AutoCad or equivalent intergration in E-Cab

dalewills · Post by **dalewills** » Wed, Sep 19 2007, 3:48PM

Hi,
Is it possible on a future upgrade to intergrate a CAB based drawing program like AutoCad into E-Cab? Is this possible? Or be able to import dxf files and apply tool paths in E-Cab?

Dale

DanEpps · Post by **DanEpps** » Wed, Sep 19 2007, 5:05PM

Dale

You can import DXFs into the Contour mode of the Part Editor and use them for tool paths.

dalewills · Post by **dalewills** » Wed, Sep 19 2007, 8:50PM

So if I want to import an intricate shaped part with an outline cut, designed in AutoCad I can cut it out on a Thermwood. Or, is importing DXF files simply for drawing and presentation purposes ?

Dale

Mark Taylor · Post by **Mark Taylor** » Wed, Sep 19 2007, 9:18PM

Dale...

Yes, we can load dxf files directly into our nesting software on the Thermwood controller and cut your dxf files on the machine. The files must be formated correctly with each layer following the Thermwood naming conventions, but they are really quite simple.

Mark

DanEpps · Post by **DanEpps** » Thu, Sep 20 2007, 5:41AM

Another thing I have seen in the forum several times is that the DXF must have only one outline layer.

Mark Taylor · Post by **Mark Taylor** » Thu, Sep 20 2007, 8:34PM

That's correct Dan...

basically, each operation is defined by a layer; the outline, drilling, dado - etc.

dalewills · Post by **dalewills** » Mon, Sep 24 2007, 5:05PM

Could it be possible in the future to load dxf files directly into ECabs (from say AutoCad) and intergrate with parts of a job to be cut? It would be great to be able to design a complex shaped part in AutoCad and import the dxf to ECab to then write a program.

Dale

DanEpps · Post by **DanEpps** » Mon, Sep 24 2007, 5:11PM

dalewills wrote:Could it be possible in the future to load dxf files directly into ECabs (from say AutoCad) and intergrate with parts of a job to be cut? It would be great to be able to design a complex shaped part in AutoCad and import the dxf to ECab to then write a program.

Dale

That's exactly what you do Dale, its just that you have to have something to apply the DXF to and that is done in the Contour Mode of the Part Editor.

Glenn Van Reason · Post by **Glenn Van Reason** » Mon, Sep 24 2007, 6:21PM

If you have all the info to cut in the dxf can you nest it with an ecabinet job on the Thermwood? you can nest a few ecab jobs on the thermwood so it shouldn't be too hard, that way it will all nest and cut at the same time

DanEpps · Post by **DanEpps** » Mon, Sep 24 2007, 6:48PM

Mark Taylor wrote:...Yes, we can load dxf files directly into our nesting software on the Thermwood controller and cut your dxf files on the machine. The files must be formated correctly with each layer following the Thermwood naming conventions, but they are really quite simple...

Glenn

From what Mark says, it appears that you can.

Glenn Van Reason · Post by **Glenn Van Reason** » Mon, Sep 24 2007, 7:19PM

Hey Dan, yeah I know you can load dxf's but can you load them in conjunction with twd's and get one cnc file ? I use to do it with manual panels, just not sure if you can with dxf's . I don't work with a Thermwood anymore

Paul Ford · Post by **Paul Ford** » Mon, Sep 24 2007, 9:55PM

yes you can

Just load up the eCabs twd file as you usually would then \"Add\" the dxf file. It will write 1 CNC file for everthing loaded...

Mark Taylor · Post by **Mark Taylor** » Wed, Sep 26 2007, 8:22AM

Paul is correct...once you load the first file, either a .twd or .dxf than theoretically you can \"add\" as many additional .twd or .dxf files as you need/want and then write them all to a single CNC file.

This is all done at the controller level and I say theoretically, because recently some people have written on the CNC forum that they are experiencing a significant slow down on their performance with mutiple files. I haven't had any problems, but usually when I add mutiple files they are a variety of small jobs where we are trying to optimize sheet goods...so they usually don't amount to much as far as file size or number of sheets is concerned. We recently cut six jobs in a single \"batch\" with a total of 18 or 19 sheets and it ran just as quickly as a single job of that quantity would.

Since cutting the .dxf is as easy as cutting an eCabinets .twd file at the controller, there really isn't a need to add it into eCabinets unless it is perform a specific function on a particular part and then as Dan pointed out you can import the .dxf into the contour section of eCabinets. You do need to be careful with splines however as they are not supported in eCabinets, even through a .dxf import.

Mark

Thermwood / eCabinet Systems

AutoCad or equivalent intergration in E-Cab

AutoCad or equivalent intergration in E-Cab

DXF importing

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