sheetcam.com

I'm using a Torchmate CAD program to produce designs and toolpaths, importing into Sheetcam as DXF. When cutting a group of items with inside cuts, it will always cut ALL the insides first,then the outsides. I have "keep pieces together" checked in the cutting dialog box, but it doesn't dot it. Any help would be appreciated.

I draw everything that I want cut in a certain order into its own layer. Once I get the drawing into sheetcam, I apply the plasma processes to each layer in the order that I want the cuts to happen. There's probably a better way to do it but that's been working for me.

I can now keep the pieces together, by breaking up the manually nested layout, but can't always sequence them the way I want. If I sequence first, then break up , it does keep the pieces together, but cuts in its own order, not mine. If I break up first, then it won't let me sequence the whole sheet. I have a lot of interior cuts and tip-ups are a problem, so would really like to squence the entire job.

Up until last week, I had only done tiny jobs, for testing during setup. Last Friday, the time finally came to cut out a whole sheet. I fought sheetcam for hours trying to get it to cut in an order that made sense. I tried moving start points and shuffling them around everywhere and the first point just wouldn't change. I think it's programmed to jump around the sheet to prevent warping but it sure makes things take a long time and definitely makes it more prone to catching tip ups.

So far, the only way I've found to have full control over the cut process is to save each cut to a different layer in the drawing then assign the machine operations in the order hat I want. I have a system for naming the layers so it's really easy when it comes time to select them for machine operations. I name each cut on the part, then add the part number. I've still got a ton to learn about sheetcam so for now at least, I'm just happy to have found a workaround.