Toolpathing Question

[chodges]

Occasionally, I will create a drawing that will produce errors in PartWorks when I try to generate a lot of toolpaths at one time, but PartWorks will generate the toolpaths if I select portions of the drawing each time.

For example, I have a 48" x 96" sheet full of 6" squares with 1/2" radius corners. PartWorks stops with errors if I have all the squares selected for toolpathing, but it works ok if I just select 3 or 4 rows of the squares and generate several toolpaths.

My PC has 2Mb of RAM, and it's a 3.4Ghz Pentium. I am using PartWorks version 1.1 that came with my PRS Alpha.

Any ideas?

[knight_toolworks]

are the parts imported? I have had that on imported things. I could select a few and make a toolpath but not all of them. but there were underlying problems.
I have had invisible lines get selected with I select all and cause the errors.
if all the parts are the same delete all but one and redo the sheet.

[chodges]

Yes, the drawing is an imported .EPS from Corel Draw version 12.

When I created the drawing, I made one square, then copied it a bunch of times to fill up the sheet.

You would think that any error in the original square would be duplicated in all the other squares.

Thanks!

[Brian Moran]

Hi Charlie,

If you can send a file you are having problems with to support@vectric.com (mailto:support@vectric.com) we will have a look at it and see what the problems might be. As Steve has said above 99.9% of the time it is problems with the original geometry, the program can cope with a certain number of issues, but if you have the same part with errors duplicated many times you can exceeed the retry count in the software.

Brian

[dana_swift]

I have had problems where what is visible to me is the object I thought I drew, in fact there are several copies in the same place and that can confuse things.

If I suspect that, I select the "object" delete it and see if it goes away. If not, there is a second copy in the same place (perhaps on a different layer). I keep deleting until the object disappears then I "undo" one time to put the last one back.

Hope that helps-

D

[tony_mac]

PartWorks / VCarve Pro includes a tool that automatically selects duplicate vectors, allowing them to easily be deleted.

From the main menu select,

Edit > Select All Duplicate Vectors


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This option is also available off the Quick Menu by clicking the right hand mouse button.

Press the Delete key and all of the unwanted vectors will be removed.

Tony

[chodges]

Thanks everyone!

I forwarded my PartWorks file to Brian Moran in the Support Department at Vetric. It's probably something I did wrong, but I'm stumped.

I did check, and there are no duplicate or open vectors in my file.

Thanks!

[knight_toolworks]

just go to node editing and look at the part. you may have lines overlapping or a kink or some other wacky problem.You may have to zoom in quite a ways. look for extra node points.

[Brian Moran]

Hi Charlie,

I've looked at the file and the simple rounded square has 3 coincident / overlapping nodes in it.

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If you go into node edit mode (press 'N' on the keyboard) and then click and drag on the nodes you will see the coincident / overlapping nodes in the corners.

Although the program manages to cope with these errors when machining a single example, when you try to machine multiple copies in one go you exceed the internal retry count.

Brian

[chodges]

Thanks Brian!

I closed the paths in Corel Draw, but I guess something went a little goofy when I exported my drawing to an .EPS

I really appreciate your help!