Hi, would you be willing to try out a plugin I wrote for Mach 4? It’s called Paper Tools.

You place a drawing on your work piece and my software generates gcode based on recognized handwritten or printed text and targets

You can see a video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXUucUiLXC0

What you’ll need
You’ll need to attach a webcam to your router facing downward toward the work surface. You need Mach 4. It should take about 15 minutes to get up and running. If you can print out a PDF on a standard piece of paper that’s a bonus, but Paper Tools does handwriting recognition so that’s fine too.

What does it do?
Drill, Bore, Slot, Pocket, and any gcode you upload. Cut on the spots that you show the machine.

What it costs
Free.

Is it reliable?
My repeatability tests get +/- 002". Other than that please try it out and let me know your experience!

Is this from a big company?
Nope, I’m just a guy who wrote some software. You’ll get the kind of support I can give a small number of people early to the game who want to try out something new.

What to expect
This is BETA software, I’m looking for feedback and your help improving the system. Please don’t use this software on expensive materials. You should be an early adopter, lover of technology. Ideally you’re frustrated with how even simple things can be so hard to accomplish with CNC and you’re willing to give Paper Tools a whirl.

Are we close?
I am based near New York City. If you have a shop around here and would like to work together, I’d be happy to come by and get you set up. I might even bring you a free camera to keep.

Thanks so much, I hope I meet a few people who like this approach.

Brett

I wrote about this project last April:
https://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php?topic=47343.0

And now I’m ready to have a few more people try out the software which you can download from [www.papertools.ai](http://www.papertools.ai/)

Here’s a quick video to give you an idea of how with just a piece of paper, you can create holes in your material right where you show the video camera:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPxif78-hsE

You can print out paper tools, or even just write directly on your material. The vision software recognizes your handwriting, navigates your Avid machine to determine the exact position of the visual targets and generates GCode for Slots, Bores, Pockets, Drills. You can also bring your own GCode to work with any CAD model you make.

Some “Paper Tools” I’ve created include a bowtie template, a hole saw kit, and coming soon a lettering cut-out and engraving package. Next up: a full interface to design Paper Tools in Fusion360 and place them directly on your material.

Lemme know what you think!!

In my last post (https://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php?topic=47672.new#new), I mentioned the Paper Tools software I’m working on, which uses a video camera, connects to Mach 4 and sees your marks and measurements to control your CNC.

Now here’s a video showing a new user interface, and step-by-step guide to getting started. I’ve been asked about how to install, how to mount a camera, and what kinds of everyday operations you can do like drills, holes, slots, pockets and patterns. These are useful when working with real-world materials that aren’t easy to model in CAD.

https://youtu.be/dCbrlCLzZ4U?si=42fzArcymHcgd2fz


I would really love to help anyone who’s interested in using this software to get up and running, so feel free to download Paper Tools from: http://www.papertools.ai.

Thanks!
Brett

I’m picking up my Paper Tools project and have posted the latest release to:
https://www.papertools.ai

I’d be very grateful to hear your feedback as always. I’m charging for the software now, but drop me a line and I’ll set you up with a free month.

So what’s new?
You can now create your own Paper Tools with GCode and Python. And there’s AI integrated to help. So you can paste GCode from say Vectric or Fusion360 into a Paper Tool. The software will rotate and position your cut based on the points you scan with the camera. With python you can tell the AI to write a Paper Tool and use the code it generates to make a re-usable pattern with parameters (almost like a CAD model). You can share these, and for people who don’t like to write any code—you can use them!

There’s also a greater commitment from me personally, as well as funding, to support the growth of the software. That’s what has taken me so long to put together. I wanted to extend immense thanks to those who have provided such excellent feedback these past few years. I hope to continue working really closely with everybody to make this thing more awesome.

And what is Paper Tools?
The main idea is to attach a video camera to your spindle that looks down at your material and controls your CNC based on the visual information on your part: drawings, writing, and placing “Paper Tools” with targets that identify cut information. Once you get into this way of visual thinking there’s a lot you can do, and I’ll continue to build my YouTube channel with more videos, but as examples you can cut pre-saved GCode patterns at any position and angle, you can cut easily cut holes, slots, pockets, bores, etc with pre-made Paper Tools that come standard. You can create Paper Tools with GCode and with Python, and now there’s integrated AI to help.

Thanks again, and happy choppin!

Would anybody be interested in a live stream showing how my Paper Tools software uses a video camera + AI to cut GCode anywhere you position it? I'd like to get a measure of the best time to do such a thing, and I'll demo a bunch of new features in Paper Tools 1.6:

* Jog your CNC machine by dragging on the camera view
* Fabricate parts using AI with no CAD or CAM
* Position your GCode by video + computer vision navigation

You can see some of these features in my latest videos:
Camera Jogging https://youtu.be/FhRrygbmQE0
Engrave with Camera https://youtu.be/qcPLWLs7IzQ
CNC->Table Saw https://youtu.be/eepSCklteFA

If you'd like to try out the software, you can download from: www.papertools.ai

Reply here, by DM or leave a YouTube comment with your preferred time for a live stream, and I'll make it happen.

Thanks,
Brett