weirdness when converting to cut paths

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Lanemfg
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weirdness when converting to cut paths

Post by Lanemfg »

So I have been paying closer attention to cut paths since I have been getting some weirdness happening and not sure why plasmacam would do this me?
These issues happen seemingly at random, in weird places and there is just a couple ways it happens, it also takes several minutes or more to go through and manually fix all these. Any help would be appreciated. I have included some pictures including the dxf of the part. This has also happened on big parts, like 48" x 96", lost on this one

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weldguy
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Re: weirdness when converting to cut paths

Post by weldguy »

That is weird.I am not a PlasmaCam user but I see that your dxf has a ton of nodes and it looks like this could be what is throwing off your generated cutpath as it offsets the cut for kerf trying the follow the node path. Just to see if this is it pick one of the problem corners where the loops are being generated and try eliminating the nodes in that area so the only node left is the one in the very corner of the direction change. Regenerate the cutpath and see if the loop is gone.
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Re: weirdness when converting to cut paths

Post by DXF »

After looking at your DXF file you have a lot of irregular or uneven lines that need to be fixed. I have been off setting like this in PlasmaCam for 20 years creating backup plates. Usually the inside corners overlap or if you have offset nodes they will also. Easy to fix.....detect them and use the trim tool.

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Re: weirdness when converting to cut paths

Post by rdj357 »

First, the crazy anomalies that happen in the middle of a path come from excess unnecessary nodes. To reduce those, before you convert, select the closed/open paths and press Ctrl-X to explode them, then while they are still selected press J to link them back together. Now make sure it's all selected and hit H for the smooth tool. Then type in .002 and press enter. This will clean up all unnecessary nodes and solve odd happenings 99% of the time.

Second, the little loops on inside corners are crossovers - if you have advanced design then just open the offset/convert tab and make sure the Exclude Crossovers box is checked before you convert. If you only have basic design then you can get rid of these by either designing your drawings with kerf already taken into account and then use a 0 kerf setting OR you can use the fillet tool on all inside corners less than 90º. Use a radius of at least half the kerf and you won't have any crossovers.
Lanemfg
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Re: weirdness when converting to cut paths

Post by Lanemfg »

Thank you all for your input. Though when I did What you said Robert, which I do have the advanced software, it made incomplete cut paths in 4 places, whether I had exclude crossovers checked or not, so that was weird.
But it is definitely a node issue, thank you, now if I could only get rid of divots in the finished piece...
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