Community
AutoCAD Forum
cancel
Showing results for 
Show  only  | Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Student Version Laser Cutting

14 REPLIES 14
SOLVED
Reply
Message 1 of 15
mehmetersen1983
1645 Views, 14 Replies

Student Version Laser Cutting

Hi,

 

Anybody know if a file from a student version of autocad 2014 can be used to laser cut or will there be issues of some sort?

 

Thanks in advance 😃

14 REPLIES 14
Message 2 of 15

Hi,

 

welcome @forums.autodesk.com !

 

I would first say, no problem ... BUT... 😉

We don't know anything about your equipment, about fileformats you use to transfer the data to the device, about software use use after you drawed the geometry in AutoCAD ... so I can't promise anything.

 

If you can do that with the full version of AutoCAD 2014 it should also work with the student version.

If you are transfering the geometry using the plot format you might have troubles as you get then the educational stamps around the plot.

And just to make sure: if you are creating anything with the laser cut as part of a commercial product you aren't allowed to do that with the student license, even it it's working.

 

- alfred -

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alfred NESWADBA
Ingenieur Studio HOLLAUS ... www.hollaus.at ... blog.hollaus.at ... CDay 2024
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(not an Autodesk consultant)
Message 3 of 15

Thanks for the reply Alfred!

I don't yet know how im going to go about preparing the drawing for laser cutting as i am re learning Autocad after a few years of not practicing with it. Even then the technicians at Uni would help with the process, so i have a lot of tutorials to watch first.

Ok so it sounds like there is more than one way to send the drawing to the cutter so it shouldn't be a problem. Even the stamp isn't really a problem unless it was to cover the drawing itself.

Rest assured , i am laser cutting for a personal project, not for anything commercial. I am making a set of pedals for my racing simulator. The laser cutting will be done by somebody else that i am yet to find so i thought i would try to find out if it's possible first instead of there being problems while cutting.

Thanks again.

Message 4 of 15
Patchy
in reply to: mehmetersen1983

Majority of equipments use DXF

I would agree w/ Alfred, you won't get any problem if you use DXF.

 

 

Edited by
Discussion_Admin

Message 5 of 15

I have found that DXF's from ACAD will produce faceted curves.  Also noticed that splines are worse (more pronounced facets; not a smooth curve) than arcs and circles.  The best way to get actual smooth curves is to use a vector software like Illustrator, Corel, Inkscape...  Don't know if you're using something other than straight lines, but thought you might like to know before you cut.

Message 6 of 15

Hi,

 

>> I have found that DXF's from ACAD will produce faceted curves

That is not really true, if you save as circle as DWG or as DXF, in both cases (when you reopen that file with AutoCAD) it's a smooth circle! There is nothing faceted.

 

>> Also noticed that splines are worse (more pronounced facets; not a smooth curve)

That depends on what version of DXF you use, a DXF12 (which is a fileformat that is more than 20 years old) there was no option to save a SPLINE, but with current DXF versions it's no problem.

 

So now the question is: how did you recognize that?

 

- alfred -

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alfred NESWADBA
Ingenieur Studio HOLLAUS ... www.hollaus.at ... blog.hollaus.at ... CDay 2024
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(not an Autodesk consultant)
Message 7 of 15

So now the question is: how did you recognize that?

 

I recognize this when I look at pieces that I have cut from DXF files on my laser.  So yes, it is true.

Message 8 of 15

Hi,

 

>> I recognize this when I look at pieces that I have cut from DXF files on my laser

Then the software that is importing the DXF does that faceting, it's not AutoCAD. You can try the export and import of a circle-DXF, it stays smooth 😉

 

- alfred -

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alfred NESWADBA
Ingenieur Studio HOLLAUS ... www.hollaus.at ... blog.hollaus.at ... CDay 2024
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(not an Autodesk consultant)
Message 9 of 15

I couldn't care less what causes the faceting, the fact remains that when a DXF is cut on most lasers, and even water jet tables, curved lines will cut faceted.  I was simply giving the OP a piece of advice about something that I have experienced personally many times.  

Message 10 of 15
drjohn
in reply to: Alfred.NESWADBA


@Alfred.NESWADBA wrote:

Hi,

 

>> I recognize this when I look at pieces that I have cut from DXF files on my laser

Then the software that is importing the DXF does that faceting, it's not AutoCAD. You can try the export and import of a circle-DXF, it stays smooth 😉

 

- alfred -


Just FYI:

 

+1 w/ Alfred,   I send out a ton o' DXF files each week  (20 to 30 and on a busy week 50+) for laser cutting 304 stainless steel and have yet to see one that is not smooth on a corner.  It has to be the importing laser software that is causing the facets (or perhaps a laser table operator that needs a bit more training.

 

Regards,

DJ

Message 11 of 15

Hi,

 

first: every advice and suggestion is welcome!

I'm just curious why you get faceted curves as the DXF (if you speak about arcs and circles) does not store anything faceted. And as it does not store it in a faceted way it's not the DXF that is the source of the problem.

Here is the part how a circle is stored:

 

2013-10-10 19-24-42.png

You see the data contains the position of the circle's center and the radius (and none-geometric content like handle as internal ID, like layername) and that's it, nothing segmented.

 

So my conclusion is that whatever is between the DXF and the output is repsonsable for the segmentation.

If you want to continue about that issue: what software do you use to import the DXF and forward it to your cutting devices, what DXF-release do you use to do this job?

 

- alfred -

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alfred NESWADBA
Ingenieur Studio HOLLAUS ... www.hollaus.at ... blog.hollaus.at ... CDay 2024
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(not an Autodesk consultant)
Message 12 of 15

As it turns out the shapes i need to create are getting a little more intricate as the design develops.....So is it definately ok to use polylines for cutting on laser/ water cutters?

Message 13 of 15

Hi,

 

>> So is it ok to use polylines for cutting on laser/ water cutters?

Again, we don't know what you are using after AutoCAD. So if that does work with polylines, and if yes,what type of polylines (AutoCAD knows 3 types) can be used with that software/driver ... sorry, I can't answer that.

If it's not a too old system I would say it should not be a problem (none of the 2 types of 2D polylines, I guess the 3D-polyline will not be needed for cutting).

 

- alfred -

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alfred NESWADBA
Ingenieur Studio HOLLAUS ... www.hollaus.at ... blog.hollaus.at ... CDay 2024
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(not an Autodesk consultant)
Message 14 of 15

Your reply still helped. At least i know where to look for a potential
problem now, this is just something i will have to talk about with the
laser or water cutter operators.

You have been very helpful.

thanks to every one that replied. 😃

-Mehmet
Message 15 of 15
bouhedli
in reply to: mehmetersen1983

Thanks.

Can't find what you're looking for? Ask the community or share your knowledge.

Post to forums  

Autodesk Design & Make Report

”Boost