I got the blueprint i got the drawing but i need the frame.

[Peter Nielsen]

So im allmost finished drawing in a copy of a magenta class ironclad, that i want to produce in a 1:100 scale.

But i need to get the cross sections of the frame.
Any suggestions of how to get them?

The blueprint got the locations of the 26 cross sections, so i just need to “cut through” the drawing to get the section to a transfere paper so i can cut the wood, but i got no idea of how to get the cross sections.

Do i need to use a nother program ?

[Peter Nielsen]

Figured it out. It was allmost too easy.

[Daniel J]

Do tell!

[Lim Adriaenssens]

Indeed, please tell

[Marius Liebenberg]

You enter the stations at their respective locations and then you do a 2D dxf export with the create individual files option clicked.

[simon whitehouse]

Can you please tell me, after doing the 2d .DXF export, where does this information go? how do you open and view it, do you need another piece of software to do this, or can it be done in delftship? thank you.

[Eric Baxter]

You can access the delftship file that it is exported to and print it out or you can import it into separate software and work with it there- for example you can calculate a toolpath for cutting frames out with a cnc machine. Eric

[Marius Liebenberg]

Sorry for the delay, I changed email but never did it on this forum.

You can use a program called ABViewer. This is for dxf files. After that you can use them in almost any CAD software. Depends on what you want to achieve.

[michael f. berg]

dxf-files are (lengthy) plain text. So use f.i. edit to look into it. I have written a delphi program to extract the polyline vertices and possibly the 3Dfaces in a form readable by MS-Excel. There you can do more…

[Hrvoje]

… for example you can calculate a toolpath for cutting frames out with a cnc machine. Eric

Eric, can you, please, tell more about how to do this?
Thank you!

Kind regards, Hrvoje

[Marius Liebenberg]

Dida,
As CNC Machines are my business, I will reply quickly.
DXF is the acronym for “data transfer file”. It is widely used to make CAD or other information available to any other program.
CAM is the acronym for “computer assisted machining”. So by taking the dxf file you can create a program for the CNC machine to cut the material automatically.
CNC is the acronym for “computerized numeric control”.

In short then, take the CAD design of the frames (dxf), load them into a CAM package in order to tell the machine how to cut them, and then load them on the CNC machine to cut.

[MICHAEL KERR]

Marius,
could you supply me your email, Im very interested in CNC and would like to know more.
Do CNC machines come with their own CAM software ?

If you wanted a CNC shop do your cutting for you, would you just supply them with your DXF files on disc ?

[Marius Liebenberg]

Mike,contact me at marius at mastercut dot co dot za.

Yes you can just give the CNC shop your dxf file with some instructions. Normally this kind of cutting is what we call 2D cutting. They will cut on the dxf lines for a certain depth or for the thickness of the material.

CAM software comes in various shapes and sizes. Some are free but the better ones you have to buy. Mostly very expensive for the better ones. The CNC shop will own the best CAM software for their machines. I have several packages. It depends on the type of job as to which one I will use.

[Hrvoje]

… In short then, take the CAD design of the frames (dxf), load them into a CAM package in order to tell the machine how to cut them, and then load them on the CNC machine to cut.

Thank you Marius! I plan to follow these plans: CNC Mashine

Kind regards, Hrvoje

[Marius Liebenberg]

Dida,
These plans are for a very small machine. I don’t know how many boat parts you would be able to cut on that. If you want to build a larger machine to make hull parts etc I will help you with the right stuff. I have plans for an easy to build large machine that I used in production of large panels.
It just depends on what you intend to do with the CNC machine.

[Hrvoje]

Marius, I am ship modeler. This is my hobby. At the moment I am making fishing boat Leut in the scale 1 : 16. The plan is to cut parts for frames.
I appreciate your offer to help. If I start with this project I will need the help, especially to choose proper laser diode to cut the wood.

Kind regards, Hrvoje

[Marius Liebenberg]

Dida,
For model building, that project is just fine. Please feel free to contact me if you need any help.

[MICHAEL KERR]

Thanks Marius,
Ive just been to the Mastercut site. I nest my parts onto 2.4m * 1.2m * 19 mm thick plywood sheets, and I colour code the lines as outside and inside cuts, could you tell me, thats if you can remember, what would be the diameter of the cutting head (router) that you would usually use, I like to know so I can nest the parts with the minimal amount of waste between parts. ( the less sheets I can use the better)

[Marius Liebenberg]

Mike,
Depending on the material type a different cutter will be used. Normally the guys charge for machine time so the cutter size is very important. I use 12mm or 0.5″ special cutters for laminated materials. The rule of thumb is to cut no more than 80% of the diameter in one cut. Again this is dependent on the cutter type. Normal straight fluted cutters, no mare that 50%. I.e. if you use a 8mm cutter you would do 4mm passes.
Next, if the machine has a vacuum bed for holding the job, you can get pretty close between the parts. If not, you want to make sure that the parts don’t come out before the job is done. For this you include what we call tabs. It is a piece of material left uncut on the outer edge of all parts. You decide the spacing but what it does is to keep the parts stuck to the material until you manually break the tabs and release the parts. If you cut this way, you need more flesh between the parts.

[MICHAEL KERR]

Thanks Marius,
yep, I have tabs to keep parts attached to the sheets and the sheets are easier for transportation.

[Eric Baxter]

Dida, I have a Shopbot 4′ x 8′ bed cnc machine which comes with a 2D and a 2.5D (carving) program (Partworks by Vectrix). You import the delftship generated 2D dxf file, that you have exported from delftship (onto your hard drive), into Partworks you then generate a toolpath file for the cnc machine, specifying such thins as inside /outside cuts, machine allowances (tolerances) cut depth, bit, tabs etc. Then connect your laptop to cnc machine, bring up the machine control program, home zero the tool in x,y,z axes and press start. The latest version of partworks includes an automatic tiling feature that allows you to program just once for objects (boat parts) that are larger than one sheet of plywood. the machine also does great plywood scarf joints ( stepped and with 2 D profiles that key into each other for perfect joints). You can also do “jigsaw puzzle joints. Shopbots come with much larger tables for more $, but if as I am you are using 4’x8′ marine ply (or even the slightly larger metric plywood) (and scarfing it) that size machine works well for about $20,000. Eric

[Marius Liebenberg]

Eric,
Do you have a web link for the CAM software (Partworks)?

[Eric Baxter]

Marius, try http://www.shopbottools.com; when sold with their tool its called Partworks, but the software creator is Vectrix (or maybe Vetrix ?) and they wiill sell it to you under their tradename. You can google them or ask shopbot for the contact info, or next trip home I will try to remember to look it up. Just got clobbered by hurricane Irene, prop[erty was 6 feet under water, no land for 10 miles at one point. Eric

[Marius Liebenberg]

Hey Eric,
Sorry to hear about the problems with Irene. I have been watching the media – not a good thing at all. They seem to be getting more severe all the time.

I have VCarvePro 6 but it does not have the scarf joint feature. I would very much like to do that. It can break the tool path up into tiles but no joint involved. Pity, I will have to keep doing it manually.

[Eric Baxter]

Marius, That’s the name of it- V carve Pro 6. I have the previous version. Isn’t there a way that you could use the tile feature then go back and add the longitudinal distance lost due to each scarf joint. Maybe that’s what you meant by “manually”. Actually the tiling ability , which itself can be done manually in the previous versions of Partworks/ v Carve Pro ( they are as I understand exactly the same), is the main reason I was thinking of upgrading ($150) to the latest version (6). Is this worth it ? Eric

[Marius Liebenberg]

Eric,
Version 6 has many nice things. I think it is worth it.
The software does the tiling, I just tested it, but the tile has an overlap of whatever size you specify. It does not generate the scarf information in the toolpath. One has to go do this manually. I don’t know how as you don’t have access to the tiles until the toolpath is created. Maybe first cut the parts and then toolup and do the scarfs. Just make sure that tiles are all the same size.

[Eric Baxter]

Marius, Thanks for explaining the tiling. Yes it doesmake sense that for the scarfing one would need to do that as a Go To subroutine that you stored as a part file and inserted maybe as a 2D offset (a feature of the shopbot machine program that allows you to call up a program and zero the machine to any x and y coordinate for purposes of running that program (subroutine)). It would be real nice if someone could motivate the Vectrix people to include a stepscarf in their tiling feature with parameters to be filled in in a dialog box, just like one fills in the overlap value.

[Marius Liebenberg]

Probably to few of us that what to use that kind of feature.

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