The Use of AutoCAD for Precision Die Cutting Designs
Digital Fabrication: When AutoCAD Met Die Cutting
If a compact steel rule die machine represents the tooling side of this partnership, then a computer workstation is the brain. Deprived of instructions, however, that computer is just an expensive paperweight. It's the software package inside the computing brain that facilitates the design process. Drawn inside the AutoCAD workspace, intricate illustrations form quickly when the application's user interface is mastered. From there, the virtual blueprint is translated into code, sent to the die cutting workshop, and decoded. Consequently, the die cutting assembly is directed by these special codes, directed to physically recreate the same pattern that was rendered on the computer monitor.
AutoCAD Advantages: Calling All Die Cutting Technology
Inexpensive hobbyist machines use downloadable software packages and online pattern uploaders to work die cartridges. Larger commercial services do much the same, except it's AutoCAD that supplies the pattern-producing muscle in this large-scale scenario. The CAD package automatically generates arcs, curvilinear shapes, and all of the other intricate patterns that go into a polished die cut product, one that's made of metal, premium cardstock, or some other client-mandated medium.
Leveraging Computer Functionality
Back at the networked computer room, a lead designer has decided to leave his pencil and pad in his desk drawer. The keyboard click-clacks continually, maybe with an occasional pause as the data file updates. That's the kind of workflow taking place in contemporary die cutting shops today. The files are even sent digitally by clients. They're then decoded by AutoCAD and improved upon by the CAD professional, at which point it's added to a database and saved for future use.
Precision die cutting designs are now catered for by digital technology. The fabrication methods still begin as a seed idea in a designer's mind, but that germinating idea is drawn inside the AutoCAD UI or a similarly prolific computer aided drafting program. From there, the two-dimensional concept is non-destructively manipulated and updated. At the end of the day, however, it's the die cutting equipment that translates the computer-rendered concept into intricate shapes, again and again, until the client has multiple identical copies of precisely cut media.
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