BY DUG

Photo to Carbide Create

Lay a flat part on any plain surface with a ruler or caliper beside it, take one photo from above, enter its two caliper measurements, and get a true-scale .c2d with the outline and holes on their own layers. Add toolpaths in Carbide Create as usual.

STEP 1 Photo

Choose a photo or drop it here. JPEG or PNG. The sample below shows how it works.

How to take the photo

Lay the part flat on a plain surface that contrasts with it: a dark bench for bare or white metal, a light one for dark parts.
Put the ruler or caliper beside the part, not touching it, so the part's outline stands on its own.
Shoot straight down from 2–3 ft with the camera zoomed to 2×. That keeps the part's edges from leaning.
Use soft, even light with no hard shadows. A shadow traces as part of the part.
Caliper the overall size: X is left to right as the part lies in the photo, Y is top to bottom.

STEP 2 Measure

X: left to right Y: top to bottom Units

Enter the overall X and Y off the caliper. The four dots should sit on the part's outer corners (for a rounded corner, where the two straight edges would meet). Drag a dot to fix it. A zoomed view appears while you drag.

STEP 3 Trace

Cutout layerHoles layer

Edge sensitivity Smoothing (mm) Ignore specks under (mm)

Hole size rounding Round holes become true circles Mirror (photo of back side)

STEP 4 File

File name Stock thickness Material

The zip holds .c2d for Carbide Create, plus SVG and DXF copies for other programs. The file opens with the Shapeoko 5 Pro selected and no toolpaths. Check critical dimensions with calipers before cutting.