Re: Optimizing cutting paths, was Traveling Salesman Joke

Hi Mark,
One of the machines I have access to uses CNCPro. That
program works great. When I tried the Harley file with ACE I
got crazy results. I then ran some of my drawing made with
Turbocad. You are right! They got optimized! I then made a
test file. I drew a 5 inch square box. I drew the sides out
of step. I then drew four inner boxes with the sides out of
sequence. I ran the file with ACE and I got a GCode that
was optimized! I still need to find how to set the cutting
depth on the file.

Thanks Mark for getting me to try ACE. The unregisterd
version was useless when I tried it out a long time ago.


Bob

--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@y..., Mark Fraser <mfraser@h...> wrote:
> I'm pretty impressed by Doug Yeager's ACE converter, now available
for
> free under GPL.
>
> ACE seems to optimize the path quite nicely! I exported a
particularly
> messy dxf file, with no particular orientation of line segments, and
> while
> ACE worked for quite a few minutes creating the code, it did a great
> job of minimizing dead-air. Even finished the cut at a point
nearest
> the
> starting point.
>
> Give it a try, look at all the capabilities (it'll let you
decide
> max 'z' cut,
> and how far above the workpiece to retract for fast moves.
>
> Happy user and customer for both ACE and CNCPro /mark