When I draw and convert small detail, I get these curly cues on the cut line in tight corners. Is there a setting change that will stop this?
Thanks
Bubba
Plasmacam convert to cut lines
-
Bubbaco
- 1 Star Member
- Posts: 11
- Joined: Wed Sep 12, 2012 10:36 pm
-
jimcolt
- 5 Star Elite Contributing Member
- Posts: 3087
- Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2009 11:18 pm
- Location: North Carolina
Re: Plasmacam convert to cut lines
Best bet with PlasmaCam software questions is to go their site, www.plasmacam.com then register for the owners group....you will need your machine serial number to do this. There are thousands of users on that site that are all more than willling to help!
The issues likely is that you are trying to cut details that are smaller than the plasma cut width (kerf width) setting that you have in your files. You can change the cut width by going to settings, then click "settings", choose "offset, convert" and set an accurate number for your cutter kerf width. This setting number should be set at 1/2 of the width of an actual cut.
Jim Colt Hypertherm
The issues likely is that you are trying to cut details that are smaller than the plasma cut width (kerf width) setting that you have in your files. You can change the cut width by going to settings, then click "settings", choose "offset, convert" and set an accurate number for your cutter kerf width. This setting number should be set at 1/2 of the width of an actual cut.
Jim Colt Hypertherm
Bubbaco wrote:When I draw and convert small detail, I get these curly cues on the cut line in tight corners. Is there a setting change that will stop this?
Thanks
Bubba
-
jimjimmac
- 2 Star Member
- Posts: 52
- Joined: Mon Jan 11, 2010 10:35 am
Re: Plasmacam convert to cut lines
Mr. Colt (he likes that) is right about the kerf width. The overshoot on corners and small radii are caused when the kerf offset is larger than the corner. Those little triangles used to bug me but now I ignore them. If you scale the drawing very large and then convert to Cut Path then scale back down, it is almost the same as setting the Offset to 0 and will also prevent the triangles. If you are cutting art, then you can get away with setting the kerf to 0. If you are cutting parts, the dimensions are critical so you have to have an accurate kerf offset.
When I first started out I noticed the same thing but only when I zoomed in. Obviously, when zooming out, you don't see it. When zoomed in, it looked like the torch would get to where it had to change direction, overshoot, then it would do a quick u-turn to go back the other way which left those little triangles. Somebody wrote once that you can remove them simply by trimming them off. Hit 'T', put the crosshair on the triangle and left click your mouse. Gone!
I was anal about it and would remove all of them but it was time consuming using this technique. After they were removed, I would convert to 'cut path' again, and they would reappear. It finally dawned on me that I was trying to clean up little things that were only a few thousandths of an inch in size. I experimented with a cutting that had the triangles. I left them there, cut the piece and couldn't even notice anything goofy in those areas because I cut art and it doesn't matter. So you can either:
1.Scale the drawing large then convert to cut path and then scale back down to cut size, which is sometimes difficult when you have multiple cuttings laid out on the sheet. If this is true, you can move it off the sheet but you will get a message asking if you want to convert it anyway. Answer yes, convert it, then move it back on the sheet.
2. Set your offset to Zero
3. Don't fret about it...if you're cutting art it doesn't matter. You won't notice it.
Hope this helps
Jim
When I first started out I noticed the same thing but only when I zoomed in. Obviously, when zooming out, you don't see it. When zoomed in, it looked like the torch would get to where it had to change direction, overshoot, then it would do a quick u-turn to go back the other way which left those little triangles. Somebody wrote once that you can remove them simply by trimming them off. Hit 'T', put the crosshair on the triangle and left click your mouse. Gone!
I was anal about it and would remove all of them but it was time consuming using this technique. After they were removed, I would convert to 'cut path' again, and they would reappear. It finally dawned on me that I was trying to clean up little things that were only a few thousandths of an inch in size. I experimented with a cutting that had the triangles. I left them there, cut the piece and couldn't even notice anything goofy in those areas because I cut art and it doesn't matter. So you can either:
1.Scale the drawing large then convert to cut path and then scale back down to cut size, which is sometimes difficult when you have multiple cuttings laid out on the sheet. If this is true, you can move it off the sheet but you will get a message asking if you want to convert it anyway. Answer yes, convert it, then move it back on the sheet.
2. Set your offset to Zero
3. Don't fret about it...if you're cutting art it doesn't matter. You won't notice it.
Hope this helps
Jim
-
SignTorch Vector Art
- 4 Star Member
- Posts: 883
- Joined: Fri Dec 03, 2010 7:57 pm
- Location: SE TX
Re: Plasmacam convert to cut lines
actually having correct kerf compensation is kind of importantjimjimmac wrote:If you are cutting art, then you can get away with setting the kerf to 0
- Attachments
-
