Good dummy cut program?

[tentonjj]

What is a good program to run a dummy of the dxf file before the steel cut? I've tried in mach3 screwing around with that but no sucsess. I'm so familiar with the torchmate software and am just learning mach3 before I get my stuff from candcnc. I feel like a bit of a dumdum.

[SignTorch Vector Art]

SheetCam has effective preview and simulation features.

[tentonjj]

SheetCam has effective preview and simulation features.

how do i start the cut?

[SignTorch Vector Art]

Uuuhhhmmmm, shetcam is not the most intuitive program, once you have a part, tool, and operation defined, just hit the simulation button. It also shows kerf, pierce points, direction and traversals, so you can literally see what's going to happen without running the simulation.

sheetcamsim.jpg

[tentonjj]

What does this meen? [Operation]
Type=JetOperation
Name=No Offset, {Layer not found}, T1: Plasma, 0.0591 in kerf

[SignTorch Vector Art]

An operation simply designates one tool to cut one layer of one part

Plasma cutting is a jet operation (as is laser, waterjet, cutting-torch, etc..) which simply uses a high velocity stream to blast through sheet material, as opposed to rotary or knife operations which can involve way more complex tool and material variabes.

When you create an operation, you have to specify which tool and which layer to use.

When creating an operation, sheetcam usually selects a tool automatically, but then leaves the layer selection blank, which will create an empty operation if no layer is selected. It would be much less confusinig if it would set the layer, if there's only one layer, as is usually the case with jet cutting.

So, I think you just need to select a layer when creating an operation....

sheetcamsim2.jpg