Problem working with probe file in rhino

[johnnieb47]

Have been working with our shopbot for a couple of months and finally had a project that needed to be digitized. Fabricating a boat part. The end user needs the exact opposite of the part he provided. We have the part for the left side of the boat but need to duplicate the part for the right side of the boat.

Used the digital probe and "copy machine" to create my sbp file and converted the sbp to a dxf for importing into rhino. When I open the file in rhino, i get an object with the 4500 lines of plunge depths, not a copy of the part I scanned. I know I can mirror the part and that solves some of my problem flipping the part from the left to the right but how do I convert what I have from my probe file to an actual cut file? Do I need to reprobe my part with the polyline dxf file?

I have called tech support and they mentioned using the spline function in rhino and then snap to the grid but I can figure out how to do this.

I appreciate any help that can be provided. Thanks for your time.

John B.

[myxpykalix]

one of the things i recall having a problem with when i used to probe parts then try to convert that file, or converting a sbp file was that not only did you get the "cut lines" but you also got the tool movement lines also and that screwed me up because i couldn't figure out how to seperate them from the cut lines. That was long ago and i have forgotten about most of that.

[johnnieb47]

thanks for your response. yes we have the same problem and are trying to figure it out in rhino. any help is appreciated.

[hespj]

If I understand you correctly you need a surface which just touches the underneath of the vertical plunge lines. How I'd go about this depends on the complexity of the shape, but basically I'd put points at the lower end of plunge lines, put polylines or splines through these points and then use these polylines/splines to make a surface.

John

[johnnieb47]

thanks for your help, much appreciated. unfortunately there are 4500 plus plunge lines and would be near impossible to connect all the lines. we have mirrored the image and imported to visual mill 5.0 and are trying to manipulate within visual mill to get a tool path for actually cut path. still working on it and will continue to post here. thanks for any help, john

[johnnieb47]

i have the file if anyone needs to see view it for further recommendations. thanks for your help, john

[hespj]

What I was thinking was to produce a few key curves using some of the points and use Sweep 2 or some other method to produce a surface, but this will only work if the surface is quite smooth.

On reflection perhaps it's better to use the Patch command to create a surface. This is created using points. You need to put these at the lower end of each plunge, you can do this with the Extract Point command.

You might find that 4500 points creates an unnecessary complex or unfair surface. It might pay to delete every other row if it's not needed.

Attach the file to a post and we'll have a look.

John

[johnnieb47]

Thanks for your help John. I will try this and let you know how it works out. Appreciate your help and have a great day.

John

[johnnieb47]

this is a copy of the probe files.

thanks, john

[ssflyer]

Hi John,

Your probe file is only 34 bytes long, and does nothing but raise the Z to 1.0000. Try reposting it, or zip it first, if too large.

Your dxf file looks more like a sheet metal part - flat surface with a bend, that is symmetrical - which means no mirroring would be needed.

You might want to check the files and repost.

Thanks,
Ron

[johnnieb47]

Hey Ron,

Thanks for your post. A fellow shopbotter named Donn, thanks Donn, took our rhino file and put a surface on it. We now just need to get that file back over to shopbot for our cut. Here is the file with a surface on it in rhino. Thanks for your interest and help. Take care and we will keep posting updates.

[johnnieb47]

and here is the rhino file with a surface, courtesy of Donn.

thanks, john