Re: Gcode optimization (rethinking>>>)

> Why do you have to mess about reordering dxf files.??
> Any decent CAM program will take a dxf file, no matter how it's
> written and generate the profile.
> I use Dolphin and it does this with no problem.
> If you bring say a hexagon into Dolphin as a dxf file and three

lines

> are drawn one way and three are drawn the other it makes no
> difference. You tell it the start point and that it's a closed

entity

> and because it's simple it works out the the end point is at the

same

> place. No stupid arrows on the lines, just does it.
> If you want to go the other way round just click forward, or reverse
> If you want to cut outside just click cut right [ or left ]
>
> Last guy to see arrows on a CAM system was Col.Custer.
>
>
> John S.

The issue is not the specific lines and the cut direction. Like you
say, all decent CAM programs do that. It's the order of cuts when
you have a project with hundreds of individual objects (pockets,
islands, etc) and the order that the software elects to use those
objects in a post. Since there can be several choices for
optimization like: cut close things first, or limit the number of Z
moves, etc. The only time you should need to get involved with the
direction of the line segments in an object is when you want the cut
to be in the opposite (climb mill) direction. Picture if you will a
large 2ft square project with complex geometric curves (knots)
running down all four sides. Each closed curve is an island while
all of the area around it is cut away. There are 192 seperate
objects that have to be cut around in 3 passes. In addition there
are three tool sizes involved that provide increasing detail. The
CAM generated g-code is 16,000 lines. At this point it spends more
time cutting air than it does material. So does Dolphin
automatically optimize the toolpath so it minimizes the number and
length of rapids? Does it have options as to how you want the whole
thing cut (which object gets cut in which order) without clicking on
every separate object?