Tutorial overview: Drawing with CNC Stylus

In this series, we will show you how to complete a large drawing project from start to finish using CNC Stylus and SmartBench.

What we will make

Our project is to make a sign mounting guide. This is a drawing on a large piece of paper (this will allow us to easily drill holes for stand-offs, align and mount the sign on the wall).

Process overview

Here’s a flow chart to illustrate the processes involved, followed by links to each article in this tutorial.

These are the areas we will cover:

CAD/CAM file generation

• Generating files for drawing

• Job setup

• Drawing features

• Toolpath assignment

• Exporting a job file

• Transferring files to SmartBench

CNC Stylus preparation

• Good pens to use, and their characteristics

• Loading the pen into CNC Stylus

SmartBench preparation, tool set & operation

• A good spoil board to draw on

• Holding the paper down to draw on

• Setting the X Beam

• Loading CNC Stylus into SmartBench

• Setting the XY datum

• Setting the Z datum

• Starting the job

• Tool changing for drawing

• Finishing the drawing job

Top tips

• Top 5 drawing mistakes

How to work through this tutorial

There are a number of ways to work through this tutorial with us. Either:

• Work through our Knowledgebase articles in order. The tutorial is broken down into a series of bitesize articles. We show the video for that article, written stages and we link to any resources you may need.

• Or, follow the YouTube videos:

  • Combination video (click here)