Nested parts with holes on separate layer

Problems and questions
1

I’ve just turned a job away after spending hours in frustration trying to do the cam work.

This is for a plasma cutting job. In Coreldraw I create a few different parts, each with bolt holes in. Then I create copies of those different parts and nest them all nicely (in Coreldraw).

I export this file and import into Sheetcam as “one part”. Everything perfect so far.

Now I need to give separate operations to the holes and the outer contours of the shapes. So I put all the holes on one layer and the perimeters of the shapes on another layer.

However when I do this Sheetcam wants to cut all the holes first (everywhere on every part) THEN cut all the outer perimeters afterwards.
I have “Keep parts together” selected but that doesn’t seem to make any difference.

I want each part to cut fully before moving onto the next part, i.e. part 1 gets it’s holes cut with the hole cutting operation, then cuts it’s outer perimeter with the normal operation, then the cut moves onto part 2 and cuts its holes with the hole cutting operation, and so forth.

It’s easy to do when the holes and outer perimeter are on the same layer but I don’t know if it’s possible once you put the holes on a different layer.

So I don’t know if I’m missing something or does Sheetcam basically treat any contours put on a different layer, as completely different parts. If so it would be good to have a “sub-layer” feature so any internal cuts/holes can still have different operations applied BUT are otherwise not treated as different parts.

Keith.

2

After setting up your operations right-click on the part name in the parts window and select ‘break up manually nested drawing’. That breaks your drawing into individual parts. Now go to Options->job options->Nesting and make sure optimisation is set to ‘keep parts together’.

That will do what you want.

3

Thanks a million Les.

I got as far as the “Break up manually nested drawing” but was using the wrong “Keep parts together” (the one in the operation).

Keith.

4

Hi Les,

Another little issue I don’t know how to get around. This is the sequence of events:

“Keep parts together” already selected as you explained.

Put holes on separate layer and apply operation A

Put code snippets before and after operation A

Apply operation B to perimeter layer

Use “Quick Cut Sequence” to place start points on perimeter cuts. The outer perimeter layer parts are what I want to base my start point sequence on. The holes layer doesn’t matter.

Break apart manually nested drawing

Everything is great and the gcode is processed fine with the code snippets in place for every single part, BUT…

The cut sequence changed after “Break apart manually nested drawing”.

Is there any way around this one ?

Keith.

5

You would have to set the cut sequence after breaking the drawing.
Are these parts all the same? If so you may be better nesting them in SheetCam rather than in cad.

6

Thanks Les,

and sorry for the delayed reply. Been setting up dual boot on my PC with Windows 7 64 bit and the updates are very problematic.

There’s several different parts amongst the nest Les. I normally do nesting in Coreldraw because it’s so easy and efficient. Then I export it all as “one part”.

It would be a fantastic upgrade to Sheetcam if it could maintain the start point order (using the start points on the perimeter layer) on such cuts when “Break apart manually nested cut” was used. Some nested cuts could be a mix of quite a few different parts.

Keith.