Lock Part Rotation when Nesting and Mirror/Flip Part
Matt RohrerMay 306 comments
I find the need to be able to lock part rotation when auto nesting.
Use case 1
If you have long narrow parts and the program wants to nest them parallel to the slats then they can tip up and cause issues.
But if you can force the parts to nest across the slats then you can run the nest without worrying about collisions.
Use case 2
Sometimes you need to specify which direction the grain of the metal runs, because the grain direction can make a diference when bending the part, or to make a grained finish on the material run the right way.
What I'm used to is manually locking the rotation per part rather than trying to get the software to recognise which parts to use it on.
To make it better than in the software I've used , if there was a way to give it a few degrees of freedom rather than locking it totally. Something like +/- 15 Deg?
Screenshot of what I'm used to- I don't have the software in front of me, but I can get a screenshot of the options next week if you wish.
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Just noticed the mirror option, that flips the part front to back. Handy if your part imports upside down, or your' cutting something like tread plate that you cut with the tread facing down, but your DXF/design is from the tread surface.
6 Comments
showing 1–5 of 6I'm planning to do a grid array tool in the next release for all CAM workspaces
The trouble with adding a min/max angle constraint to custom auto-nesting efforts is that the angle 0 is whatever they where drawn at in the imported file. Setting a custom effort would need to be changed every time you use it to get depending on how the part was drawn originally.
Another fella submitted an issue the other day about some triangular pieces and a grid array would fit his parts WAY better than NFP or Skyline ever could
However, you bring up a good point about long skinny parts and slats. I'll think through a placement heuristic that I'll add to custom efforts so that parts placement scoring will favor long skinny parts so that the long axis of the bounding box is perpendicular to the slats.
Would all this cover your needs? Let me know if you have any more input about this
Hey Matt,
I just wanted to let you know the Grid Array tool is live now. I'm not sure if this is satisfactory for you and I'm interested in adding more features to the auto nesting but I'm a little fuzzy with how to go about it. Maybe if you could provide a screen recording of the other software packages you've used that does this I can get a better idea of how to go about it. I'm gonna mark this as closed to get it off my back log for now but you can still comer here and comment if it's something you would prefer see implemented. I can re-open this later once I have more information to implement it.
I'll check it out, and see about getting some more info from the other application that would explain it better.
Sounds good!
I also wanted to let you know that I'm close to releasing a GcodePilot Motion workspace that supports GRBL, FluidNC, etc as the machine controller, this will likely be released in a few days
In a few weeks, I should be ready to release the LinuxCNC Motion workspace that does the same thing but for LinuxCNC based machines
This allows JetCad3 to be a fully integrated CAD/CAM/Control system for many existing machines already in use without any hardware changes to speak of.
If I recall, you mentioned you're using Mach but where looking to retro soon. You could retro to LinuxCNC as an option. I'm hoping JetFlight will be available this year at some point but I need to raise a considerable amount of money to keep moving forward on the hardware. It's likely going to be about a $7k PCB+A spin for each iteration and no matter how long I look at it, I'll make a schematic and/or PCB layout/routing mistake lol
Is that something that interests you?
Yes it does, especially after I spend an hour battling Mach3, would that interface directly with the motors I have now?
What I would be interested in is a video of the interface end if you would have it, just to see if it's worth waiting on.
Matt
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