DXF files

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Paul Ford
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DXF files

Post by Paul Ford »

Hi all,
I have had a 3D helicopter DXf file emailed me from someone who wants one made. He designed it in either turbo or auto cad (cant remember which one).
Sad part is I dont know the first thing about DXF files, I tried to nest the job by going through load DXF file at rolling nest but it came up with an error about thickness of material having to be more than '0'.
Is there any way I can change this in the DXF file itself?
Any advise at all on DXF files would be very much appreciated as I would really love to see what this machine can do with them.
Thanks in advance for any help.
Bill Rutherford
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Post by Bill Rutherford »

Paul,
You need to get a hold of a manual for control nesting. You are probably going to need to contact Thermwood for that. As for the DXF files, they are a great way to design parts. Alot of our standard product line is DXF files. A few things off the top you need to know. First DXF files should contain one part per file. Second the machine figures out what it needs to do based on the layer names. All of the geometry that makes up the outline of the part should be drawn on one layer and the layer should be titled OUTLINE Z#P## in this case the numbers are the board thickness and the P is the decimal point so for a 3/4\" thick board it would read OUTLINE Z0P75 Next, all dados (drawn as rectangles) that are the same depth need to be drawn on a layer of their own and that layer should be DADO Z#P## where the numbers are the depth of the dado cut. Finally, holes need to be drawn as circles the diameter of the hole and all holes of the same depth go on their own layer entitled DRILL Z#P##. This is really just a quick overview, for a more in depth get a hold of the manual.

If you would like to attach the file you have, I will take a quick look at it and attempt to prepare it for machining.

Bill Rutherford
Paul Ford
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Post by Paul Ford »

Hi Bill,
Thanks very much for that, I will see how I get on with this. It would be good to learn.Thank you for your time explaining this to me.
Paul.
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