Splines in Vector or TurboCad

[srwtlc]

How do you get a spline drawn in TurboCad to either go through the DXF converter, or get it to create a smooth cutting file in Vector. I can take the DXF into vector and do the arc spline command to lessen the number of moves and the resulting file will have the mix of M3's and CG's,but some of those moves will be backward steps making for a jerky and rough cut. I have run some files in the air step by step and removed the offending line to smooth them out.

Is there a better way to do for instance a plaque that has multiple flowing curves.

No offense but I find Vector very frustrating to use, although I'm still learning it, it just seems to be quite quirky. Any word on updates?

Thanks

[billp]

Scott, in my experience with Turbocad you have to "select"any shape that you have drawn a spline in ( OR you could just "select all"), then go to "format"and down to 'explode". Click on it once, and you should be able to save the splines with no problem. this works in versions 4,5,& 6.5 of Turbocad.Then you can just follow the standard "FC"conversion command as a .dxf. Hope this helps, Bill P.

[srwtlc]

Thanks Bill, that did work for that part. I tried exploding it before, but I think I did it more than once. My problem now is that it doesn't go the way I drew the spline(counter-clockwise)and also in order to get the other half of this plaque the same I mirrored it. So the file goes to the top, cuts clockwise to the bottom, then goes back to the top and cuts counter-clockwise to the bottom again. I've used TurboCad for a several years now, but drawing a spline in the direction you want then node editing it to get one half the way you want it then mirroring it must not be the best way. I tried the file in Vector, but with all the CG moves it's so herky-jerky that it's no good. If you, or anyone else would have any more suggestions they would be greatly appreciated.


Scott

[imserv@imsrv.com]

Before you do the arc spline, use the Change-Reorganize to eliminate any duplicated entities that may be created in Turbo cad. Then if you re-Shift select the entire chain, there is no need to use the arc-spine at all. The reason to use the arc-spline is that it SMOOTHES out the motion and shortens the SBP file. If you are not getting that result, your geometry may not be drawn sequentially ( zig-zags in direction within the spline), it may be selected out of order, or you may possibly be using an older version of the Shopbot controller that does not support the CG command(G-code style arc command).

[edcoleman]

As long as people are thinking in the turbocad-spline-explode mode, there's a question that I've been trying to figure out......

when exploding an arc or spline, is there a setting or option that you can set to define the number of segments that the curve will be broken into?

Sometimes, when I cut a large gradual curve that was "exploded" the individual line segments are rather apparent on the finished piece.

There must be a way to define this somewhere, but I haven't been able to find it.

I'm sure that it is a very obvious option that I’ve missed {.....forest for the trees kinda thing going on here
...}

[rgengrave@aol.com]

Ed do this, select the spline tool and then right click your mouse on the page and choose PROPERTIES, a box will pop-up, click on CURVE and you can set the segments you want.

Ron

[srwtlc]

Hi Fred,

I tried that and the resulting parts file will cut a loop the loop in exactly the same spot on each side of the plaque instead of moving smoothly along the spline. If I use arc spline to reduce the number of moves, that file is real jerky and even goes backwards in some real small moves. I've had some other small files with one small spline do that too. I executed those files in go-to mode and found what line was the offending member and then removed it, after that it smoothed out. However, this plaque file is too large and has too many of those kind of moves in it. The spline looks fine in TurboCad, and goes through the converter ok, but is completely out of order and I can't get it turned around unless I go into the file and manually reverse the order.
In that case I'd better get a Snickers, cause I'm going to be here a while. ;^)

Scott

[imserv@imsrv.com]

Scott Are you using-Shift Select? It is rule #4 on page 8 of the learning Vector in 2 hours manual. Using this function, trim, Edit-Select Arcs (by radius or degrees of arc), Draw-Line-Connect and the Special - Reverse and related functions, you can quickly fix the splines that come from Turbocad or Corel draw. On the Vector user's forum, there have been several extensive discussions of how and what to do to fix messy DXF geometry that is imported to Vector. See in particular my postings on the recent thread on "Problem Cutting Complex Curves (Elipses)". The Vector forum is under support at http://www.vectorcam.com

It has over 2 1/2 years of Vector user's questions and answers, including many that are specific to the Shopbot.

[edcoleman]

Ron:

Thanks for your answer above.

Now to test you a bit further.......how could you accomplish the same thing (i.e. control the number of sections when exploded) with a circle or elilpse in TurboCad.


-Ed

[rgengrave@aol.com]

Ed you can add and remome nodes with a click of the mouse.

When you draw any line with any tool,select it with NODE EDIT, then hold down the CTRL key and move your mouse on top of a node and you will see it change the pointer, now just left click and the node will be gone, to add NODES just place the mouse pointer on the line where no NODE is and again you will see the pointer change, left click on the line and it will add node.

You and add and remove as many as you want.

Ron

[rgengrave@aol.com]

To answer the question about putting text on a oval or circle? Turbocad 6.5 does not have this option, but 7.0 does.

I will not upgrade to 7 for this option because I have Corel Draw to do it.

Ron

[bill.young]

Ed,

This may not be exactly what you're looking for, but I think it's the closest you'll get to what you want to do with TurboCAD.

Select the arc or circle (it doesn't work with ellipses), right click, and select "edit node". Right click again and select "arc divide". You'll get a dialog box that lets you divide the arc into as many little arcs as you want.

In version 6 ( and maybe in 5 ), you can then select all these new arcs and select "join polyline" in the Modify menu to turn them into a polyarc. Explode once and it's a polyline with a bunch of new nodes; one at each end of the little arcs.

You can also change the segment length for circles in the ShopBot software with the VU command if you are using the CC or CP or one of the other circle commands. There's a good description of how it works in the VU section of the help file.

Hope this helps,
Bill

[edcoleman]

Bill and Ron:

thanks for the replies, I believe we've converged upon the solution

-Ed