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eolfan		#1 Posted : Wednesday, June 30, 2010 8:45:18 AM(UTC)
Rank: Junior Member Joined: 9/2/2009(UTC) Posts: 13		Hello friends, this is my first post... I used VIACAD 2D/3D for the design of a solar tracker ; it was my first time in CAD and I found it very useful in spite of some buggs. The whole thing were designed in 3D mode. I had this problem : I had some parts to be cut with a CNC laser cutting machine, so I exported these parts work into a dxf file. Well, it worked with the right dimensions but in place of the smooth round curves and circles I had high order polygons. This was not an issue with small radius curves, but I had also larger circles (600 mm) where the facets are not suitable. These facets are also visible when I print the drawings on sheets. Is there a way to generate perfect curves ? Eolfan


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jdi000		#2 Posted : Wednesday, June 30, 2010 9:30:26 AM(UTC)
Rank: Administration Joined: 7/29/2007(UTC) Posts: 1,862 Thanks: 1 times Was thanked: 87 time(s) in 81 post(s)		Originally Posted by: eolfan Hello friends, this is my first post... I used VIACAD 2D/3D for the design of a solar tracker ; it was my first time in CAD and I found it very useful in spite of some buggs. The whole thing were designed in 3D mode. I had this problem : I had some parts to be cut with a CNC laser cutting machine, so I exported these parts work into a dxf file. Well, it worked with the right dimensions but in place of the smooth round curves and circles I had high order polygons. This was not an issue with small radius curves, but I had also larger circles (600 mm) where the facets are not suitable. These facets are also visible when I print the drawings on sheets. Is there a way to generate perfect curves ? Eolfan Hi Eolfan ViaCAD generates 2d views with polylines so you can not get curves unless you add them yourself manually I add the center point dimension to curves, flatten the draw views and redraw the curves using the center point and curve diameter/radius. Other manual way is to use the cut section tool and generate a 2d section and use that profile to laser cut. Other option is to buy Shark LT which will generate 2d views with precise lines mode true curves are generated vs the polyline approximation in ViaCAD. Regards Jason
		Windows 11, 10


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victorf57		#3 Posted : Wednesday, June 30, 2010 5:11:36 PM(UTC)
Rank: Member Joined: 3/24/2007(UTC) Posts: 58		Ok, I was on the fence between upgrading to viacad 7 or going with alibre. I went with viacad, I see now it was the wrong choice because I also want to use it for CNC:mad: Does aanyone know of a utility/addon that we can use to get the reqquired smooth curves??? Also does this problem show up if using 2D, 3D or in both cases? Thanks Victor


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jdi000		#4 Posted : Wednesday, June 30, 2010 5:57:09 PM(UTC)
Rank: Administration Joined: 7/29/2007(UTC) Posts: 1,862 Thanks: 1 times Was thanked: 87 time(s) in 81 post(s)		Hi Victor This is not from 2d files. Polylines are created for curves when you use the model to sheet command to generate views of 3d parts. What cnc work to you want to do? What format are you using to send files to cnc? Regards Jason
		Windows 11, 10


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victorf57		#5 Posted : Wednesday, June 30, 2010 6:19:22 PM(UTC)
Rank: Member Joined: 3/24/2007(UTC) Posts: 58		Hi Jason, I usually go out .DXF to cam . I usually use deltacad, or other 2D cad program for this. I thought that Viacad 2D/3D would do it all for me. Not that I'm a heavy user of CNC but I do like to play at times. I have never played with 3D yet now I'm not even sure that via can help me with that:confused: I do have meshCam for 3D but haven't used it yet. So jason what you are saying is that if I make a 2D part all is well. The problem is when going from 3D to 2D. is this corect??? I did go into Via and just made a 2D radius and when Zoomed in you can see that the ARC is made up of small lines, would this not be a problem to the CNC machine going around the corner??? If I draw the same part in my deltacad program and zoom in all looks smooth. Thanks Victor


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jdi000		#6 Posted : Wednesday, June 30, 2010 6:58:25 PM(UTC)
Rank: Administration Joined: 7/29/2007(UTC) Posts: 1,862 Thanks: 1 times Was thanked: 87 time(s) in 81 post(s)		Hi Victor 2d drawing will export arc and curves, and splines in dxf export, so no worries, with that When you take a 3d part and generate the automatic view it uses polylines in ViaCAD to represent curves, but you can use the section tool to cut 2d section of part and the curves will be curves not polylines, or re draw the arcs in 2d before exporting to dxf,dwg. Zooming up on a curve is the visual representation of the arc not the output. You can select all curve and change resolution to superfine and check the even distribution box to get smoother viewing curves Regards Jason
		Windows 11, 10


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blowlamp		#7 Posted : Thursday, July 1, 2010 1:37:36 AM(UTC)
Rank: Senior Member Joined: 6/28/2008(UTC) Posts: 648		Victor. I use ViaCAd all the time for producing DXF files for use in my CAM program, which is CamBam. Export from ViaCAD is flawless - you couldn't have made a better choice. Martin.


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victorf57		#8 Posted : Thursday, July 1, 2010 4:26:52 AM(UTC)
Rank: Member Joined: 3/24/2007(UTC) Posts: 58		Thanks Jason and Martin, you made me feel better, Martin When you go from Via to cambam is that 2D, 3D or both???? Thanks victor


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blowlamp		#9 Posted : Thursday, July 1, 2010 5:47:38 AM(UTC)
Rank: Senior Member Joined: 6/28/2008(UTC) Posts: 648		Victor. I use ViaCAD for both 2D and 3D into CamBam. Use the DXF for 2D/2.5D and STL for the 3D stuff. Works like a charm! Let me know if I can help. Martin.


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victorf57		#10 Posted : Thursday, July 1, 2010 9:50:29 AM(UTC)
Rank: Member Joined: 3/24/2007(UTC) Posts: 58		Thanks Martin, I'm sure it will work as well with sheetCam and MeshCam. Thanks Victor


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eolfan		#11 Posted : Thursday, July 1, 2010 10:05:11 AM(UTC)
Rank: Junior Member Joined: 9/2/2009(UTC) Posts: 13		Jason, thanks a lot for the trick. It would have been better to know that before (and been mentioned in the tutorials). It was simple and fast to redraw these bloody curved parts in 2D mode. However I appreciate VIACAD while I'm aware it's perfectible. Eolfan _________________ ViaCAD 2D/3D V786 Windows XP Lyon, France


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