still limping along with this issue, but one interesting tid bit has come to light.

in working with the tech at torchmate, he has found that with the dxf created in su there is a tiny bit of text in the file way way off to the lower left. the key point is; i didnt draw it - su put it there BUT - i cant see it in su (or any other app) yet the apps know its there and its grouped or connected somehow which explains why any path type functions dont work; because its including this bit of text info as part of the model and i cant find it so i can delete it. the tm guru has tools the average human does not so he's able to see it - delete it - and do a connect path function and wala, all is well. i suspect if the text junk wasnt there in the first place you wouldnt need to do a fix like "connect path".

so what is this little bit of text junk and why is it being generated ?

@anssi said:

<snip> No weirdness to be seen. So I am suspecting your CAD. Is the result the same even if you only have the edges to export? I am just wondering if your CAD is able to correctly interpret the 3D face geometry, or if the face geometry is partly covering the lines. Does your CAD have a 3D view where you could verify what is actually happening?

Just thoughts

Anssi

good thoughts Anssi.

good to know that autocad sees the model fine, maybe it is tmcad as you suggest.

yes i have done lines only and it seems happiest with that although its still not correct.

tmcad doesnt have a 3d viewer. it always shows the machine bed in a projection style format. once imported, your part shows as a single peice where you can then create multiples and edit as needed before outputting the tool path data.

i also stated talking to tmcad support in parrallel - well see what happens.

@tig said:

Put even more simply... 2d DXFs make everything out of 'lines' including the segmented arcs/circles.
3d DXFs make 'real' CAD arcs/circles where segmentation is ignored...

thank you both and yes,understood. i may have misspoke when i said it was 2D. i was referring to the fact that the model exported was only in two axis (no Z). its what works best in tmcad to create tool path data. anyhow, it was exported as a 3d DXF, thus the scale was correct, etc.

below is an example. on the left is a 1/4" thick bracket. the middle and right side are what i export (thats what i meant by 2D)

this is a screen shot of what happens in tmcad. it dosent see the face and it thinks the hole is a solid. fwiw, it appears the same when imported into illustrator which is why i think the SU output is suspect.

looking for a little insight on a longstanding problem.

ill back fill with details as nessecery but basically it goes like this; i do custom metal work and one off assemblies. im trying to get a new workflow in place by going from concept to SU to torchmate cad to my cnc plasma. as it stands the dxf output from SU is somehow faulty, or at least thats how it appears. all ive been able to narrow it down to is what one app thinks vs. another. its a puzzle i cant resolve.

for example take a simple 3 inch circle with a 1 inch hole in the center. (2d, no thickness)

SU shows it as what it's intended.

then exported as a dxf, tmcad shows it as a dotted outter line with a solid circle where the hole was in SU. the only thing correct bit of it is the scale matches the scale it was created at in SU. on rare occasions it can be "repaired" by using the connect path feature in tmcad, but its more a thing of luck at this point.

that same dxf imported into adobe illustrator shows up as more of a screen shot. the scale is all wrong and its in perspective (or however it appeared when i exported it). it also shows it as an outter line with a 1" circle rather than the hole. what ive noticed in ai is that it thinks the single shape is actually a collection of separate lines which are not connected, therefore they do not make a face. you can zoom into a single point and they appear connected, yet if you select that single point, you can perform a join function as though they were two separate points. i experimented on a small simple model and you can in fact glue it back together a point at a time such that ai understands its a face and it can then be exported to tmcad which also understands its a face with a hole in it and then on to the cnc cutter as usual.

so - why the difference in what constitutes a "face" or a continuous line in SU vs. the other apps and is there a fix for this ? i really want to fit SU into my process but if i cant get parts out of it its not of much use.

many thanks in advance

@gaieus said:

Hi inkster and welcome. If you work with metal, maybe you will find some of these plugins useful:
http://www.drawmetal.com/

thanks for the link

just checking -

ive been using su for a total of about 45 minutes now (but i managed to get some images out for a presentation)

actually i learned 3d on alias wavefront back when dinosaurs roamed the earth but it was so cumbersome and pricey that i bailed before i ever became proficient at it. my background is in custom metal work and ive run into a plethora of issues right off the bat but its very promising overall, just need to take the time to learn (or unlearn) and get a rhythm going to the work flow.

i currently have 2d dxf to G code to a cnc cutter then on the brake presses and such to bend it all up -

what im missing is the ability to sketch up concepts, narrow them down, and then plug them into my current process. i noticed a "folding" plug in - not sure if it applies, material thickness is a big factor in steel.

anyways, thanks in advance