hi all, i am still learning how to use sketchucam. i have the basics down but i have one particular problem that im not sure how to work around. i am currently working on the cut files for a mojo 65 that i will be building soon. i will be using a hobby cnc router that has a cut area of 24 inchs by 12 inch. and am using linux cnc to controll the machine.

so i have the capability of cutting longer stock than 24 inches due to the design of the machine but it would require moving the stock and continue cutting. so is it possible to use sketchucam to creat two cut files for one part?

my thoughts were to just seperate the drawing into two pieces then create the code for them, but i think that this would cut the part in half due to the outside cut tool wanting to creat a cut path around the entire part. is there a way to do what i want to do? if not i will just make the part with a puzzel piece design and just cut it in two pieces. thanks for your help

 

I havn't tried this, but you could try making the line you don't want cut one huge tab with tab depth set to zero% or maybe it's 100%. :?

I just created a simple cut file of a rectangle with a tab going all the way around the end, with a tab depth of -10% ( that's negative 10% ) it appears that the bit will retract completely out of the cut, but continue along the cut path.

I hope this helps. I know that your question just gave me some new things to try.

 

actualy i just though of somthing. i could just modify the g code to make z0 for that part of the cut. i do like the tab idea ill have to ply with it when i get home.

 

well i just did a test to see if this is possible, and it is. all that is required is to keep the part as one piece (in a group) when you create the tool path. after creating the tool path and position it on the stock i exploded the group. i had to repaint the cut line fill but when i put my safe box around the test piece and created the g-code, i found that i only had a tool path to the ends of the safe box. so all i have to do is export the other half of the g code and re position the stock and all is well.