Render, That worked, I didn't think that exporting path to Illustrator would let me open the path in either Illustrator or Freehand but it did and it was flawless. That, along with all the other usefull ideas that have been posted, paves the way for my idea to progress. There is no stopping me now. I will be able to draw the emblems and rings in Photoshop save the path export to Illustrator and mantain a Vector image. This will allow the CAD guys to convert the paths into some program conversion and import to MC. Thanks to everyone for your reply. It was very helpful.

CMR, I work at oc tanner in Salt Lake City we are the makers of the 2002 winter olympics medals. We mostly do employee recognition for employees awards at 5yr intervals. Attached to some awards are emblems of the company's logos with jewelling. We also have a retail store that is a completely different market. I am involved in mass producing custom emblems if that makes sense. We have a consistent look for all custom emblems. Currently we go from Freehand to Photoshop to Freehand to Photoshop and I find it redundant. I am trying to find a way to get it all in Photoshop and keep it there until it hits manufacturing who take it into Mastercam. We are fiddling (nice word huh?) with a way to use stereolitho I believe it's called, you guys all probably know what that is, to make a row of rings instead of the traditional way of producing them. I have to admit much of what you said went over my head, I'm just the artist of the company, I don't know tech stuff. Hope that answers a little. Wizz I love these little guys you all must me tired of them but I plan to use them all

Wow I can't believe all the response I got, I want to thank you all. There is much helpful information. Thank you for taking the time. I do want to clarify one thing. Photoshop is a raster-based program, however, when you draw with the pen tool and make it a path or clipping path then, and I may be wrong, but it saves it as a temporary Vector path. I don't understand how it does but that path can be exported to Illustrator. From what I am hearing, I can draw in Photoshop (I'm trying to keep it in Phtosp to keep it simple because all the finish work is in Phtosp), and export it to Corel Draw and that should work? Any way I am going to have our CAD guy check out your responses and do some testing. Thanks again. Wizz

See post named Wizz-ard. Photoshop to Mastercam

Ok, I'm new to the forum, I don't know a thing about cad/cam. I am an illustrator for a company and have an idea that could revolutionize the way we do artwork. I work at a jewlry manufacturing co., the millers use Mastercam and I want to use Photoshop exclusively to draw the outlined image of emblems. I would draw the path in Photoshop and import it somehow into Mastercam. I understand that I would need some kind of converter to do so. The Cad guys do use programs like Corel Draw and Freehand to import but they say the lines are chopped and don't make good "bezier curves" so to speak. Can anyone enlighten me as to what I have option to do. Is there a converter for Photoshop paths or other programs that I could export to? Please write as this could be very important to me. Wizz