Rotary plasma plugin and Structural Steel types

[rx_tx]

Greetings Les and everyone!

My first post here. I have some questions about Sheetcam rotary plugin as I could not find in-depth info about its capabilities. I would appreciate it if you could help me with the answers to my following questions
1) What type of structural steel is Sheetcam capable of handling?
a) Round tube - Yes
b) Square/Rectangle tube - Yes
c) "I" profile -
d) H profile -
e) C profile -
f) L profile -
g) T profile -
2) Is the output file compatible only with rotary chucks for plasma machines or does it work with rotating plasma heads (i.e bevel heads) as well?
3) Does Sheetcam have the capability to simulate the cutting paths for the items "c" to "g" in 3D?
3) What file formats does Sheetcam accept for cutting structural steel?
3) What will be the output file format?
Thank you in advance...

[Les Newell]

1) What type of structural steel is Sheetcam capable of handling?
a) Round tube - Yes
b) Square/Rectangle tube - Yes
c) "I" profile -
d) H profile -
e) C profile -
f) L profile -
g) T profile -

It has direct support for H profile. Other custom profiles can be generated from a drawing. However it has very limited support for cutting into corners. For instance if you cut the web of an H profile you have to be careful the torch won't hit the flanges. For this reason you will not be able to sever these sections.

2) Is the output file compatible only with rotary chucks for plasma machines or does it work with rotating plasma heads (i.e bevel heads) as well?

There is no beveling support.

3) Does Sheetcam have the capability to simulate the cutting paths for the items "c" to "g" in 3D?

Yes.

3) What file formats does Sheetcam accept for cutting structural steel?

dxf, svg and DSTV

3) What will be the output file format?

G-code.

[rx_tx]

Thanks for the reply, Les. It is great that Sheetcam supports all these profiles. I have a few questions left and I would appreciate it if you could clarify them.

It has direct support for H profile. Other custom profiles can be generated from a drawing. However it has very limited support for cutting into corners. For instance if you cut the web of an H profile you have to be careful the torch won't hit the flanges. For this reason you will not be able to sever these sections.

How limited is the support for cutting into the corners for H profiles? I can certainly watch out for the torch collision with flanges as long as the torch can get close to the corners at an angle so that a complete cut would be possible.
If you have a screenshot picture/video showing how close Sheetcam handles the corners during H profile cutting would be awesome.

There is no beveling support.

Just would like to clarify that I don't exactly need a 3D bevel head support. Instead, I wanted to rotate the torch only in one plane to get close to the corners of an H profile without rotating the chuck when cutting heavy H beams.
I am not sure how complicated it would be to program Sheetcam to rotate the torch head instead of the chuck, but having such ability would be great and it would open up a lot of possibilities.
Would there be any chance that this feature could be implemented in the future?

Thanks in advance...

[Les Newell]

I can certainly watch out for the torch collision with flanges as long as the torch can get close to the corners at an angle so that a complete cut would be possible.

That's the problem. The plugin does not support moving into corners at an angle.

[rx_tx]

I see...I now understand. Hope Sheetcam have this in future releases. Thanks anyway...