Hi Steve,
  This is what I do to machine right ON a line as RICH mentioned.
I define a tool as "ON VECTOR" - Diameter 0.0001

Select this tool and do an offset.
Use whatever *actual* tool you wish, just keep in mind that the cut will be out from the drawing .00005
Close enough for me !
Most likely a better way tho.

Russ

...or, dont select any of the tabs. code will be generated on any line using the info for that layer.

Steve,

DXF IMPORTING - I was able to import your dxf files into CAD, but, there can be problems with DXF
files. Here is the problem, kind of, the way i understand it. As programs have matured, say 3d was added and thus, the dxf file content also changed to suite to contain that additional info.Version 12
DXF dosn't contain all or a lot of info and represents data differently. ( i have a write up on dxf files in
the LazyTurn manual as an appendix. SO the info from the providing program can't be read correctly
by the recieving program during the import. You will find that if you try to import your dxf files by an
old program that it may or will bomb. Newer programs will import it but you'll get error messages.

So LC's importer is lacking and the newer creating program has some undesirable things in it also.

But what is a person to do if his dxf don't import, well............i don't have a simple answer!
As a suggestion you may want to try some free CAD programs and see if they will import and
export your files appropriately for use. You may want to ask Alibre what they recomend. Changing
the dxf file exporting is a book in itself and frankly even advanced folks can have trouble, if there are
even ways to change the exporting.
------------------------------
"Are you saying I can define my own tool path somehow without using the pocket and offset tabs?"

Exactly. You can just draw lines, arcs, or whatever in your CAD drawing and then define the cut
parameters for them, your basicaly doing the pathing and LC is just writing the Gode for them.
I think the only place i talked about this in the manual was in the lathe tutorial "EXTRA LINES".
This can come in handy since sometimes, for what ever reason ( including some high end
programs) you just can't get an area to pocket. It's 99% and what do you do for that 1%, easier to
draw a few lines then spend hours fooling with the program! The higher end programs provide you
CAD, and if something bombs on inport, well they send you over to the cad sections so you pick
and choose what you want to do. That is what i did in my drawings for the air cleaner. It is easier to
just draw the paths and have LC generate the code for them. LC generates code for only the stuff
that is "enabled" allowing you to pick and choose machining operations.
-----------------------------------
"How would i go about doing that. Would i click on those entities and create a tool path next to
those?" YES

Think in terms of machining steps. How will this piece be machined? In what order? And then
create your drawing appropriately by having those entities / chains / pathing on their own layers.
You will know each via the project information at a glance.
For example:
1.Using a .016" cutter you would have a chain for the inside boarder on it's owne layer, select only    that layer, turn off / unenable all the other layers, define the cut paramters for that layer (  would   be based on the tool you will use for that machining operation ( say machine down to a .016"  
depth). Post code and machine it.

 The air cleaner has a inside boader. So if you use a .016" dia ball mill the offset would be .008".
 Well you  can create an offset for it in LC...or ....heck in cad do the pathing for it and it's already on
its onwe layer. You don't want to do this in general, but, for some stuff it may be easier, at times.
2. Now you would machine all the paths that make up the "ribs"/ scalloped areas, Each of those
    cuts, start and end in the inside boarder.  That will leave little dots from the ball mill and you may
    not want to see them from an asthetic point of view.
3. After seeing how 1 & 2 actualy machined, you may want to remachine the inside boarder but this
time increase the cut depth by a smalll amount. say .018 which wil remove the marks and look    

clean.

So you have a layer which represents a machining step, you simple tell LC the cut paramters for

that step, post and machine.

RICH

I tried that myself, His dxf to Progecad to V12 dxf. Still did not work. Next IF I can get it downloaded to the shop puter I wil do it in Acad directly. I can scale it up and down to no avail. NOTTA

I can get it to do a pocket BUT it is the entire area, it does not SEE the fins. OR it just ignors it all and does nothing. I could be the puter and Lcam It is running on vista at the house.

(;-) TP

The file imports into AutoCAd ver 2000 and up, bombs in old microstation versions, is ok in the newer microstation versions like V8.
RICH

I tried that myself, His dxf to Progecad to V12 dxf. Still did not work. Next IF I can get it downloaded to the shop puter I wil do it in Acad directly. I can scale it up and down to no avail. NOTTA

I can get it to do a pocket BUT it is the entire area, it does not SEE the fins. OR it just ignors it all and does nothing. I could be the puter and Lcam It is running on vista at the house.

(;-) TP

At least i know it's not just me.
Hat's off to Doc! What ever voodoo you do, it works!!

So Rich, what you are saying is to draw the tool path in cad instead of the part. Then tell Lcad to cut on the line.

Interesting approach!

Steve,
Now you got it. 
You need to do a layout, just add the pathing ( because its easy ), and in this case / your project, it's actualy eaisier and you get exactly what you want without fidling around trying to get LC  ( or some other CAM program ) to generate the pathing. DO NOT RELAYER as LC will redo all your layering based on what it thinks the machining order / optimal pathing should be.

LC is just an importer! When you try and use offsets or whatever you are just tricking the program to get what you could have just drawn in CAD. Not the norm but very effective in use.
RICH

good morning steve
ok here is what i got,there are two forces working here and they are both bad. the first we know l-cam dont like small archs that it did not generate. the second is that your cad as nice as it draws has bad blood running in its veins that
l-cam can see but we cant. so when you try to do something with the original dxf l-cam is trying to work with the bad blood. everything come out sick. so what you have to do is filter the blood. believe it or not mach3 and l-cam makes
a good filter. your cad does draw nice as compared to others. so here is the plan to filter the blood. attached are two taps that i filtered, and they are g-code clones of your dxf.
the move is to take you dxf and just convert it to g-code, load it into mach3 then import back into l-cam. that filters the bad blood. you can play with it at the original scale and see how much better it works with l-cam.  but you will still
have trouble with pockets at that size, so scale up to pocket. this should help you smooth out the proccess.

bill

  See, this is why I try to keep from helping as you guys are just awesome/amazing and I think I only make things worse by getting involved.   

Dave