from dwg to dxf to stl to gcode: too many steps?

[ghedo]

ok,
i'm a complete noob trying to understand and study before taking decisions.

I don't know if this is the right place to post this thread, this forum is so deep of informations that searching a particular item becomes a hard work.

There must be something wrong in the way I design 3D objects.

Design a rectangle in progecad, extrude, ok, is a cube, save it in acad12 dxf ascii format. Open it in LazyCam, doesn't work, no 3rd dimension.

If I open the dxf in AceConverter and convert, it always writes the same lines...

If I open dxf in MeshCam it says "there are no polygons, be sure the file was created using 3d faces"....

BUT I Open it with VisualMill, ok, I can see it, save in STL format. Open it in MeshCam, ok, post gcode, open it in MAch3, I can see the path and the 3rd dimension...

Things don't change if I design a solid, neither if I do it in Autocad.

There is something I'm doing wrong, maybe is due to the evaluation versions? or what?

thanks

[ger21]

Can Progecad export an .stl? V12 .dxf doesn't support solids, and neither LazyCAM nor ACE will work with a 3D .dxf.

You're trying to use different programs that require different formats.

For LazyCAM and ACE, you would just draw a 2D rectangle. No extrusions, they won't work.

For MeshCAM, with a 3d Solid Cube, in AutoCAD, you can export as an .stl file under File>Export.

You can't save a solid as a .dxf in AutoCAD and get it to work in MeshCAM.

I have to assume that Progecad is basically the same as AutoCAD.

[yohudi]

Originally Posted by ghedo ok, i'm a complete noob trying to understand and study before taking decisions. I don't know if this is the right place to post this thread, this forum is so deep of informations that searching a particular item becomes a hard work. There must be something wrong in the way I design 3D objects. Design a rectangle in progecad, extrude, ok, is a cube, save it in acad12 dxf ascii format. Open it in LazyCam, doesn't work, no 3rd dimension. If I open the dxf in AceConverter and convert, it always writes the same lines... If I open dxf in MeshCam it says "there are no polygons, be sure the file was created using 3d faces".... BUT I Open it with VisualMill, ok, I can see it, save in STL format. Open it in MeshCam, ok, post gcode, open it in MAch3, I can see the path and the 3rd dimension... Things don't change if I design a solid, neither if I do it in Autocad. There is something I'm doing wrong, maybe is due to the evaluation versions? or what? thanks

From your description It sounds as if your export to .DXF ascii format is either only comprised of nodes and connecting lines.... or if the 3D faces are present they may have 'face normals' facing the wong way. Put simply this just means the object could be inside out.

Some coding applications are unaffected by the orientation of 3D faces but some will not see the faces if they have 'flipped normals'.

An easy way to check this is to use a FREE utility like MESHlab to view your stl file. If the face normals are flipped, MESHLab can correct this problem.
There's a link to MESHlab in the 'Essentials' area at http://cnc4free.org

hope this helps

Danny (aka Yohudi)