Need Help!- Starting a JOE 2006 Long parts cutting question

[Bimmerkc1]

OK so I've had the JGRO for about a year now and every time i want to do something i wish i had more work area. My plan was to get the experience building the JGRO and then use it to cut a JOE anyway so the time has come.
I've read many posts and understand that on my machine some of the Joe parts are going to be bigger than my working area. I know that Joe has even cut some of the long parts of his kit into 2 pieces for easier shipping. I understand the concept of setting up a jig and cutting part of a piece and then moving it to finish the cut. What i can't figure out is how to split a DWG into multiple pieces with an overlap so i can make my parts in 2 or more steps. I've been using Vcarve and if i edit a DWG in Autocad lets say the long pieces of the bottom gantry and split the file lets say 14 inches in and save it. and then come back and split the file again at say 12 inches and save the other half this should give me an overlap and as long as i jig the pieces accurately then i know i can make the cut. When i try to save the file to gcode in Vcarve i get 1 open vector and of course I'm going to have 1 open vector because I'm trying to split a file and save it in 2 parts. I don't really want to learn another cam package but i do have access to a few because my room mate work in a machining facility. Is there something really obvious I'm missing here or let me hear form some folks who are doing this and describe what process you go through. Like i said before i searched and even saw some cool videos on doing this but my head hurts from banging it on the wall all weekend. Thanks for any help anyone can give.

Scott

[cuemaker1]

Bimmer,
When I do long parts I use Vcarve also. I leave the part in one piece in the beginning and mark off however long I have on my table to work with. I then put guides every break point I want and node edit so it breaks the part up into sections. Carefully marking and aligning is a necessity. I save the sections in #1,2,3 etc files. Then do a section at a time moving the part the specified amount, resetting to 0 and doing the next section, etc... It works great depending on how good you have marked and aligned the section. I have done many projects this way and after the first couple of screwups I have the technique down pretty good....

Others may have better ways, but that's mine and I'm sticking to it for now...

[Bimmerkc1]

Well after 300 and some views it's good to see a reply.
Thanks so much for your process to get long parts.
I messed around with node editing briefly and kinda see where you are going but i still have the open vector issue after i do a vector cut. If i close the vector then I'll have a cut and my part won't be one big piece anymore.
Is there another way to close all vectors or at least fool the software into closing vectors even when one end is open? I'll post a few pictures and maybe you can see what I'm talking about.

Thanks,

Scott

[calgrdnr]

You might ask your questions in the Joes 2006 section http://www.cnczone.com/forums/joes_cnc_model_2006/

Here is how Tyler and Spence did it http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showpo...4&postcount=10

You could ask the forum Gods to move this there for you ....

You can cut a open vector using prifile path . I had to choose inside/left to get it to work right . I zipped the crv file hope it works that way you can see what I did

Good luck


Kent

[Bimmerkc1]

Thanks for uploading the file but unfortunatly i'm still using an older Vcarve version 3 so i couldn't open the file.

How do i get the mediators to move this thread?

Thanks,

Scott

[Tony Mac]

Hi Scott,

If you PM me with your email address I'll see what we can do to get you up to date with the software.

Tony