Inventor to SheetCam

[aaron]

I just got our new plasma table running and am using sheet cam to nest. I am on a learning curve, mental overboard type of scenario so go easy on me...One of my parts drawn in inventor/sheet metal is not being recognized by sheet cam. However I have other parts which are drawn almost identical in approach and their .dxf file uploaded to sheet cam just fine. I have tried troubleshooting 100 different ways and nothing is working, sheet cam simply wont recognize it. I have tried copying and pasting new geometery to different planes, etruding, different thicknesses etc... Nothing works.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[blair]

The part might have been created (sideways). Rather than having a profile and extruding to the thickness, the part may have it's base sketch as a "slice" or cross section and then extruded. Normally you create your sketch on the XY axis with the thickness/height being the Z. This part may have the base sketch being on a YZ and the thickness/height being on the X.

This shouldn't be a problem if you are only dealing with a 2D profile, but if it's a 3D shape you are bringing in to the NC software it can be a problem.

Software such as Striker Systems requires the Inventor files to be a Sheet-Metal Inventor file, as it reads the "Thickness" parameter to sort the parts by thickness. Someone could a slipped you a standard IPT file.