[Tormach]

We have a new product that is nearly ready for release and we’re looking for beta testers who might want to get involved. Many people are familiar with the technique of putting a USB web cam on the machine and using it for an optical center. We’ve moved upscale, with a TTS mount and a USB microscope. It has dual focus so it acts as either a close focus web cam or a 200X microscope.

The video optical centering tool is just a third of the system. The second part is a Mach3 plugin that uses the USB camera as a scanner, building up a very high resolution image as a mosaic of individual images. The integration with the mill control results in very accurate images and the scaling factors are integrated into the image file.

The final part of the system is a 2D CAD program that can take in the scaled mosaic images, allowing both accurate measurements to be made as well as overlay drawings. The drawings can be saved as DXF files for use in CAM programs. If you’ve ever played with Google Earth, where you can zoom back and see the globe, but then zoom in and indentify individual buildings, streets, or even cars, you have an idea of how it works. You can zoom out to see the whole image, as big as your machine XY envelope if you like, then zoom in and identify features that are smaller than 0.002”.

The purpose of all this is to help people trying to repair, rebuild, or replace something they have in hand. Whether it’s creating a mechanical interface to an electronic part, replacing a gear in an antique clock, or manufacturing a new component in an antique gun, anything 2D can be scanned and then accurately documented with this system.

Andy has posted more info on the Tormach blog site at www.tormach.com/blog/. Contact Andy if you’re interested. The final release of the product will probably be in the 4th quarter of 2009, but we're looking for beta testers right now.

Greg Jackson
Tormach

[keen]

Brilliant product! Really looking forward to the release. This should have a huge market beyond tormach users. Will this be the first affordable Scanner/Cad package? Its the first one I have heard of.