Laser Cut Parts. from Cad.
02-12-2006, 10:17 PM
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Laser Cut Parts. from Cad.
Hello Fellas: I'm new to CAD programs, Just ordered Turbocad 9.2 From Overstock. Right now I'm using CADStd, That I downloaded, but I want a full featured Program. I got a couple of questions. When you design a plane in a cad program, what grid scale do you use. 1/16", 1/8", 1/4", etc. Second: Save the drawing into .dxf Format. How does the Laser cutter know what scale you used. I Know these sound like simple question but I want to know all I Can learn about CAD. And Last How In The Heck do you draw a ellipse.
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02-13-2006, 12:38 AM
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RE: Laser Cut Parts. from Cad.
First off in TurboCAD you should not be using that small a grid. I like to use 1/4 but with the appearance frequency set to 2 and bolder lines ever other one so I have a real grid of 1/4 inch and a display of a line every 1/2 inch. Any tighter and it just gets too busy looking.
For most snap operations I use the V M and N SEKE snaps more than the grid.
For saving I use the native TCW TurboCAD format. It's a compressed file so it takes up very little room. For sending stuff out after the drawing is done I just save as a dxf or dwg depending on the needs of the moment. You'll also need to find out if the printer needs the color coding so commonly used in AutoCAD drawings to designate line widths on the plotter. A little talking with them goes a long way to making it easier right from the start.
All CAD drawings are done full size. Never draw anything that is not full size. Even if you're working on something the size of New York make it full size and just use printing that is 35 feet high so you can read it. When you deliver your dxf file the laser cutter will see the full sized drawing. It only reduces for printing on stock paper. But be aware that the needs of a laser cutting file are unique. The laser file will look nothing at all like your building plan. In addition the order you draw your lines in the laser file is very important to control the cutter head. Coosbaylumber knows far more about this matter. He's also talked about this on many previous occasoins. Perhaps try some searches within this forum for laser cutting and you'll likely turn up a heap of stuff related to this topic.
There's an ellipse tool on the left side toolbar. If you click and hold the mouse over the circle tool the tool tray should fly out and show you a number of options. The ellipses are at the end of the line. But there's more than one way to draw an ellipse. The first uses the elllipse tool and it works more or less like drawing a box. Click one time to start it and drag down and across to the next point. But this way is hard to center it on anything. However a circle is just a specail form of ellipse. Plunk down a circle and then select it. Now you can squish or stretch it to form an ellipse of your chooseing.. Want to do a spitfire wing? Use the arc tool to draw two half circles with the same center but one smaller than the other. Now stretch one out to the desired wingspan and then stretch the other to match the end points. Bingo, a Spitfire wing.
Enjoy your TurboCAD. And if you have not seen them I posted a list of the top 13 things that I think helps when using TurboCAD in particular and CAD in general. It's a few posts down in [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_1941845/tm.htm]THIS THREAD[/link] .
For most snap operations I use the V M and N SEKE snaps more than the grid.
For saving I use the native TCW TurboCAD format. It's a compressed file so it takes up very little room. For sending stuff out after the drawing is done I just save as a dxf or dwg depending on the needs of the moment. You'll also need to find out if the printer needs the color coding so commonly used in AutoCAD drawings to designate line widths on the plotter. A little talking with them goes a long way to making it easier right from the start.
All CAD drawings are done full size. Never draw anything that is not full size. Even if you're working on something the size of New York make it full size and just use printing that is 35 feet high so you can read it. When you deliver your dxf file the laser cutter will see the full sized drawing. It only reduces for printing on stock paper. But be aware that the needs of a laser cutting file are unique. The laser file will look nothing at all like your building plan. In addition the order you draw your lines in the laser file is very important to control the cutter head. Coosbaylumber knows far more about this matter. He's also talked about this on many previous occasoins. Perhaps try some searches within this forum for laser cutting and you'll likely turn up a heap of stuff related to this topic.
There's an ellipse tool on the left side toolbar. If you click and hold the mouse over the circle tool the tool tray should fly out and show you a number of options. The ellipses are at the end of the line. But there's more than one way to draw an ellipse. The first uses the elllipse tool and it works more or less like drawing a box. Click one time to start it and drag down and across to the next point. But this way is hard to center it on anything. However a circle is just a specail form of ellipse. Plunk down a circle and then select it. Now you can squish or stretch it to form an ellipse of your chooseing.. Want to do a spitfire wing? Use the arc tool to draw two half circles with the same center but one smaller than the other. Now stretch one out to the desired wingspan and then stretch the other to match the end points. Bingo, a Spitfire wing.
Enjoy your TurboCAD. And if you have not seen them I posted a list of the top 13 things that I think helps when using TurboCAD in particular and CAD in general. It's a few posts down in [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_1941845/tm.htm]THIS THREAD[/link] .
