Positioning 'Added Sheets'

[nat_wheatley]

Still not clear on how this works. When I'm entering the points for an odd shaped piece (non-rectangular), 0, 0 is in the top right hand corner. I typically use the 0,0 as the outside corner of the piece and enter my points base on that.

From there, how do I position the sheet on my machine so that the 0,0 is at the 0,0 position on my machine. Effectively, I would think it would be a matter of rotating the sheet 180 degrees, and placing that corner at my 0,0 positon. I can't always get this to work, though, particulary with odd shaped parts. Anyone?

[harryball]

I'm not sure I understand... but for odd shaped parts I generally cut a jig that holds the part and I keep the 0,0 point on the jig itself. For large parts I've drilled 1/4" holes into the spoil board and installed 1/4" dowel pins. I load against the pins and get it the same every time. When I'm done I fill the pin holes with wood putty.

/RB

[bill_lumley]

Nat , I would give Thermwood a call and they will walk you through it . I have not done what you describe so can not help.You may even have found a bug . One of my first calls to them resulted in a software fix going out the same day.
Bill

[nat_wheatley]

Thanks guys. I was able to figure it out. (Not confident enough in my understanding of the program to try to ezplain!)

[Gary Campbell]

Nat...
I emailed Thermwood's Larry Epplin on this one as I experienced the same results in one of my files.

Here is an exerpt from his reply:
"In Settings-Nesting Parameters you have the ability to set the Starting Corner for nesting. This can be set for standard New Sheets as well as Added/Off-Fall Sheets. By default the Added/Off-Fall Sheets nest from the
+X,+Y (Upper Right) corner. The New Sheets nest from the 0,0 (Lower
+Left)
corner by default. Keep in mind this is only a mean of setting where the nesting algorithm will begin to place parts. It has no bearing on how the material is placed on the machine table. Sometimes people get confused by this concept.

The Off-Fall can be rotated during the entry process in the Add Sheet(s) dialog. There is a Rotate Off-Fall Input area in the dialog that has buttons to set the rotation. The application will rotate the Off-Fall during input based on the value set in this area."
end quote

It appears that when nesting with off fall or added sheets, what you see is not what you get. The good news is that all the cutting operations appear to orient the sheet off the 0,0 location, rather than what is shown on the nest. I will try resetting parameters to see if this changes.
Hope this helps, Gary

[nat_wheatley]

Thanks Gary.

I have been able to get the Off-falls to rotate, but not the added sheets. I'll look into this further, but if anyone is able to manually enter an non-rectangular part, and rotate it, let me know.

If this feature doesn't exist, it would be a nice addition.