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Need help with workflow on a project!

Anonymous

Need help with workflow on a project!

Anonymous
Not applicable

Hey! So I'm working on some projects trying to get my workflow as solid as possible. I've followed a lot of tutorials but not many of them are really doing anything like what I'm doing so a lot of the tips aren't really transferable. I was wondering if someone could take my files and quickly show me the easiest and least painful way to accomplish what I want.

 

So here's the DXF and PSD files, you can probably ignore the PSD but I'm just keeping my whole workflow in there.

 

So what I need to do!

 

I want to make this layered art, have it cut out, then paint each layer different colors for some cool effects. I know I could just have it cut out of a single piece, but then painting it would be a nightmare. A lot easier to just paint each layer then stack them.

 

So in the dxf file, (PSD may be more clear), you'll see a top layer, that's supposed to be the top layer. The next shape is the next layer, and so on. On the bottom, I'd have just a solid piece as a base for it to sit on (and plug the hole of the smallest layer) and I'm ready to go. So in the end, that's 7 layers. (6 with cuts)

 

Now, I need these to be a specific size. For simplicity, I'll say 10"x10". But I want a 1" 'built in frame' that's flush with the top layer. this 'built in frame' will be on every layer so when I stack the pieces, there will be an inch of nothing around the whole perimeter. It'll only really show on the top right, bottom middle, and left middle, because on the other sides, the top layer and the frame will be flush.

 

The DXF layers can overhang the actual piece a little, it's okay if a tiny bit is cut off. it doesn't need to fit perfectly. In fact, the 'faux frame' should cover the edges at least a bit. Think of the frame as a mat that is on every layer. I uploaded a render of this faux frame and how itll look when all the layers are stacked. (Final.png) Theres a blue line on the image, but the 'frame' is exactly the same height as the top layer. (It's built in to each layer)

 

Okay, so that's how it's supposed to look once it's assembled, BUT I'm not cutting it out of a single piece of material. If I was, I could just make toolpaths and have it cut that file shown in Final.png

 

I'm not sure exactly how sketches and bodies and whatnot work. I've followed tutorials but I don't have a complete grasp. Let me know if I'm making this more complex than it needs to be. Here's what I'm trying:

 

Im trying to make a 10in x 10in sketch with a 1in offset(for the frame). I need to somehow turn that into 2 bodies. One that's 10"x10", and one that's just the 1" perimeter. Each of the 6 layers I need to cut separately is 1/8" thick. So I make 6 copies of the 10x10 body, extrude each of the 6 sketch layers onto each of those bodies, then I take the 1" border body, make 6 copies and merge each copy with each layer that now has a hole in it.

Now I can just set the 2d toolpaths on each body and cut them each out 1 at a time on a 1/8" layer on my CNC and stack them. Since my pieces of material are actually 12"x12", I can make a corner square and a quick toolpath to cut out the piece at exactly 10x10 so each pieces frames line up perfectly.

 

So that's the workflow that's in my head. It's probably an extremely inefficient way of doing it. Since I'd be doing hundreds of these projects, would there be some sort of way to make a template so I don't need to do all these steps each time? Is there a better way to do it?

I'd really appreciate if someone walked through the projects real quick and let me know the best way to pull it off!

 

 

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daniel_lyall
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Please don't attach pictures they do not come up for me, there is an option to embed Photos on the editor toolbar to embed them, please use this option.

 

Can you attach the fusion file with all the .dxf in it already To attach a file Go to File -> Export and save as a .F3D Archive File and attach it to your next post, if you can not post the file you can PM it to me or say in your next post you can not post the file and one of the Guys that do NDA work will help.


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Daniel Lyall
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Anonymous
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Thanks! I posted the f3d file, it's blank it just has the dxf file in there.

And here's the picture embedded! This isn't what I'm trying to make, this is how it'll look after it's all stacked, with the border 'overriding' each layer.

 

Right now, I make a 10x10" sketch, put a 1" offset on it, then turn the 10x10" one into a body and the offset border as an object. Then I make 6 copies of the 10x10, stick a layer from the dxf on each one, then I copy and paste the border body 6 times and merge one with each layer. Just wondering if there's a way smarter faster way to do this, as it'll be something I need to do thousands of times and it'd be really nice to find a quick way to achieve it with templates or something to minimize the setup time!

 

Final.PNG

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engineguy
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@Anonymous 

 

Going to be hard to come up with anything due to problems with your .DXF and .f3d files, in your original post the DXF file opened up with the square size of 69.444 inches, the f3d file has the square as 13.889 inches so it is hard to come up with anything constructive I`m afraid :disappointed_face: :disappointed_face:

Are you going to be making these "boxes" with lots of different shapes ??

Every "box" will have the 6 different levels but each "box" will have a set of 6 different shapes to all the hundreds of other "boxes", is this correct or have I got the wrong idea ???

Maybe you are going to make say 50 "boxes" all identical and then another batch of 50 "boxes" wirh a different set of shapes/colours.

What kind of machine are you going to be cutting on, are you going to be cutting from large sheets of material ??

Many question that need answers :slightly_smiling_face: :slightly_smiling_face: :slightly_smiling_face:

 

Regards

Rob

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daniel_lyall
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 To make it look better, If you add a squire around the .dxf that is just inside all of the layers so if you extruded it would chop through everything, what's below with the box around the model is the very last extrude.

 

Screen Shot 2020-08-24 at 1.01.15 PM.png

 

To get the inside bits like above I extruded a layer down 2mm (the layer turns off automaticly) then the next layer is extruded down 2 mm again by useing extrude from object and selecting the bottom of the first extrude as the object then repeating to all layers are done.

 

To do the negative you would extrude everything down by 6 times the layer hight plus bottom thickniss you want to then extrudeing each layier down from the first to last layer going backwards from Say each layer is 2 mm so thats 12, 10 ,8 so on.

This is how I would do it.


Win10 pro | 16 GB ram | 4 GB graphics Quadro K2200 | Intel(R) 8Xeon(R) CPU E5-1620 v3 @ 3.50GHz 3.50 GHz

Daniel Lyall
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Anonymous
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I scaled down the dxf file in the second post because it only needs to be stuck on a 10x10 object, in the original post it was 10x larger than that. The actual scale of the shapes doesnt need to be perfect, as long as I can stick it on the 10x10 square and then apply the border to it after.

 

The boxes will mainly all be the same size. (10"x10"), there could be a few other sizes but If I could create a template I'd just make a few different ones. The shapes on the dxfs will almost all be different each project. The odd one I'd do multiple times but once I have a job set up I can just save that and make another copy of it easy. The main thing is the ability to create new setups. I'm on a Shapeoko CNC router, and Ill likely be cutting the material down beforehand to 11x11 or so to allow for that 1" to be cut off 2 of the sides while keeping the boxes aligned

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Anonymous
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Thanks! I didn't know you could extrude from object and select the bottom of the previous one. I was just extruding the first layer by 2, second by 4, third by 6, etc. Gets a little hard to remember what number youre at sometimes lol.

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daniel_lyall
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Setting up a template will depend if the .dxf have a center point or not if they do all you need to do is model the machines table in and stick a point at the point where you want the first one to be then pattern it to how you want it if 11 X 11 then you world put a point at 5.75 Y 5.75 X then the gap between points would be 11.25 X 11.25Y to have a 1/2 gap between each one.

If it does not have a center point you will use dimensions to position the 2 rectangles and you can use this as the center point. 

 

Then each set of dxf you would position them centered on the point and sketch two center rectangles (or have them done already)of whatever you want the inside size to be and the outside one at 11 x 11 it would also help if each set was inside its own component then you have a component that can just be a copy past new or inserted over and over again also you can set the tool paths as a template then it is just created from template for the toolpaths and then just select the boundry, using 3D tool paths make this quick and easy.

Screen Shot 2020-08-24 at 4.49.49 PM.png


Win10 pro | 16 GB ram | 4 GB graphics Quadro K2200 | Intel(R) 8Xeon(R) CPU E5-1620 v3 @ 3.50GHz 3.50 GHz

Daniel Lyall
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My Websight, Daniels Wheelchair Customisations.
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Anonymous
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Fantastic! Few more questions for this, if I made a component with the 10x10 or 11x11 sized body in it, is there a way to set that piece as an insertable element that I can just insert into any new document then work off? Or would it be better to just have a base file with that shape in it positioned correctly that I always start working off of?

 

Also, I know how to set up a scene then go to the CAM side and set up toolpaths for the whole scene using adaptive clearing and whatnot, but if I set up multiple toolpaths with the intention of switching out pieces of material for each one, is there a way to have it stop between each toolpath and ask me to confirm before it continues? Or does it just do all the toolpaths back to back without pausing if there's no tool change?

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daniel_lyall
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@Anonymous wrote:

Fantastic! Few more questions for this, if I made a component with the 10x10 or 11x11 sized body in it, is there a way to set that piece as an insertable element that I can just insert into any new document then work off? Or would it be better to just have a base file with that shape in it positioned correctly that I always start working off of?

 

You can do both Just have a master file that has a 10 X 10 and/or 11 x 11 body or sketch in it with a joint origin on it, you have the joint origin so you can use the joint tool to move the part around what is a single action what is simple and easy, as you would insert into currant desigin (the current desigin being your machine table master model what you do a save as to so it is a new file) then you use the joint tool to move the joint oragn to where you want it to be on the machine table model useing the joint command, useing the move tool you can endup with muiltable actions in a timeline (move action and capture postion) what can be a problem.

 

Also, I know how to set up a scene then go to the CAM side and set up toolpaths for the whole scene using adaptive clearing and whatnot, but if I set up multiple toolpaths with the intention of switching out pieces of material for each one, is there a way to have it stop between each toolpath and ask me to confirm before it continues? Or does it just do all the toolpaths back to back without pausing if there's no tool change?


You would use a pass-through or a manual NC using optional stop you just select it from the list and move it so it is in between two tool paths so it is where you want it to stop. Does the shapoko post have an optional stop in the user settings in the pre-post dialog?.


Win10 pro | 16 GB ram | 4 GB graphics Quadro K2200 | Intel(R) 8Xeon(R) CPU E5-1620 v3 @ 3.50GHz 3.50 GHz

Daniel Lyall
The Big Boss
Mach3 User
My Websight, Daniels Wheelchair Customisations.
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