Hi, fist time poster here with a few newbie questions. Last year I downloaded a file for an open source hex walker, which I took to the local fablab to cut. The laser cutter they have worked fine for my application, but I did notice two issues:
1) the cutting time was ridiculously long, but I'm pretty sure that was down to my file. I noticed that the patterns on my file were made up out of separate 'lines' or paths if you will. So for example to cut a triangle, the file would have had three separate lines that overlapped at the nodes. The issue with this is that the file contained thousands of these lines, and for some reason the cutter would make a cut on the for example the left hand side of the work piece then travel elsewhere to make another cut, then again travel somewhere else to make yet another cut. so all in all more time was spent on positioning the cutter than was on cutting. am I correct in thinking that the problem was the separate lines?
2) I also noticed that the priority for cutting was not how I wanted it. For example: to cut a triangle with a circular hole in it I would like the circle to be cut first, and then the triangle. Why? well I noticed that some of the holes were skewed, I recon this is due to the cut material sagging a bit after it had been cut out of the material, so it was no longer level on the floor of the cutter.
ah,
from 9:00 onwards, that question has been answered!!
As you might have noticed, my use of the correct jargon is severely lacking. and it is hampering my searches on google to find solutions to these problems. Anyone out there that can comment on my problems and use the correct names for parts and processes?
Creating cutter jobs
Reply with Quote
