DXF for cut and engrave
Why can't it be interpreted as depth or just width? Surely that is just a choice for the "slicer" program??? For any given laser or CNC machine???
Cheers, RobW
On 30 October 2019 7:41:02 pm AEDT, Troberg troberg.anders@gmail.com wrote:
RevarBat wrote
In the BOSL2 library, the stroke() module can let you draw lines of
a
given
width along a 2D polyline path, with optional arrows and/or endcaps
for
either
end. The code for it relies on a lot of other features of the BOSL2
library, though
so it'd be a bit of work to extract that module out.
The problem is that as soon as they have a width, the laser will cut
twice.
--
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Because lasers don't have proper CAM tools like other CNC machines.
On Wed, 30 Oct 2019 at 09:04, Rob Ward rl.ward@bigpond.com wrote:
Why can't it be interpreted as depth or just width? Surely that is just a
choice for the "slicer" program??? For any given laser or CNC machine???
Cheers, RobW
On 30 October 2019 7:41:02 pm AEDT, Troberg troberg.anders@gmail.com
wrote:
RevarBat wrote
In the BOSL2 library, the stroke() module can let you draw lines of a
given
width along a 2D polyline path, with optional arrows and/or endcaps for
either
end. The code for it relies on a lot of other features of the BOSL2
library, though
so it'd be a bit of work to extract that module out.
The problem is that as soon as they have a width, the laser will cut twice.
--
Sent from: http://forum.openscad.org/
OpenSCAD mailing list
Discuss@lists.openscad.org
http://lists.openscad.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss_lists.openscad.org
The essential problem is that there is currently no work flow for laser
cutters that allows you to use the output from openscad directly,
essentially there is no slicer. In an ideal world, you would be able to use
openscad to produce 3d shapes representing the material cut away by the
laser, and the 'slicer' program would calculate the required beam paths and
intensity levels, but as the that doesn't exist yet, it's not a very useful
approach to take. For better or worse, laser cutter designs currently
consist of 2d open or closed paths, generally with colour used as a hint
for beam intensity. If openscad was able to produce output like this, it
would be immensely useful to a LOT of people almost immediately.
It also seems like far less work to modify openscad to support output like
this, than it would be to both create a slicer program for laser cutters
AND change the work flow of all of the people using laser cutters
On Wed, 30 Oct 2019, 04:30 Troberg, troberg.anders@gmail.com wrote:
RevarBat wrote
In the BOSL2 library, the stroke() module can let you draw lines of a
given
width along a 2D polyline path, with optional arrows and/or endcaps for
either
end. The code for it relies on a lot of other features of the BOSL2
library, though
so it'd be a bit of work to extract that module out.
The problem is that as soon as they have a width, the laser will cut twice.
--
Sent from: http://forum.openscad.org/
OpenSCAD mailing list
Discuss@lists.openscad.org
http://lists.openscad.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss_lists.openscad.org
Surely if OpenSCAD could produce coloured and layered elevations, the "slicer" (or any number of variants) could do the rest?
Cheers, RobW
On 30 October 2019 8:14:49 pm AEDT, "A. Craig West" acraigwest@gmail.com wrote:
The essential problem is that there is currently no work flow for
laser
cutters that allows you to use the output from openscad directly,
essentially there is no slicer. In an ideal world, you would be able to
use
openscad to produce 3d shapes representing the material cut away by the
laser, and the 'slicer' program would calculate the required beam paths
and
intensity levels, but as the that doesn't exist yet, it's not a very
useful
approach to take. For better or worse, laser cutter designs currently
consist of 2d open or closed paths, generally with colour used as a
hint
for beam intensity. If openscad was able to produce output like this,
it
would be immensely useful to a LOT of people almost immediately.
It also seems like far less work to modify openscad to support output
like
this, than it would be to both create a slicer program for laser
cutters
AND change the work flow of all of the people using laser cutters
On Wed, 30 Oct 2019, 04:30 Troberg, troberg.anders@gmail.com wrote:
RevarBat wrote
In the BOSL2 library, the stroke() module can let you draw lines
of a
given
width along a 2D polyline path, with optional arrows and/or endcaps
for
either
end. The code for it relies on a lot of other features of the BOSL2
library, though
so it'd be a bit of work to extract that module out.
The problem is that as soon as they have a width, the laser will cut
twice.
--
Sent from: http://forum.openscad.org/
OpenSCAD mailing list
Discuss@lists.openscad.org
http://lists.openscad.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss_lists.openscad.org
The problem is that the slicer is purely hypothetical. I think it is
something that should be created, but the current state of the art is 2d
paths, which openscad doesn't do
On Wed, 30 Oct 2019, 07:06 Rob Ward, rl.ward@bigpond.com wrote:
Surely if OpenSCAD could produce coloured and layered elevations, the
"slicer" (or any number of variants) could do the rest?
Cheers, RobW
On 30 October 2019 8:14:49 pm AEDT, "A. Craig West" acraigwest@gmail.com
wrote:
The essential problem is that there is currently no work flow for laser
cutters that allows you to use the output from openscad directly,
essentially there is no slicer. In an ideal world, you would be able to use
openscad to produce 3d shapes representing the material cut away by the
laser, and the 'slicer' program would calculate the required beam paths and
intensity levels, but as the that doesn't exist yet, it's not a very useful
approach to take. For better or worse, laser cutter designs currently
consist of 2d open or closed paths, generally with colour used as a hint
for beam intensity. If openscad was able to produce output like this, it
would be immensely useful to a LOT of people almost immediately.
It also seems like far less work to modify openscad to support output
like this, than it would be to both create a slicer program for laser
cutters AND change the work flow of all of the people using laser cutters
On Wed, 30 Oct 2019, 04:30 Troberg, troberg.anders@gmail.com wrote:
RevarBat wrote
In the BOSL2 library, the stroke() module can let you draw lines of a
given
width along a 2D polyline path, with optional arrows and/or endcaps for
either
end. The code for it relies on a lot of other features of the BOSL2
library, though
so it'd be a bit of work to extract that module out.
The problem is that as soon as they have a width, the laser will cut
twice.
--
Sent from: http://forum.openscad.org/
OpenSCAD mailing list
Discuss@lists.openscad.org
http://lists.openscad.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss_lists.openscad.org
I use a Piranha laser cutter with RDWorks v7 / Lightburn software. This does have the ability to offset the cut line to take into account beam kerf. For most 2D cutting operations this is plenty – and the adjustments it has for homing, intensity, speed etc are all you need in a 2D world. These are both ‘standard’ laser driving software packages – it may be that more stripped down laser engravers don’t come with these features – but they are only trying to be 2D cut, or engraving a surface.
When making very high precision assemblies using jointed sheet plastic, I leave the laser kerf offsets turned off, and instead offset these in openscad. A good way is to use Minkowski to ‘inflate’ the shape that will be the output DXF, by half the (measured) laser cut kerf.
It is not hard to turn OpenSCAD into a crude slicer – using a lot of “projection” cuts through your 3D model, separated in Z by your layer height. You then output a numbered series of DXFs and cut or scan them one by one, moving the laser bed up each time.
Of course lasers are strictly 2.5D – depth from above - And I’ve found the limiting factor is that errors stack up as you go further down, as both beam intensity and the absorption of the material vary a lot, so each layer is engraved on a progressively less even surface height. This might even out for larger items, as if a layer is engraved too low, the beam may be defocused and cut less deeply…
I think a scripted use of Openscad code can be used fairly effectively to make a slicer for 2.5d topography in the laser cutter, but your mileage may vary considerably as to the quality of result it will have…
Far more often, I’ve used such scripts to make 3D models from stacks of laser cut 2D sheet material such as foam or card – like Autodesk’s old 123dmake. At the very extreme of this, you could use a vinyl cutter similarly to the MCOR iris paper 3D printer.
Interested to see if others have additional tips or ideas for similar processes?
Cheers
Alex Gibson
admg consulting
edumaker limited
· Project management
· Operations & Process improvement
· 3D Printing
From: Discuss [mailto:discuss-bounces@lists.openscad.org] On Behalf Of Rob Ward
Sent: 30 October 2019 11:07
To: OpenSCAD general discussion; A. Craig West; OpenSCAD List
Subject: Re: [OpenSCAD] DXF for cut and engrave
Surely if OpenSCAD could produce coloured and layered elevations, the "slicer" (or any number of variants) could do the rest?
Cheers, RobW
On 30 October 2019 8:14:49 pm AEDT, "A. Craig West" acraigwest@gmail.com wrote:
The essential problem is that there is currently no work flow for laser cutters that allows you to use the output from openscad directly, essentially there is no slicer. In an ideal world, you would be able to use openscad to produce 3d shapes representing the material cut away by the laser, and the 'slicer' program would calculate the required beam paths and intensity levels, but as the that doesn't exist yet, it's not a very useful approach to take. For better or worse, laser cutter designs currently consist of 2d open or closed paths, generally with colour used as a hint for beam intensity. If openscad was able to produce output like this, it would be immensely useful to a LOT of people almost immediately.
It also seems like far less work to modify openscad to support output like this, than it would be to both create a slicer program for laser cutters AND change the work flow of all of the people using laser cutters
On Wed, 30 Oct 2019, 04:30 Troberg, troberg.anders@gmail.com wrote:
RevarBat wrote
In the BOSL2 library, the stroke() module can let you draw lines of a
given
width along a 2D polyline path, with optional arrows and/or endcaps for
either
end. The code for it relies on a lot of other features of the BOSL2
library, though
so it'd be a bit of work to extract that module out.
The problem is that as soon as they have a width, the laser will cut twice.
--
Sent from: http://forum.openscad.org/
OpenSCAD mailing list
Discuss@lists.openscad.org
http://lists.openscad.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss_lists.openscad.org
A good approximation to ideal word would be some tool to convert
OpenSCAD output to format suitable for existing laser cutter software.
What could it be? What would be the output and input formats?
On 10/30/2019 12:14 PM, A. Craig West wrote:
The essential problem is that there is currently no work flow for laser
cutters that allows you to use the output from openscad directly,
essentially there is no slicer. In an ideal world, you would be able to
use openscad to produce 3d shapes representing the material cut away by
the laser, and the 'slicer' program would calculate the required beam
paths and intensity levels, but as the that doesn't exist yet, it's not
a very useful approach to take. For better or worse, laser cutter
designs currently consist of 2d open or closed paths, generally with
colour used as a hint for beam intensity. If openscad was able to
produce output like this, it would be immensely useful to a LOT of
people almost immediately.
It also seems like far less work to modify openscad to support output
like this, than it would be to both create a slicer program for laser
cutters AND change the work flow of all of the people using laser cutters
On Wed, 30 Oct 2019, 04:30 Troberg, <troberg.anders@gmail.com
mailto:troberg.anders@gmail.com> wrote:
RevarBat wrote
In the BOSL2 library, the stroke() module can let you draw
lines of a
given
width along a 2D polyline path, with optional arrows and/or
endcaps for
either
end. The code for it relies on a lot of other features of the BOSL2
library, though
so it'd be a bit of work to extract that module out.
The problem is that as soon as they have a width, the laser will cut
twice.
Troberg wrote
The problem is that as soon as they have a width, the laser will cut
twice.
A somewhat odd but viable solution to "implement" zero-width lines that
comes into my mind, would be to create and output a 3D model and feed just
the lines that are on the [x,y,0] plane into the laser cutter. In an STL
output you would then find and sort/connect all vertices and edges that have
their Z coordinate set to 0 into pathes.
The implementation of the line() primitive would then be, e.g.:
http://forum.openscad.org/file/t887/line.png
a = [1,1, 0];
b = [0,12, 0];
line(a, b, 0.01, 3);
module line(p, q, width=0.1, height=1)
{
v = q-p;
normal = [-v[1], v[0], 0];
un = normal/norm(normal)*width/2;
n = [un[0], un[1], height];
n1 = [-un[0], -un[1], height];
points=[p, p+n, p+n1, q, q+n, q+n1];
faces=[[0,1,2], [3,5,4], [0, 3, 4, 1], [0, 2, 5, 3], [2, 1, 4, 5]];
polyhedron(points,faces);
}
A multiline() implementation of this is straightforward. Going a step
further, one could interpret laser intensity via the height parameter.
--
Sent from: http://forum.openscad.org/
All of you guys are shooting into the void. OpenSCAD is a 3D modeling tool, not a CAM tool. So you need real CAM software to drive your laser tool.That's the way it is for 3D printing, and nobody complains. Why aren't you bitching at laser manufacturers about their lousy CAM software instead of complaining to OpenSCAD developers who have done a terrific job at what they intended to do.
Just my two cents,Jean-Paul N1JPL
Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android
On Wed, Oct 30, 2019 at 9:56 AM, Tim V. Shaporevtim.shaporev@auriga.ru wrote: A good approximation to ideal word would be some tool to convert
OpenSCAD output to format suitable for existing laser cutter software.
What could it be? What would be the output and input formats?
On 10/30/2019 12:14 PM, A. Craig West wrote:
The essential problem is that there is currently no work flow for laser
cutters that allows you to use the output from openscad directly,
essentially there is no slicer. In an ideal world, you would be able to
use openscad to produce 3d shapes representing the material cut away by
the laser, and the 'slicer' program would calculate the required beam
paths and intensity levels, but as the that doesn't exist yet, it's not
a very useful approach to take. For better or worse, laser cutter
designs currently consist of 2d open or closed paths, generally with
colour used as a hint for beam intensity. If openscad was able to
produce output like this, it would be immensely useful to a LOT of
people almost immediately.
It also seems like far less work to modify openscad to support output
like this, than it would be to both create a slicer program for laser
cutters AND change the work flow of all of the people using laser cutters
On Wed, 30 Oct 2019, 04:30 Troberg, <troberg.anders@gmail.com
mailto:troberg.anders@gmail.com> wrote:
RevarBat wrote
> In the BOSL2 library, the stroke() module can let you draw
lines of a
> given
> width along a 2D polyline path, with optional arrows and/or
endcaps for
> either
> end. The code for it relies on a lot of other features of the BOSL2
> library, though
> so it'd be a bit of work to extract that module out.
The problem is that as soon as they have a width, the laser will cut
twice.
Brilliant idea, except perhaps the other way up. Produce a 3D STL and
process it to 2D plus grayscale by removing all the vertices and edges that
are at 0 and converting the remaining to 2D SVG paths with a colour value
derived from the Z coordinate.
On Wed, 30 Oct 2019 at 13:36, Parkinbot rudolf@digitaldocument.de wrote:
Troberg wrote
The problem is that as soon as they have a width, the laser will cut
twice.
A somewhat odd but viable solution to "implement" zero-width lines that
comes into my mind, would be to create and output a 3D model and feed just
the lines that are on the [x,y,0] plane into the laser cutter. In an STL
output you would then find and sort/connect all vertices and edges that
have
their Z coordinate set to 0 into pathes.
The implementation of the line() primitive would then be, e.g.:
http://forum.openscad.org/file/t887/line.png
a = [1,1, 0];
b = [0,12, 0];
line(a, b, 0.01, 3);
module line(p, q, width=0.1, height=1)
{
v = q-p;
normal = [-v[1], v[0], 0];
un = normal/norm(normal)*width/2;
n = [un[0], un[1], height];
n1 = [-un[0], -un[1], height];
points=[p, p+n, p+n1, q, q+n, q+n1];
faces=[[0,1,2], [3,5,4], [0, 3, 4, 1], [0, 2, 5, 3], [2, 1, 4, 5]];
polyhedron(points,faces);
}
A multiline() implementation of this is straightforward. Going a step
further, one could interpret laser intensity via the height parameter.
--
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