AutoCad Designed Logo

[gopackgo]

AutoCad Trouble I drew a logo to machine on my homemade CNC router but I'm unable to cut the whole thing. The logo is 3 letters inside some ovals. The 3 letters get cut but not the ovals. I am using a registered copy of Mach 2 and have cut other parts successfully. I have tried using pedit to make the logo 1 object but it didn't work. I couldn't include a copy of the logo because a .dwg is an invalid file for the cnczone but hopefully you guys can give me some advice.
Jerry

[Moondog]

Originally Posted by gopackgo AutoCad Trouble I drew a logo to machine on my homemade CNC router but I'm unable to cut the whole thing. The logo is 3 letters inside some ovals. The 3 letters get cut but not the ovals. I am using a registered copy of Mach 2 and have cut other parts successfully. I have tried using pedit to make the logo 1 object but it didn't work. I couldn't include a copy of the logo because a .dwg is an invalid file for the cnczone but hopefully you guys can give me some advice. Jerry

Jerry..

I am assuming from your post that you are importing the CAD file directly into Mach2. Also try saving the file as a DXF. I think you need to put the DWG file through a Post processor to generate the G code before using it in Mach2.
Mach2 only handles very simple drawing files directly. Download a copy of Sheetcam and then copy your file into sheetcam. You can then set toolpaths etc and output to a Mach2 Postprocessor file. You shouldn't have any problems then.

cheers

[ger21]

If your ovals are ellipses, Mach 2 probably can't read them. Try changing the pellipse variable to 1. Just type pellipse, type 1 and hit enter. This will draw your ellipses as a series of arcs. This will only affect NEWLY DRAWN ellipses, though.

You could also try saving your drawing as a version 12 .dxf, which should convert the ellipses into a lot of short straight line segments. Either method should work.

I'd also recommend SheetCAM http://www.sheetcam.com but I think it may have the same problem with ellipses. But the same fixes will work for SheetCAM, as well.

[gopackgo]

I took your advice and bought a license for SheetCam and so far I like it. I also made the ellipses using connected arcs and that worked well. So Sunday night was a good night, the Packers won and I learned something new and valuable about my machine.