Re: Optimizing cutting paths - The proof

--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@y..., Alan Marconett KM6VV <KM6VV@a...> wrote:

> Hi Chris,
>
> Yeah, love 'em. I was able to get the Gcode from FlashCut into

Vector

> CAD/CAM, AFTER I removed some spaces between the X, Y, I, J's, and

the

> value. I keep forgetting that Vector doesn't like that. Not hard

with

> a text editor. The arc statements were mostly fine.
>

Alan and others,

When transferring files over the internet, it is important to
understand that ascii files are subject to lightning strikes,
wiretaps, any kind of static might affect the transmission of the
data around the world. Therefore if you try to use an ascii format
to define a drawing it might have a problem.

As far as transferring files like DXF or IGES, that are ascii based,
it is usually better to point to the link in hypertext and right
click to "Save Target As", than to click on the link, load the file
as text in your browser and then try to File-Save it. If you get a
file that the only way is to display and then save, open it in an
editor an dmake sure that the first lines are not blank. Often just
removing the first blank lines will make the file usable.

However, this does not fix the really bad problem of file
corruption. The best way to transfer files over the internet, based
on cost and general availablility is to use the .zip format, as
invented by the folks at PKZIP. There are free to low cost
compression programs available. This format has built in cyclic
redundancy checking and generally will not even unzip if the file is
corrupted. Equally as important, a text based file form like DXF or
IGES will be about 1/10 the size when compressed. This makes very
large files managable and easily transferred over the internet.

One last comment about John's file, it is metric, and it opens fine
in Vector. For best results, if you are normally using Vector in
Inch mode, start a new file, change the units to metric, then either
merge the DXF file into the new file or open it directly. The chain
gap/general accuracy settings in Vector change when switching from
metric to inch and viceversa so a file opened in the wrong units may
appear corrupted or the wrong size or both. This is a problem with
DXF, not Vector. Many older versions of DXF did not have a units
definition, and there was no information to indicate the scaling of
the file upon opening it. I believe the newer versions have added
this capability, but there are a gazillion files and software
programs still making files that do not contain a scaling definition
parameter.

Best Regards, Fred Smith- IMService
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