3D Part Cutting Problems

[matt_conklin]

Hello all, I am trying to cut a 3-D part pathed in ParWorks 3D. I keep getting random crescent shaped cuts along what should be smooth lines. I have my step-over at 15% so I didnt think that could be the problem. Any thoughts? Are there any tricks in PartWorks3D I dont know about?

My second problem is after each pass my spindle Z's up completely out of the material, comes back down and starts the next pass. Is this normal? It seems to be doubling my cutting time per file.

Thanks for the help.



7835

[dubliner]

Matthew, I'm in Cut3D ( essentially the same as you have) , what do have the Rapid clearance gap set to? .5 inch should be OK. & Check your Safe Z height under Cutter tab in the SB3 console.The crescents look like perhaps the wrong tool in the router versus what was in design? Hope that helps.

[gerryv]

I'm a new Shopbot owner so can't offer advise but by way of analogy it looks a lot like what we all got from our printers before postscript was developed by Adobe.

[ron_varela]

Matthew looks like the 3d file was made from an image and not from an eps or dfx file that had the stair step effect.

This is a bitmap file

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How it was traced and saved

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This is the same file with convert to curves

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This is the same file zoomed out, looks ok but still has the jagged edges

7839

Here is the trick

This image is 400x300 so I resized it to 1000x 750 and got this as the trace


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Now resized again to 1500x1125 and got this as the trace.

7841

The file that was loaded into Partworks 3d might have had the top lines imported with it so look at the file again to see if you see the jagged line.
Not sure if Partworks 3d can fix this problem but ask James Booth if there it a smooth edge command or an offset to use.
With any 3d file what you see is what you get.
You can send me the file and I will look at it.

Ron

[matt_conklin]

Ron,

That is good advice, but unfortunately I did create the file from a DXF. I did all the line work in AutoCad, built a 3D model from it in Sketchup and then exported back to AutoCad and saved it as a 3D DXF file.

I just emailed you the PartWorks 3D file I set up for the part.

Thanks,

Matt

[ron_varela]

I could see the jagged edges so it had to be in the translation when you went from Sketchup and then exported back to AutoCad



Ron

[gerryv]

Matthew,

Did you come up with anything on your jaggies problem? I'm a real greenhorn so it would be nice to know how to setup to prevent this.