Try app.easel.com
It’s a 2d program that makes it really easy to do profile cuts.
Convert your file to svg, import it, and then resize it to whatever you need.
I used easel to do engraving. It works well with carbide motion.
I down loaded easel and imported my .svg It’s really tiny. The size of my leaf is 1/2 inch. So I can’t even see it in easel. I don’t see what I can do to navigate in the program. I closed easel and now I can find it. It’s not in my applications. I have it in downloads. Have any suggestions?
Easel is an online application, not a program you download. So just go back to app.easel.com
And you can change the workspace size you want. Click on machine, and then change the size (which is 12" by 12") to whatever size your workpiece is. Then you should be able to see it.
Thanks Darren Do you not think mesh cam is going to work? I’ve been going over the 2D tutorial and the parameters just don’t fit my application. I can’t put the tool I want because it’s not listed, and the specs. for the bit aren’t available. the material isn’t listed, and I don’t know what gauge the metal is. Feed rate should be low, I don’t have anything to compare it too. plunge rate, I’m not finding a glossary of these terms. As far as easel is concerned, I really don’t need to see anything in the program because I don’t need to alter the design. I just need to know that the machine sees my drawing and can interpret the size, and how deep to cut. I don’t want to turn everything outside the perimeter to dust. Do you know if the wrench mesh cam settings are available? I really need to be in the ball park so my trial and error can at least be comprehended.
any thoughts?
Why don’t you email me your svt file and I’ll play around with it in meshcam.
And I have some micro cutters coming next week so I’ll have some new tool data that may work for you.
I’ll send you a private message with my email
Picture is fixed! For some reason the svg file you made wasn’t being recognized by MeshCam (or Easel for that matter.) I fixed it in photoshop, converted it to svg, and just emailed it to you. Here it is opened in mesh cam:
Now just let us know what your plan is in terms of material you want to cut it out of etc., and I can help you through the rest 
And I just clicked on tool path, only checked pencil cleanup, made the margin O, and here is a cut-out path you’re looking for:
Well, that’s almost the tool path he’s looking for 
You should probably do water-line passes first, and then pencil, but you’ll need to specify the actual stock size correctly to help make sure it goes all the way around the object in the way intended.
I’m working on a brass project currently too, so should have a tutorial up for everyone on it as soon as I can wrap up!
-Jonathan
Hi Jonathan
are you making any progress on that tutorial for your brass project?
Hi Michael,
I did make some progress, and then broke all my teeny cutters, had Maker Faire, etc. and had let that go fallow, sorry about that!
I’ll post some images tomorrow from the project and the settings that I found did work and didn’t break anything!
-Jonathan
thanks Jonathan
I can’t wait to try it out
any progress to report on the sheet brass project? Is there a way to look at the settings for the wrench? My projects are cutting out a contour like the wrench but also to engrave a design on the top. It would be similar to a brass dog tag. One the shape of a bone with the dogs name on it. I didn’t think it was going to be this hard. any suggestions?
@newmichael Give app.easel.com a try. I’ve been using it quite a bit for my wooden baby rattles and teethers, and have successfully done engraving and cutting with it.
In Easel, you just set the cutter size (so .125 or .063 or whatever) and you manually set the feed and depth per cut. I’m not sure what settings are good for brass, but I would assume a slow speed (like 10 or 20ipm) and a high spindal RPM (like 9000)
To engrave, what you can do is add the text and set the depth to something very shallow - say .005. It will cut to that depth, which will essentially be engraving.
After the engraving cut, then do a separate cut for the profile.
Hi Darren
thanks for responding. I went to easel to see that I’d been there already and my project was loaded. It didn’t seem to work for me. I couldn’t seem to navigate it to do what I wanted. I’ll try again, but there’s this big black dot in the middle that I can’t figure out.
Hi Darren I went back and saw that your tried to help me once before with easel. Lot’s of trial and error. I’ll look for a tutorial, if you know of one, send a link. I’m lost. thanks again for your help.
@newmichael what time zone are you in? I’m east cost. I am going to be fiddling with my nomad tonight so we can hop on a Skype call and I can walk you though it. Send me a private message with your id and I’ll add you.
Hi Darren thanks so much for your offer. I’m on the west coast. I would much rather just call you. Skype on a lap top while I have a program open, specially a web based program with bandwidth issues seems hard. Let me know if that would be at all possible to call. If you prefer Skype and think that will work, I’ll download that program, I’ve used it once years ago. It wanted to mount every time I turned on my computer. It was a bitch to get rid of. That was years ago and I have a little more knowledge but barely. I’ll check to see how to send a private message. thanks
@newmichael just responded to your private message - included my phone number. Let’s chat this evening after 6pm your time / 9pm my time.
Darren
Hi Jonathan
any progress on the brass tutorial? Darren tried to help but I’ve hit the wall with trial and error. I’m trying to cut out a leaf in 24 gauge brass with a V groove bit. I’ve got 40 images in my files all failed. .svg .png .stl .nc .dwg white line on black background, black on white, just black line with background removed. Then theres mesh cam settings. I’ve tried easel I’m lost… I’m afraid to open the file
Hi Michael,
Alas, I’ve been tied up and haven’t had opportunity to play much with my Nomad, been running the So3 a fair but cutting MDF & PP lately (what a mess they make!) but haven’t made it back to brass yet.
However, the holidays are coming and I do want to do some holiday gift projects, so I may yet get to it soon here.
To help me tailor whatever I do as far as documentation to what you’re trying to do, can you PM me some of your working files so I can see what you’re working on?
Thanks!
-Jonathan