Markings on Plates

[gerrardhickson]

Hi All,

I'm looking for a way to mark a boundary (or other geometry) on a plate. The plates in my example will be perforated on a turret punch, so I need to display the boundary for those perforations. In Inventor we typically use a 'face split' to create a boundary that does not effect the plate geometry. This split shows up on the DXF and it added to a unique layer at the DXF stage.
I'm trying to replicate this work flow in Advance Steel, but I can't see any way to add a marking to the plate.

Any suggestions?

[Rob_Merriman · Accepted solution]

Hi @gerrardhickson 

I have a possible workflow which I think will give you what you want.

1. Draw a polyline of your panel size

2. Offset this polyline to create your boundary, so you have 1 polyline for the plate, 1 for the boundary

3. Use the Plate at Polyline command to create your infil panels

4. The use the Polygon contour command to sut out the inner boundary

5. I dont think you want it to cut the whole plate away, so you can set the boundary options to only cut half the plate, as if somone was using a router

6. From the tests I have just run I needed to make the contour half the plate thickness, so 10mm plate, at least 10mm contour

7. In your NC settings you have the option to control the layer name and colour, there is a layer for inner contour

8. When you run a DXF file you will get the outer contour and inner contour.

I made a screencast showing the steps, including the issues I had with the odd shaped panel, I had to change the contour settings - https://autode.sk/3ENqPTj

[gerrardhickson]

Hi Rob,

This is a potential solution. It does confuse things when we have actual inner contours too. However, we may be able to clean that up in the DXF using some VBA. In our case, the perforation boundary will be the largest internal contour by a long way, so that makes for an easy filter.

Regards