Fellow Shadow Watchers,
I've recently been using a combination of Adobe
Illustrator 9.0 and a local waterjet cutting company to profile large
dial components in stainless steel. The first, a 4ft diameter indented
plate, proceeded flawlessly and so lulled me into a false sense of
security which was brought to an abrupt halt yesterday.
The components for a large meantime dial in 16mm thick stainless steel
consist mainly of blended flowing curves which Illustrator handles
perfectly. These were 'exported' as 'DXF' files which most CNC machines
can use to cut any complex profile. When my waterjet contractor imported
these into AutoCad on his PC they behaved perfectly and appeared on
screen just as I had designed them BUT, when placed in his toolpath
controlling software, small flat and wiggles appeared at widely-spaced
intervals. These can probably be 'tweaked' out by hand but suddenly a
beautiful process has become an unreliable niggling worry.
Various 'fixes' were applied such as exporting the 'perfect' AutoCad
files in native form and re-importing them but the same blemishes
sprouted at the critical stage. One additional puzzle is that a
component with a central slot will have the slot displaced sideways.
I would be delighted to receive any comments or suggestions from any
cognoscenti in these matters. One fly-in-the-ointment might be that I am
using Mac.OS9.2 on a G4. In that connection I would also be pleased to
learn of any appropriate CAD software for the MAC as I might have to
approach this with directly generated DXF files. Especially welcome
would be a specimen file which would put this MAC (not PC) software to
the test on my contractor's system with a DXF. I can send a PDF of the
sort of thing I need help with if anyone can assist.
Hoping!!!!.....
Tony Moss.
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