bevel cut on plate to NC

[Anonymous]

Hi there,

we export our plates through .dxf to a machine.

Are there procedures to export the bevel cut in a way the machine can read it automatically?

E. g, the representation by a line in a specific layer, wich the software can filter through metadata...the name of the layer, the colour, etc.

It would apply both to 3D laser  plate work,  as  a cnc woodworking machine with 4  axis which chooses a specific milling cutter for a specific angle.

Any strategy which allows me to go home 2 hours earlier is highly appreciated!

Kind regards,

Willem

[Sebastian_Eiche]

maybe I misunderstand your thread, but if you use the bevel cut command in AS and then create DXf files, this bevel cut is created as lines which are located on "extra" layer "welding preparation".
 I tested it with a plate:

[Anonymous]

Hi Sebastian,

thanks for your reply.

Hmm...in my plate it's layer 0

Which style do you use?

I presume it is not contained in the managment tool....

Kind regards,

Willem

[Sebastian_Eiche · Accepted solution]

Not a detail, just press the dxf button of Advance Steel in the output tab. Advance Steel will create dxf files of his own

[markhubrich · Accepted solution]

What plate nesting software are you using? I know that with Hypertherm Pronest in order to get the bevels processed automatically using the "one-click" function the layer names of each side of the plate to receive a bevel need to be named special so the nest software knows what bevel type to apply to that line. It's been a while since I messed with it because I couldn't get AS to do what I wanted. The operator nesting the plate has to manually edit the part and create bevel info. I now add the "bevel" comment to the remark of the plate so at least the shop can sort out what plate the operator needs to pay closer attention too for bevel.

[Anonymous]

Hi Sebastian,

thank you, this is a first step.

If metadata regarding the bevel would come through, there were even more posibilities.

Thank you.

Willem

[Anonymous]

Hi  Mark,

I use "Optinest" from Boole, which is great value for money, but developed for Woodworking.

Apparently, high end laser cutting machines have CAD software which can read individual step files containing plates, and treat them as 3D geometry. The same software can apply nesting too.

But I want to use your procedure, in which the type of mill is recognized  through metadata.

It wood be nice if AS would give the angle to the name of the layer of the welding preparations.

Il submit it as an idea, I expect one vote at least!

Kind regards,

Willem

[Sebastian_Eiche]

sorry but how many layers do you want t have in your DXF? There're companies which did real big plates with many different weld preparation on it.

could the machines read theses layers and interpret them correct? I don't have heard about such a option.

[Anonymous]

Hi Sebastian,

for each different angle, a different layer, applied to all  the weld preparations of this angle.

I posted it as an idea, do not hesitate to vote for it....

Kind regards,

Willem

[Sebastian_Eiche]

yes I understand it, but the question is, could the software of the machine read this information? This would interest me.

[Anonymous]

Hi Sebastian,

i can use text within the .dxf, filename and layer name as container of metadata.

But Nesting and machine operating is different software in my procedure....

Kind regards

Willem

[markhubrich]

@Sebastian_Eiche  Hypertherm Pronest gets the bevel info this way. It doesn't work when importing .nc1 but when dxf or dwg are imported and layers are assigned properly it's great and saves time. It looks like below...  The highlighted shows that the selected line should be beveled, top=45, bottom = 45, land =.25, land height = .25

It works like this..

[Sebastian_Eiche]

that's really interesting.

Is there a definition in those files which side of a plate is top or bottom? Otherwise a definition of the T or B character could be a problem. 
by the way: for Advance Steel it's not possible to get any information of the weld processing. this would be great to have a few information which could be used for labeling or something. I could imagine this would help a few people here.

[markhubrich]

Enabling scribe or etching(whatever AS calls it) for the signature or layout inscribing, this will always be on top.

[Sebastian_Eiche]

so meaning of the pic you send of "top" and "bottom" from the Help site is not a predefined side, it's the definition of the object like it's inserted in the machine, right?
I just want to understand, because I think this is maybe very difficult to create by developers. Advance Steel Objects have an internal Coordinate System and therefor there's a top side and so on. If the weld preparation is on this side, it will maybe shown as visible edge and this could be used for "top" orientation, but if the object is move in another way in the machine, the result would be the wrong one.
Hopefully this was not to confusing 😃

[markhubrich]

I'm not sure as it hasn't been an issue for me. A few times I had issue but I just placed a punch mark on the plate and problem solved. The scribing process ignores any automatically placed layout scribe on back of plate because the machine cannot scribe on the back. If a scribe is manually placed on one side that becomes the top.

[Anonymous]

Hi @markhubrich , could you please explain how exactly you map your layer in pronest, because I'm trying to make auto bevel work and I am having a hard time doing it.

Thanks a lot!

[markhubrich]

What version of Pronest are you using? 

I attached a few pages from the Pronest manual that should help you.