DXF

Discuss Thermwood 3-axis Machinery, Controller, and Software.

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Marius Gouws
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Company Name: Plett Roofing
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DXF

Post by Marius Gouws »

Good afternoon
I did a drawing with Autocad R14 that I want to cut out, but Control Nesting does not want to see the outlines that I have made with Sphere's and Splines, is that normal or is it just me?

Thanks
FredHirsch
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Post by FredHirsch »

Marius,
We have one of our people here using R14. The splines should be OK but he does have to break the Sphere into several parts. You might upload the file to this forum and I'd be happy to have our guy look at it and see how it loads on the machine.
Fred
Fred Hirsch
Nick M Singer
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Post by Nick M Singer »

Hi Marius send me the DXF and I can check it out. nbfsinger@yahoo.com
Ryan Hochgesang

Post by Ryan Hochgesang »

To All,

By design, DXF files that are to be used with Thermwood's Control Nesting should be setup using only Arcs and Lines. With most CAD systems, you should have the capability to break most any design into either small arcs or lines if need be to make them work with Control Nesting.
Marius Gouws
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Company Name: Plett Roofing
Country: SOUTH AFRICA
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DXF

Post by Marius Gouws »

Good morning
What i basiclly trying to do is cut out some letters and numbers on the CNC machine for our company name for outside. Now if you use the text \"editor\" and design the letters in AutoCad it simply does not work at all (even after i set up all the right layer name and thickness.) So now I am trying to draw the letters one by one . Is there an easier way?
I have created an little program with AFL to cut some MDF doors, the program works well but when the machine go from the one door to the next it allways retract the z axis to the Z00 position. If someone can maybe just look at my code to tell me where i must put the G902 comand, if i put it anywhere ells in the code it does not want to read the x and y shift.
Thank you very much for all your help.
Attachments
NESTED RESES V-GROOVE DOOR PROGRAM.txt
(13.24 KiB) Downloaded 413 times
Mark Hesketh
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Post by Mark Hesketh »

as for the letters, we recently made a large sign for ourselves by creating the text in autocad and then just tracing around the outside. once you finish the trace, you can delete the text and you have your cut path.
Zach Froble
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Post by Zach Froble »

We cut signs and letters for a local sign shop all the time. I use Bobcad and they have option in their text are to vectorize text. Then I save them as a DXF and have never had a problem cutting(Knock on wood). If you want you can send me over what you are looking for and I will create the DXF for you.

Zach
Lyndan Designs
Machining and CAD Services
Rob Davis
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Post by Rob Davis »

We also have cut signs and letters for ourselves and for others. We use Mastercam to do it and it works fine.
Nick M Singer
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Post by Nick M Singer »

Hi Marius. If you look under the Customer Images I posted some pics under the heading \" Something Different\" You will notice the signage on the units which I cut using DXFs. I created a DXF of the whole phrase and put each letter on a different \"chaincompin\" layer in numerical sequence, viz. chaincompin1 , chaincompin2, chaincompin3 etc. You could also use \" chaincompout if need be.
dalewills

Re:

Post by dalewills »

Mark Hesketh wrote:as for the letters, we recently made a large sign for ourselves by creating the text in autocad and then just tracing around the outside. once you finish the trace, you can delete the text and you have your cut path.
I'm interested to know the procedure to trace letter drawn in AutoCad do this Mark. Can you or anyone else help me out here? And also, what do people mean when they say vectorise text?
Dale
Nemanja Vujkovic
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Re: DXF

Post by Nemanja Vujkovic »

This does not solve problem with a AutoCad, but the best way to do letters is MasterCam. We use it on daily basis and it works great!!!
Joe Soto
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Re: DXF

Post by Joe Soto »

Dale, I use Bob-cad like Zach but this may work for you, just save your text as a .dxf and open with e-cabs or your favorite cad program.
http://deskam.com/deskengrave.html

Joe
Nick M Singer
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Re: DXF

Post by Nick M Singer »

Dale it is actually quite simple to cut lettering using CAD. I personally do not use ACAD so can only give guidelines using Turbo Cad but I am sure the principals are the same. having said this there is an issue when doing letters from DXF's in Rolling Nest and I am still trying to sort it out with the Thermwood guys but just haven't got around to it of late. Firstly Vectorizing is the process of converting the text from bitmapped information to the Co-ordinate or geometric information required to draw the lines and arcs in a letter. So all you do is type in the text you require in your CAD program but make sure that the properties for the text are set to "Flexible" so it is drawn as multiline text. Then you put all the text on a chaincompin or chaincompout layer depending on whether you want loose letters or cut out letters in a background. The problem I have run into in the past is two-fold and unpredictable. Some letters or numbers cut on the wrong side of the line, so if for example you want to cut a "9" and put it on the chaincompin layer for some odd reason it cuts on the outside. I fixed this by just putting it on the chaincompout layer and then it cuts to the inside. Secondly you must also watch for letters that re made up of two bounded areas like a zero or a "P", you will probably have to use both chaincompin and out on letters like these. Is this clear??? if not drop me a line I will try and make it easier. I can also show you examples of what I have cut
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