Parts with holes

[erik]

So, I need to cut my holes first and the part second, right? but I do not need to cut ALL the holes and then ALL the outsides.

Does anyone know how to do this?

[Les Newell]

How is your job set up? Are all of your parts in one drawing or are they nested as parts in SheetCam?

[erik]

I use a nesting program to do the nesting and import the whole dxf. I think I got it working, though, when I hit separate manually nested parts. After I export the gcode, when I carry the code to the burn table, all the outer cuts have flipped to inner cuts, and I have no idea why.

[Les Newell]

In that case don't break up your sheet into individual parts. In your cut operation go to the cut path tab and set the cutting rules to 'Keep parts together'. Make sure optimisation is set to 'Auto'. If yor inside and outside contours are on the same layer SheetCam will take care of the rest.

[erik]

Well, I figured out the problem I was having when I swapped to a different gcode program. There was an option to output machine information/speeds etc., on that program.

Is there such a toggle on sheetcam? I don't need to be outputting kerf and speed to the table; the operator does that manually per cut.

[Les Newell]

SheetCam applies the kerf offset to the tool paths. If you apply the kerf offset in the control you will get odd things happening.

[erik]

well, that's fine, but what about the speed

[Les Newell]

That is done in the post processor. What post are you using?

[David_Lelen01]

FWIW, our plasma also controls the feeds, kerf, etc. on the interface so I modified an existing post to not output anything other than the toolpath. No feeds or anything else. And I just use a kerf of 0.001" in SheetCAM. This minor offset is insignificant since the tolerance of the plasma is +/- 0.015" anyways. Works perfectly well. I was not able to just not offset the toolpath in the operation because then you wont get the G41 or G42 codes output and the interface wont know which way to offset.