splines in laser cutting?

chorkle

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Jun 4, 2002, 3:56:51 PM6/4/02

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I recently had a project where I had to import some Chinese characters to be
laser cut. Everthing went fine with turning them into outlines and splines
with sets of control points. But, when the client took them to be laser cut,
they to my embarassment told me that they could not use a spline as a path
and that everything had to be true arcs and true lines. Is this really the
case or do they just want the money to do the conversion themselves. And if
it is really the case i would hope that autocad 2002 has a method of
converting the splines to a more cam friendly format.
any help would really be great. thanks.
Potter

chorkle

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Jun 4, 2002, 3:58:15 PM6/4/02

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I recently had a project where I had to import some Chinese characters to be
laser cut. Everthing went fine with turning them into outlines and splines
with sets of control points. But, when the client took them to be laser cut,
they to my embarassment told me that they could not use a spline as a path
and that everything had to be true arcs and true lines. Is this really the
case or do they just want the money to do the conversion themselves. And if

it is really the case i would hope that proe 2001 has a method of
converting the splines to a more CAM friendly format.

Kalle

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Jun 6, 2002, 4:04:31 AM6/6/02

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"chorkle" <choads...@attbi.com> wrote in message
news:rZ8L8.108964$ux5.1...@rwcrnsc51.ops.asp.att.net...

Hi!

Try to make following if it helps.

To the drawing make a new sheet, create a view where is your desired view
(laser path ?) then at the disp mode choose => view disp, no hidden, no disp
tan. Then export that model (dxf). It should be now good chain to the
lasercutter.

I don't quite understand if somebody has lasercutter but cant cut spline
forms?

// Kalle

P.s I use Pro/E sheetmetal

M.N.M.

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Jun 6, 2002, 11:45:51 AM6/6/02

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It all depends on the software used to create the G-Code. Most of
them should be able to use 2-D splines.

M.N.M.

CKERIDES

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Jun 6, 2002, 12:08:39 PM6/6/02

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They should be able to cut the path as splines - The code will be very long but
it should work.

Mark M.

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Jun 9, 2002, 4:55:21 PM6/9/02

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Chorkle,

Depends entirely on the CAM software used for the G-code. Splines are
usually linearized into small line segments as there are few controllers, or
CAM systems, that have NURBS interpolation. Some systems, like Mastercam,
have arc fitting routines that will turn a spline into a bunch of tangent
G2-G3 moves.

If there just using a control resident conversational programming system,
the chances are it can't even read imported splines.

If you can email me a 3D STEP or IGES file, I can convert it into a 2D DXF
with all of the text characters converted to small tangent arcs, takes about
5 minutes in Mastercam.

Regards

Mark

"chorkle" <choads...@attbi.com> wrote in message

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