Machsupport Forum
G-Code, CAD, and CAM => LazyCam (Beta) => Topic started by: pbhuter on June 07, 2011, 02:35:26 PM
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I have a DXF file that I'm importing into LazyCam. When it first shows up in the window, all the lines are there, then a lot of areas the lines disappear from in the final image. Anyone know why these lines are going away? Thanks.
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I'm not sure what "version" of DXF I'm creating, but what if I were to load it into AutoCAD, then save it as a 2010 DXF?
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Save it as a v12 for best results
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I opened my file in AutoCAD 2012 and saved it as DXF R12. Still have the same issue. Any other suggestions, anyone?
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Post the .dxf here
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You'll need to change the extension back to .ZIP - for some reason it wouldn't let me upload it with a ZIP extension.
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Not sure what it's supposed to be. And I don't use LazyCAM.
But here's a few reasons why you're having problems.
1) The .dxf only contains a single block. Try exploding it.
2) anything that's not an arc is a 3D polyline, which I'm not sure if LC supports? Rich?
3) there are almost 20,000 lines and arcs. I can't see how anything recognizable could be cut from this??
It looks like an attempt to use a Raster to Vector converter on a photo of a landscape??
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It's a line drawing of a landscape, yes. Any suggestions?
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The lines are all there in the DXF file, but they don't show up in LazyCam.
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It's a line drawing of a landscape, yes. Any suggestions?
I gave you two.
Try exploding the block. But my guess is that the problem is the 3D polylines, which make up most of the lines.
Try creating a .dxf file with a single 3D polyline and see if it works.
But I'll ask again. I posted a pic of the drawing. There's nothing recognizable, so why are you trying to cut it??
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This picture isn't very good, I'll admit that. I have some better ones, though. How do I explode the block? I have AutoCAD 2012, but I have no idea how to use it on a DXF file. Thanks for your help.
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select it and type EXPLODE, then hit ENTER.
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I select all the stuff in the DXF file and type EXPLODE? I'm sorry I have no clue what to do with this.
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When I open the .dxf, there's only one item, a block which contains all the other items. If you can select them individually, then you don't need to explode it.
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Sorry, my mistake. I dragged and dropped the .dxf into AutoCAD, which made it a block. The file you posted did not contain a block.
So, my guess is that the 3D polylines are not supported by LazyCAM.
Wait, do you have a licensed version of Mach3?
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I have a license for Mach3 and LazyCam. I put both of them in the Mach3 folder.
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How do I know what will be "drawn"? I loaded a knew image (a little better than the previous), and I see blue and grey lines in LazyCam. There are a few straight blue lines that don't belong.
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LC's dxf importer is not the best. I never use polylines and all entities are lines or arc's for what i have done.
Some comments on your drawing:
Like Gerry, I also exploded the whole drawing and there were some 500 + items that didn't explode and LC locked up when i tried to import
a ver12 dxf of it. I also took the drawing and did the equivilant in Microstation and the curved lines were converted to arcs and the exported dxf locked up LC.
So I deleted about 75% of the file and LC was able to use it.
I fooled with the tolerance setting in LC but that didn't improve things.
I used CamBam and it had no trouble with the complete exploded ver12 dxf .
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Frankly, I don't know what your going to do with this file or any equivilant one like it for that matter.
There are converters out there but the results most often leave something to be desired. I don't play much in the
"picture" or "image" machining / routing arena. Results from upper end software seems to be satisfactory for the router folks.
If i want a picture done then it will be vector based as i can control what i want to accomplish for the engraving.
I can't comment much on LC's use of bitmaps or images. I fooled with it some time ago and wasn't impressed with it.
BTW, i didn't delete the bird that was in your dxf file. ;)
RICH
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Hey Rich, thanks for the response. LazyCam takes forever to load (Windows thinks it crashes), but it loads the image. The problem I seem to be dealing most with is going from the image to a 1-bit line drawing for conversion to DXF. I'm playing around with options, and making some progress. Thanks.
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Converting an image to a .dxf like that will never get you any real usable results. For best results, try a program like Image to G-Code, or Photo V Carve.
It's also possible to use a program than can create g-code directly from the image. I think LazyCAM can do this?? MeshCAM can. Depending on the image, these can work OK, to not so good.
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Image to G-Code doesn't work with Windows 7, but Photo V Carve seems to. Thanks for your help.