Inconsistent plasma cut patterns

[LucasWorx]

I see. I was using Fusion for CAD and Sheetcam for CAM along with the PP in sheetcam (as Tom and I spoke of in the past). I recently downloaded Inkscape and was hoping to have some time to learn that. I'll have to do a bit of research and see what I'd rather put my time into learning at this point. Either Inkscape or Light Burn. 1 thing at a time. Lol.

[acourtjester]

I have used both but think the time on Inkscape since you have SheetCam may be better spent. Lightburn is great software, but is tilted toward laser work, but does have nice features. Much basic work can be done with lightburn and saved to move to other software. There are many tutorials on YouTube for both to help you get comfortable with them. Inkscape if free (donations are nice) and Lightburn is $60 for long term use, both have auto updates.

[adbuch]

The Inkscape "Path, Simplify" tool works much differently than the LightBurn or Design Edge link/join functions. Path, Simplify will decrease node count, but quite often at the expense of severely distorting the original path shape. Design Edge has a similar tool - "Smooth" - which when used with a small smoothing value, can decrease node count and smooth out shapes without distorting the original path shape.

Here is an example of Inkscape "Path, Simplify"

Before

before.jpg

After

after.jpg

[adbuch]

I see. I was using Fusion for CAD and Sheetcam for CAM along with the PP in sheetcam (as Tom and I spoke of in the past). I recently downloaded Inkscape and was hoping to have some time to learn that. I'll have to do a bit of research and see what I'd rather put my time into learning at this point. Either Inkscape or Light Burn. 1 thing at a time. Lol.

I would suggest spending your time learning Inkscape, which I think is a much better more powerful tool for vector creation and editing. Although there are some who do their cad work with LightBurn, I personally pretty much only use it for file conversion. There was a member here in the past who was pretty good with LightBurn, and he had taken the time to study the videos and manuals. But most I believe use Inkscape (as opposed to LightBurn). If you are running a cnc laser, then LightBurn is very good tool which I believe will do cad/cam/post processing for laser engravers/cutters.

David

[adbuch]

I would also suggest continuing on with Fusion 360 as well. If you are doing any mechanical deign parts it may be easier to draw them up with Fusion 360 than Inkscape. I would say Fusion 360 for mechanical parts and Inkscape for more artistic parts. I think they compliment each other with their differing capabilities.


I very much appreciate what plasma-art said above with regard to exporting dxf files from Fusion 360.

Fusion 360 project to another plane for dxf export.jpg

I still need to try it out for myself. I don't usually need to save dxf from Fusion 360, but this is all great stuff to know for future reference.

David

[LucasWorx]

I agree. Fusion for mechanical design and Inkscape for art design seems like a good combo.
I haven't been able to update on the cut patterns yet as I'm still trying to get my table back together. Just waiting on 1 part to come in this week and then I'll have it back together to do the Sharpie test. To be continued...

[adbuch]

I agree. Fusion for mechanical design and Inkscape for art design seems like a good combo.
I haven't been able to update on the cut patterns yet as I'm still trying to get my table back together. Just waiting on 1 part to come in this week and then I'll have it back together to do the Sharpie test. To be continued...

[LucasWorx]

Hey guys, I finally have an update. I was waiting for some new bearings to come in because originally I was using slightly larger bearings on my Y-axis than I should have been. The shaft was 19mm and the bearings were meant for a 20mm shaft. Anyways, After getting things back together, I cobbled up a sharpie onto my torch, set the speed very slow and watched. This was using David's attached file that he cleaned up for me. Everything came out great. Unfortunately, I still can't be 100% certain whether the cause of the issue was within the bearings, or the high node count on my original file. I'm thinking that David's file was probably the fix, but unless I ran the old unmodified file under the sharpie, I guess I can't be sure. Either way, I'm still trying to learn inkscape and make time to watch some tutorials online so that I can start some other projects for people. Below are photos of the flag results. Thank you guys again for all your help!

IMG_20221111_143912484 (1).jpg

IMG_20221111_144510526 (1).jpg

IMG_20221111_155741139 (1).jpg

[adbuch]

Your cut flag looks great - just like the edited file. If you had 1mm of slop between your shaft and bearing (about 0.040") then that could certainly cause some potential issues. I would suggest running your original file with the sharpie to see how that comes out. The results could be a pretty good indication as to if the problem was hardware of software related.
David

[acourtjester]

Lucas a little info on the node count, one of the reasons for limiting the large number of nodes is the line count of the G-code. Each node equals a line of code which does have effects on the cutting time of a project. And may cause a problem when switching between software programs in the planning stage of a project. I routed a project some time back and it had 300K of lines of code do to the detail of a 3-D "V" carving and it turned out fine (except for a spelling error ) Its rest not reat

will rogers saying (3).JPG

[plasmanewbie]

Great looking cut, looks like you've got it sorted out, well done