How to create a drilling pattern?

[ringram2077]

What's the easiest way to create a simple drill (hole) pattern with CAD (dxf) ? Say I want to drill 1/8" holes at various places. I could probably do something with G-Code but looking for a simpler(easier) solution.

Thanks

[ger21]

Draw some circles and use a CAM program?

[Geof]

Is it a regular pattern, all the X spaces the same all the Y spaces the same and oriented parallel to your machine axes?

[ringram2077]

Not necessarily a pattern. I thought I could use my CNC router to drill holes in a 1/8" aluminum plate (maybe more precision than I could do with a hand drill. If I use a circle with a zero radius this woud make a point that would show in a dxf file. Would be nice to be able to define a depth to drill. This is probably a dumb newbie question but should be a simple way to do this.

Thanks

[ger21]

Depends what you're converting the .dxf with. Most CAM programs let you specify depth by layer.

Most CAD programs let you draw actual points. Not sure if a circle with zero radius is actually a point in a .dxf file.

[ringram2077]

Right now I am limited to LazyCam. My CAD choices are TurboCAD and Alibre. Placing a point was what I first thought about but didn't see on the menu. A zero radius circle does seem to show up as a point. When you say specify depth by layer do you mean you can separate entities and put them on different layers ?

[ger21]

Originally Posted by ringram2077 When you say specify depth by layer do you mean you can separate entities and put them on different layers ?

Yes, draw different depths on different layers and assign the depths per layer in LazyCAM.

[eldata]

Originally Posted by ringram2077 What's the easiest way to create a simple drill (hole) pattern with CAD (dxf) ? Say I want to drill 1/8" holes at various places. I could probably do something with G-Code but looking for a simpler(easier) solution. Thanks

Easiest way for me and depending on the size of the pattern would be using the Excellon CAM processor output from a PCB editing program like Eagle and converting it to G-Code the same way printed circuit boards (PCBs) are drilled. In fact that's what I did here in order to CNC drill several 1/8" holes in a sheet of Alu for a case;

http://www.pbase.com/eldata/image/46673176
http://www.pbase.com/eldata/image/46673180

[High Seas]

DO you have to do it in dxf are you modding a drawing or something?

Might try CAM Bam - it does drilling - haven't tried it but looks so cool I'm gonna.
http://www.brusselsprout.org/CAMBAM/...s/T3_Drilling/
gets you right to the tut and he's a member too!
Free (for now?)

Jim

[ringram2077]

Jim
Thanks for the link. Looks pretty good, however as simple as it seems to operate I can't get it to work correctly. Looking at the nc file to drill four holes, the spindle drops down and moves to all four locations but does not retract before moving to the next hole location. Could be operator error.

UPDATE:
I was looking at the g-code with NCPlot and it did not look like the spindle retracted between holes. However when I loaded it into Mach3 and did a test run it DID indeed restract between holes just as you would expect ! So, yes CamBam does do what I was looking for.

Thanks

[doanwannapickle]

Originally Posted by High Seas DO you have to do it in dxf are you modding a drawing or something? Might try CAM Bam - it does drilling - haven't tried it but looks so cool I'm gonna. http://www.brusselsprout.org/CAMBAM/...s/T3_Drilling/ gets you right to the tut and he's a member too! Free (for now?) Jim

I've just started using CamBam. It works a bit different and is almost bereft of documentation but once you get your head around it, it really works slick.

Regards,
Walt