Draftsite, DXF conversion, Run-Time error '9', and me

[BowenJ]

(EDIT: Apologies for the typo in the title. I know it's "Draftsight" not "Draftsite", but now that its posted the forum won't me edit the title)

Again, new shopbotter here, starting a different thread to discuss a different issue.

As the title suggests, I'm having issues with DXF files created in Draftsight and running them through the Shopbot Software File converter to create the toolpaths. Whenever I try shopbot gives me an error that says "Run-time error '9' Subscript out of range." This happens for any DXF file that I create or modify in Draftsight. I have a client/associate who sent me some DXF files that he created in Flexisign, and those worked just fine, but if I so much as open one of those files in Draftsight and save it without making any modifications then the DXF file won't convert.

Anybody else ever encounter this issue? Anyone know how to fix it? Draftsight lets you save your files in about 20 different types of DXF (R2013 ASCII Drawing, R14 Binary Drawing, etc etc etc) and I've tried a handful of them without any success, but maybe there's a type that will work for me and I've missed it.


My Setup:

Shopbot: 2006 PRT Alpha
Software: ShopBot WorkShop Ver 3xx
DraftSight 2017 x64 SP1

[BowenJ]

UPDATE: So after posting this I decided to go back and try out ALL the DXF formats that Draftsight uses. It turns out that the following formats DO work for me:
R14 ASCII Drawing (*dxf)
R13 ASCII Drawing (*dxf)
R12 ASCII Drawing (*dxf)

Those three work. The rest do not. Maybe someone else will encounter this problem someday and my trial and error testing can be of benefit to them.

[srwtlc]

Was just going to mention those versions. The bigger question is, why run them through the converter to make toolpaths when you could open them in VCP/Aspire and have much more control over the toolpath? Maybe you don't have either of those programs, but even the older ShopBot PartWorks/PartsWizard would be good too.

Dxf's need to be drawn in consecutive order for them to cut in that order, otherwise they can be all over the place and poorly optimized.

[BowenJ]

Was just going to mention those versions. The bigger question is, why run them through the converter to make toolpaths when you could open them in VCP/Aspire and have much more control over the toolpath? Maybe you don't have either of those programs, but even the older ShopBot PartWorks/PartsWizard would be good too.

Dxf's need to be drawn in consecutive order for them to cut in that order, otherwise they can be all over the place and poorly optimized.

Thanks, that's good advice.

And I bought my CNC used, so no, I don't have any of those programs yet. I plan on getting VCP as soon as the budget allows for it though. In the meantime at least having the ability to create and modify DXF files will allow me to do some simple creating and editing.