Autodesk Inventor

[#1]

I made a part using the extrude function and cut some texts into the part by extrude (tried emboss) as well. However, when I select the face to export, letters that have area inside, such as "A", "O", etc don't like right because the face selection only selects everything outside the bounds of the letter- so the triangle island part in the "A" and the circular island part bounded by the "O" cannot be selected. This presents a problem for me as I'm trying to use a CNC to cut these letters out with a dxf file to feed my CAM program. Any help please?

Thanks!

[#2]

Why are you exporting the face for cnc? We use a step or dxf no need to export just the face.

Unless I am missing something..

[#3]

If this is a sheet metal part then you can right click on the flat pattern and select the "Save as" option. This will export the geometery out in dxf fprmat all nicely layered out for your CNC software. If it's not sheetmetal then you'll have to make a quick 2D drawing with a view fo what you're trying to cut and do a save copy as of the dawing to dxf. This will give you everything including the titleblock all on one ugly layer, but you can clean it up in AutoCAD before sending it to you CNC software.

A picture or the .ipt file, would be helpful to us understanding what it is you are doing.

[#4]

I've attached a picture depicting my situation- the yellow highlighted area is the area i sketched out- those are the sections that are not cut (same height as the face, so they are "islands" that I referred to in my last post). I want those areas to be selected as well along with the face. Right now the areas inside the bounded lines of the letters are not being selected even though they are at the same level as the face and they are not cut.

[#5]

Here's a 3d view of the problem- as you can see, the face is selected but not the isolated part (highlighted in yellow) even though I want it to be part of the face.

[#6]

Help please, anyone?

[#7]

I'm not familiar with export face, but I imagine the problem is that those are not a part of the same face.

What format is your CAM software expecting?

[#8]

Can you answer the question we ask?

Why are you doing it this way why are you just exporting the face when you can export the whole thing and get to the same place you want to go?

We are helping but we also need to understand why you are doing things so if there is a better and easier way we can tell you..

[#9]

I'm exporting it this way because my CAM software "CamBam" takes .dxf files. I don't understand why they aren't the same face since the cut extrude by the letter did not cut within the bounded areas of the letters.

[#10]

It's not one face because it's not contiguous. Those are three seperate, but coplanar faces. Try my suggestion a few posts up. That's the method I use for programming our laser, it works great.