Cut Extruding multiple bodies in a flat pattern

[s.goan]

Hi folks

I am looking to CNC cut a flat pattern from a sheet of plywood. I have used the DXF bulk import utility which lays out all the pieces according to spacing, and it extrudes each piece 12mm thickness. Pretty straight forward and no problems there. 

I have 4 different patterns, each repeated 4 times for the CNC to cut from the sheet. 

The problem is that each pattern has different depths of cut. Some of the holes are pilot holes that are only 6mm deep, some of those squares and rectangles are actually pockets that are 4-8mm deep. Because of how the import works with the DXF, it just extrudes every closed profile to 12mm thickness as specified, so every interior shape is just a straight through hole. 

My question is; how can I group the pilot holes, 4mm pockets, 8mm pockets etc and just extrude them all at once to desired height?

I mean, I could tediously extrude one by one, but I really really don't want to do that. Also not robust if a depth changes. 

Any help much appreciated 

[whittakerdw]

When going to cut the holes, if all the holes are pre-selected, you just have to unselect them and select all the holes you want to cut to each depth. Can you share your file?

[whittakerdw]

I realized that my first reply may not have been very descriptive. I made a small part similar to the one of the ones you have, with multiple circles that I cut to depths that you had mentioned in your original post. I have attached a screencast to show what I did.

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/community/screencast/1ed31433-bc4d-4571-8c57-84902285ad30

I don't know what you did to get to where you are now, but a simple work around would be to extrude everything -12 mm including the circles, then make the sketch visible again and cut the desired circles to the desired depths of -4 mm, -6 mm, -8 mm, and -12 mm.

[davebYYPCU]

..... the DXF bulk import utility.

I don’t know of such a thing, (any links) however, 

Your work flow is backwards.  I would expect one of each 3d part, modelled, then Arrange / Nesting as required.  

Cam routines will work for the respective depths.

[s.goan]

Thanks for your response

I guess what I'm trying to ask is, how can I group all the specific features, say those rectangles, which are supposed to be a 6mm deep pocket, and perform some action on them (like changing depth from 6mm to 8mm) and have them all update simultaneously.

This would also come in especially helpful when I go to create toolpaths. All i'd have to do is click on the group, and the same pocket toolpath is created for all of them.

For reference, here is the original part modeled in Solidworks. The depth for the square pocket (it's actually for a fan) is at 6mm, then the circular hole all the way through. Also you'll three pilot holes that are only half depth. The rest of the holes are straight through, as well as the large rectangle

Then, imported the DXF from above, it comes into F360 with an automatic extrude looking like this. It still captures the full DXF, but it just extrudes the whole thing to a single height, leaving those different height features un extruded

So that means, 4 repetitions of this part, and every other part, I have to go through each one, and manually extrude everything to it's proper heights. This would also be another nightmare when I get to creating toolpaths

[whittakerdw]

If you watched the screencast I linked into my last reply, all you would have to do is select all the components you want to extrude to each height. You can only select the components for one depth at a time though. There is no way you can select all of them and have varying depths for each hole if that is what you are asking. If there are 4 different depths, there will be 4 different operations. As far as the imported dxf, if that is not letting you extrude, you will have to redraw the lines until it does let you extrude. I have to do that quite a bit and a lot of times it is around the filleted edges where they don't seem to fully connect. Again, if you would like to file>export as an .f3d and attach this drawing here I can take a better look at it and see whats going on.