Hello,
I am having some issues getting chains to form. I am new to the program and this has been my biggest struggle. I've been able to get it to work on occasion but usually it doesn't work how I want it to.
I've more or less got the gist of it now. It wont chain over the top of your lines, and you have to set the maximum distance of how far you want it to cut during the chain. I'd love to know a work around for chaining over your lines if there is any. The chains I want to make would go over the top of already cut material so I don't see any issue with it just cutting over them. (I'm plasma cutting by the way if that matters)
Anyway my current issue has stumped me. I have two pieces next to each other with open area to chain across, but SheetCam wont generate the chain for some reason. I'm not sure if it is my drawing or SheetCam itself. (I drew this up in Affinity 2) I have a picture attached showing my issue.
In my experience, cutting across kerfs with a plasma doesn't work very well. Usually you get a flameout due to lack of material in that area.
Not sure about your drawing. Possibly because the 2 parts have the kerfs touching in the center
Les Newell wrote: ↑Thu Jun 15, 2023 12:07 pm
I don't see any obvious reason why it should not chain tat open area. Could you send me a job file (file->save job) with those cuts set up.
I had to run this though my debugger to figure out what is going on. The issue is that you are using no offset. With no offset, SheetCam has no idea what part of your drawing is the part you actually want to keep and what is waste. To make sure it does not accidentally chain across an area you actually need, it does not apply any chaining. Chaining only works for an outside offset.
Les Newell wrote: ↑Fri Jun 16, 2023 3:18 pm
Chaining only works for an outside offset.
Ahh I see, that makes sense. Thank you for the help! Follow up question and a bit of a longshot but, is there a way to make SheetCam chain over the top of previously cut lines. I know it avoids cutting over lines, but I’d love to be able to chain continuously by crossing already cut lines. If not, I’m sure I can figure out some other solution.
The chaining algorithm is fairly basic. If it can't get a direct shot to the next start point it won't chain. I made it ultra conservative to prevent accidentally ruining a part.
