Nesting / layout of bodies for lasercut and link between bodies

mjoiniem
Observer

Nesting / layout of bodies for lasercut and link between bodies

mjoiniem
Observer
Observer

Hi,

 

I used the following tutorial to design box for laser cutting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vT_FH3lL-3A&t=454s

 

Once finished, I would like to put all the bodies on the same face of a panel to export a .dxf.

 

I did try to use the NEST add-in or the Align command BUT I get an errror.

Indeed the box was created with 2 rectangular patterns so that the both side  and front/back are linked together.

 

With Nest add-in I got an error telling me that there is a joint between bodies

With the align command, when I apply it on one face of a body it works but then the other bodies is also moving. 

 

Could somebody explain me a better way to do it ?

 

Thanks,

 

 

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SaeedHamza
Advisor
Advisor

First, could you share the file?

 

And just to make sure, when you said pattern, what was the pattern type in the pattern dialog box? was it a body or a component?

 

 

Saeed Hamza
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Brady_Fulton
Advocate
Advocate

Don't worry about sharing the file. Credit to @TrippyLighting for recommending the solution to me in the past. Instead of messing with your original design components. Create a new component (this is actually going to be an assembly with a copy of all your components inside it) Call it something like "Laser Assembly" then copy all your existing components, activate your new component and paste them in there, now you can use the align command or create new joints to arrange the layout for your laser cutter.

 

This is tedious if you have a lot of components or will only be using the output once. A quick and dirty solution would be to generate a new sketch on the face of each component, projecting the face to the sketch and exporting these sketches individually as DXF files, then import them all into your laser cutter software and arrange them there.

 

@prainsberry Since it only takes you 5 minutes to create awesome add ins 🙂 how about one where you select a single face from several components that aren't aligned and a single dxf gets created automagically? Tomorrow?? 😉

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prainsberry
Autodesk
Autodesk
Hmmmm LOL sounds pretty good actually.

Question would you prefer them to be in ‘blocks’ or just separate lines?


Patrick Rainsberry
Developer Advocate, Fusion 360
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Brady_Fulton
Advocate
Advocate

Definitely blocks. Can blow them up later if needed. They could all be at 0,0 too if it would save you a minute of coding!

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mjoiniem
Observer
Observer

Ok thanks. Actually it works as you mentioned, but when using the align command, I had to change from "Components" to "Body".

 

Here the example file if some people want to have a look:

http://a360.co/2AB30uz

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prainsberry
Autodesk
Autodesk

@Brady_Fulton

 

Ha! You caught me on a night while traveling, so seemed like a good way to spend some time in the hotel lobby bar.  

 

Here you go:

https://github.com/tapnair/DXFer

 

I didn't have a good way to test the block output.  Let me know if the results are as expected.  I think with different face orientations you are going to have them at strange orientations in the output, but with blocks especially it should be easy to move them around.

 

Leaving them at 0,0 was definitely easier, good call.

 

Let me know what you think.

 

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Patrick Rainsberry
Developer Advocate, Fusion 360
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prainsberry
Autodesk
Autodesk

Hey, also note if you want to use the Nester plugin, each individual component needs to be a 'component' . 

 

If you have two bodies in the same component you will get the behavior indicated above.  



Patrick Rainsberry
Developer Advocate, Fusion 360
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