File convention formats

[-rgbrown@itexas.net]

Glancing through IMSI's (TurboCad) website I noticed two things:

1. There seems to be a shift to the .DWG file format as a universal.
2. Visual CADD v3, a replacement for Generic CADD is now available.

Does anyone know (or care) if the newer (DWG) format is indeed going to become universal and re-place DXF as the 'standard'?

Ron B -rgbrown@itexas.net (mailto:-rgbrown@itexas.net)

[giggalo]

Like you said NO 1 CARES.... only kiding.

If you do drafting then you will need the upgrade, but it will not be needed for shopbot, dxf is here to stay

[rgbrown@itexas.net]

Ron,

I have been using computers long enough to remember Bill Gates saying "You will never need more than 640K RAM."

I didn't need Windows when it came out. But, when the Internet took off, I needed a Windows machine and $1500 new software. Some I had to buy because my 10 year old DOS software was not compatible with the software my clients used not, because it did not do the job.

So, yeah, sure, DXF is here to stay. DWG might not need ShopBot. G-code did not need ShopBot. ShopBot just might need DWG.

Ron B- rgbrown@itexas.net (mailto:rgbrown@itexas.net)

[Ted Hall, ShopBot]

My guess is that ShopBot will also read .dwg before long ... never fear. I see the primary advantage of .dxf as being able to have a look at it with a text editor (though awkwardly and very inefficiently).

[cwho@mountainmax.net]

I can continue my rant agaist DWG here! Autocad keeps DWG close to its chest as a way of protecting its installed base. There is a new group - the open DWG alliance that attempts to reverse engineer each new release. Most of my programs that "read" dwg are only at R14 but a great deal of my customers are on 2000. The r14 translations are also still very imperfect. Hopefully, Autocad will get unseated by some upstarts and we will have a more open format for drafting. At the high end IGES is very prevalent. For basic machining we are trying to use STL to move part geometries. (but you lose all of the parametric data.) Also VRML is looking pretty impressive. I am not sure that a full implementation of DWG is really useful to shopbot - will it support Full 3d objects - solids etc or will it just dump these so that you have to remember to draw with a very limited set of tools etc. It seems that the tight integration of a suer interface like VECTOR (with documentation that is readable) would be better. Import simple DXF files that make sense to cut.

[tsours@itiaccess.com]

I do design in SolidWorks. A friend would like me to do some designs for him to cut on his shopbot tool. The product is necks for string instruments. Can anyone tell me what I would need to do to convert my SolidWorks file into one that will work with the Shopbot program?

[birdsofplay]

Assuming that your buddy is asking for a nicely sculpted and tapered instrument neck, carved from a solid block of wood, you may have to output an STL/3DS/DXF file. Then use MillWizard or similar to genereate the 3D cutting files.

I only have an eval of MW but it shows the tool path in similated mode and seems to work fairly fast as well.

[davidallen]

if you're only doing a few and/or have plenty of time, then the rastered toolpath from MillWorks is probably the easiest and fastest way to go. otherwise, you'll probably want something like Vector to generate optimized toolpaths. it's a lot of effort up front, but the production time will be much shorter.

da

[j roney]

Hi, I'm new here, have been enjoying reading all that I can on these forums (will be buying a ShopBot very soon). Have been using AutoCAD for a long time however, I just got a new computer for my kids and did not want to install ACAD on a second system, so I went out and bought a program called InteliCAD at Office Depot......IT"S UNBELIEVABLE!!! Uses all the same commands as ACAD and I believe it's faster at many things....only prob. is my home screen is just 17" at work it's 21"...big dif. Best part is the price----just $29 bucks like I said UNBELIEVABLE...Before writing this I double checked, it saves files to .dwg.