Shop Floor

[CNCadmin]

Just got me a copy of ExcaliburCNC Shop Floor.

The interface looks good, I keep trying to use Acad commands, but that just out of habit. I need some pointers on creating tool paths. ( I know I should read the manual and I will I promise)

I'm trying to create a tool path form a imported DXF which is pretty self exsplainitory. When I get more time, I post my questions as I go along.

But any tips/pointers would be great!

[Merlin]

Given the importing of DXF, you might want to check the objects to make sure they are not part of an ACAD block (symbol in Excalibur). From the Tools pulldown menu, select Entitiy Properties...use this to select an entity to see its properties.

If you have symbols, from the symbols pulldown menu, select Unpack to effectively explode th symbols into lines and arcs. Do not assume that once you have unpacked the symbol that it is entirely unpacked...sometimes there are nested sysbols so unpack again.

Once you have lines and arcs and stuff, then you can run the Mill functions.

[MPE racing]

don't forget the chain button at the botton of the screen. (I haven't seen shop floor but I'm presuming it has that).....When doing a profile or trying to hilight a profile, you just need to click on one section of that and then hit the chain button to join them up without selecting all of them....Just saves a bit of tediousness if you don't know it's there or what it does.

Greig
Motorcycle Performance Engineering

[MPE racing]

There's also a button in the tools drop down that you can use to check for continuity of a chain prior to actuall chaining....This can be a good thing to do as well to make sure your drawing is as it should be.

Greig
MPE(getting lazy here)

[CNCadmin]

Is their a way to extrude a object?
Also can I render a soild?

[Merlin]

Most objects are turned into 3D with the Surfacing commands.

The NURBS surface commands has 2 extrude commands and a command called Linear Sweep. I believe the Linear Sweep is possibly what you are looking for. You can shortcut the entries of the points with this commands by only entering one axis...for example, if you want to sweep a curve(s) from Z0.0 to Z-2.0 then type it in exactly that way...using the Z prefix tells the command manager to assume X and Y are 0.0.