swift cut mac3 plasma cutter

[Ashleighbashly]

hiya
don't know if anyone can help me weve got a new swift cut plasma cutter but when we go to cut the dxf file it says "external cutting profile open" doesn't anyone know how to change this? its saying it even with the files downloaded from this site?
tia

[jimcolt]

Best bet is to contact Swiftcut. They are a great company....have been selling a lot of machines in Europe for a few years....just getting planted in the U.S. It sounds like a simple setting change in your CAM software will likely solve the issue. Jim Colt Hypertherm

[Alan Shirley]

external cutting profile open means just that. its not the machine but the file. you need to check over the file and make sure its got no intersections or gaps in the outside line. youll be using liebllula as its a new machine. it will cut with internal cutting profiles open but not with external ones.
as youll have solid edge already installed theres a function called clean sketch that helps clean up the file its an icon with 3 squares and a paint brush. use that, save file and reopen in lieblulla see what happens after that.
for what its worth if your going to be cutting art and not parametric shapes or structural parts then get Corel Draw or inkscape as its much easier to clean up files in these programs and then you wont have external cutting profile open.

[Alan Shirley]

hiya
don't know if anyone can help me weve got a new swift cut plasma cutter but when we go to cut the dxf file it says "external cutting profile open" doesn't anyone know how to change this? its saying it even with the files downloaded from this site?
tia

another problem that sometimes causes this is too many nodes in the file you've downloaded or drawn, you can to some extent reduce them with solidedge but a proper drawing software makes it so much easier.
in my opinion its worth spending the money and buying corel draw, but youll have to decide on that

Alan

[tcaudle]

hiya
don't know if anyone can help me weve got a new swift cut plasma cutter but when we go to cut the dxf file it says "external cutting profile open" doesn't anyone know how to change this? its saying it even with the files downloaded from this site?
tia

How are you trying to cut a DXF file? MACH won't read a DXF (drawing) file. What CAM application are you using to generate the G-Code that MACH will read?

[Alan Shirley]

Liebllula is what swift-cut use programme made by an Italian company SI
Very good indeed but it's like a woman you have to ask it nicely and it will do anything for you

[admiral4000]

Hi Ashleighbashly,

I have a swift cut table and have came across this issue many times.

you will have 1 of the following issues:

broken line on DXF
duplicated line on DXF
the size of your image will be too small to cut, I had this issue when trying to cut a dragon downloaded from this site. Because it was in inches and the swift cut is in mm. the dxf should have been 12" but the machine thought it was 12mm so gave the " external profile open " error.

Try scaling the image up in solid edge to the size you need.

Good luck!

Andy.