Cabinet Vision DXF to Model 43

[Kyle Koehn]

We just got a Model 43. We have been using Cabinet Vision for our main software so we will most likely keep using that for our main software. We are interested in trying to export .dxf from Cabinet Vision to the control to make use of the Control Nesting features. Does anyone have experience with this? We aren't finding much support on the Cabinet Vision support as most people just use the S2M and output the G code directly from Cabinet Vision.

[Kerry Fullington]

Kyle,

Contact Thermwood. I think they have a Job Level Interface for CV.

Thermwood Compatible Software

[Clint Buechlein]

Unfortunately Kerry, we have little to nothing here for Cabinet Vision. I was there with Kyle trying to get something figured out, but Cabinet Vision isn't too forthcoming with support.

-Clint-

[Gordon Mitchell]

Hi Kerry, I was in the same boat in February and abandoned the idea due to communication issues since I am extremely busy. In the event you are more persistent with the dxf.cvs format and get this to work please keep me in mind to contact. I was working with Brian at CV.

Gordon Mitchell

[Brad McIntosh]

To all interested:

CNC Automation has been working with one of our clients in Canada on the link between Cabinet Vision and Control Nesting. The old "Job Level" MDB interface is a "dead-horse" as it requires too much support and additional development from the Cabinet Vision people.

With the great assistance (read coding magic) of Larry Epplin @ Thermwood, we seem to have worked out what we think are all the challenges.

I have compiled some documentation that I am forwarding to Clint @ Thermwood. You can request copies from him.

Note: No warranties are expressed or implied.

Regards...

[Kyle Koehn]

Those documents were great! Everything seems to be outputting just like it is supposed to. Control nesting now seems to be having a bit of problem with getting the parts placed right side up though. On the documentation it says that the face dependent material should be preserved but that is not how I am finding it.

[Kyle Koehn]

We cut out the first actual customer cabinet this morning successfully utilizing the Cabinet Vision dxf to Control Nesting this morning.

[Brad McIntosh]

Kyle,

"Face Dependant" information SHOULD be preserved for "Single Sided" (SS) materials...

Since CV always places "INNER" machining operations "Face Up" in the DXFs, the assumption is that the standard "OUTER" surface (the "B" face in eCabinet Systems) is always placed "Face Down" on the table.

If your then have parts where the same "Single Sided" (SS) material is used with the faces reversed ("B" inside, "A" outside) - like with a finished interior, you need to then use the ".flip" material definition modifier for those parts. CV does not automatically differentiate the faces of SS materials and will still create the DXFs with "Inner" machining operations "face up", but by using the related ".flip" material - Control Nesting will: 1) Flip the entire DXF based on the "material_name.flip" designation. 2) Remove the ".flip" designation from the material_name so that the part can be nested with the non-".flip" material_name counterpart.

[Kyle Koehn]

Ya I had that figured out and set up that way and was still having problems. My problem was in my material settings in CV. I did not have a texture assigned to either face. So in the export in field 11 where it says if the part is face dependent it had 0/False. As soon as I assigned a texture to the face of the material it all started working correctly.

[Brad McIntosh]

Great! Thanks for that information/feedback Kyle. I will add a note in our documentation about assigning a different texture to each face.

I will also be adding a couple of notes concerning the tooling definitions that can help minimize things like SHEAR VARIANCE warnings when processing the job in the S2M Center within CV. (The warnings themselves do not affect the process - they are just a little annoying.)

Again, I would like to point out that Larry @ Thermwood performed a lot of programming magic based on our input to be able to handle all of the idiosyncrasies with the CV DXFs and the addition of the ability to use the CNCRUN##.TXT file to facilitate loading the DXFs related to the CV JOB into Control Nesting.

Any further feedback is appreciated and welcome.

[Kyle Koehn]

I don't think that a different texture is needed for each face. We just did not have any texture on any face. As soon as I added it then it seemed that it knew that is was face dependent.

Do I check back with Clint for the updated documentation with the tooling definitions to get rid of those shear variance warnings? Or where will you be adding those notes at?

[Brad McIntosh]

Yes... it would probably be best to go through Clint so that the general software support link is maintained.

I am sure that if anyone does request the documentation from him, he will advise them of any updates/revisions.

Canada Day holiday up here tomorrow.

Have a great July 4th weekend!

[Forrest Chapman]

Has any further development been done with the CV link? If so can I get the docs for it?

Thanks, Forrest

[Stuart Douglas]

Has any further development been done with the CV link? If so can I get the docs for it?

Thanks, Forrest

Also VERY interested in this. We have recently begun integrating CV, and It's been a serious learning curve. I've taken eCabS for granted! TIA

[Clint Buechlein]

No development that I'm aware of, mostly just us keeping up with any changes Cabinet Vision makes in the background. Most Cabinet Vision dealers really try to shy away from the layered DXF approach, I think because of their lack of knowledge. If you shoot me an email to cabinets@thermwood.com, I can send the PDF that has the documentation that we have regarding setup in Cabinet Vision.

-Clint-