Hey Paul..I just noticed. If you have the tool path skewed in a isometric type view, you may not be able to select it to add the tabs.
Just double left click in the drawing field and the view will go back to normal (top view), then you can select the toolpath and add the tabs.
Russ

G'day Russ

I am still getting nowhere fast but at least we can eliminate my DXF file which was incidentally saved as a AUTOCAD 2007 (ASCCI).  So it must be me or the program.  The tabbing on your last  pic is good.

One mystery is your references to the NEW profile.  You ask me to erase the original profile and highlight the new offset one.  That is where either me or the program seems to fail.  How can i highlight a profile that is no longer in view?

Also you refer to setting the thickness.  Where do you do that?  I can set the cut depth Ok and tool offsets are no problem

Could the problem be with my copy of LC? - V  3.00.2 or a bad download of that?  Mine is not the PRO version.

Many thanks   Paul

This is the best help i can give ( since I never fooled with tabbing much).

Create a number of offsets, and then rename the offsets to tab1 , tab2 , tab3 etc.
Now unenable say all except Tab1 chain. Now do a tabbing to it, and keep a few notes on what happened.
Unenable tab1 and enable the next and do a different tabing. This way you will know the effects and can quickly
find out how the Tabbing behaves and see what the logic is.

FWIW,
RICH

Russ

Yipee -  I dont know what i was doing before but now I can get tabs working for the square.  Several times in fact.

However the circle is not responding to same treatment!

Will play some more.  Any ideas?

Paul

Ok..you're getting there.
Here it is again step by step.
Your dxf is ok but here is a simple 6" circle. (yes, inch. I'm uncivilised)
I want to cut out this disc. 6" OD, 1/4" material.
Click on the circle,
On the left, select OFFSET/Outside, select 1/4" tool.
   (I used a 1/4" tool, .100" depth of each cut so it takes 3 passes to a depth of .260")
Down below, LAYERS tab, select same tool and send to layer.
Now create the offset.
You will see the new path in green and the original dwg will still be red. You must delete the original (RED) or LCam will generate GCode to cut it.
Now pan with the held down mouse wheel and you will see the three offset paths generated to get through the material.
Double click left mouse, then select the tool path.
now go below to the CHAINS tab and set your TAB dimensions and how many...click OK.
Now pan the view with the mouse wheel and you will see the TABS applied.
Simple as ........a piece of cake.
Russ

Can you be more specific ?
Your cutter, offset in or out
Material thickness
Depth of cut per pass, or all the way through in 1 pass ?
We'll get r' done,
Russ

Paul,
 You may need to save as ACad R12 or 2000 for the arcs to work right in LCam. It's VERY picky about that.
Otherwise, it should work fine.
Good luck bud,
Russ

Russ

Thanks for all yout time.

Now i see you are creating offsets in the offset function tab.  My LC is not the pro version so that function is not available to me.  That is the reason for the confusion as the only way i can create offsets in in the load function when the offset path is not shown - just the offset icon.  Hence my questions about choosing an offset path that i cannot see!!!.

In the pleb version of LC if i apply tabs to a circle the path is deleted!

I can save in Autocad 2000 so i will try that and advise.

Was born imperial but now fully metric - no more 64ths!!   Cutter is 1.3mm dia - single cut to up  5 mm thick.

Its begining to look the Pro version is required for tabbing circles and that is the reason for the confusion.

Cheers  Paul

Paul,
You can draw the offset in CAD along with the profile, assign each to their owne layer. LC will keep the layer names as chains  on import. Unenable or delete the a chain you don't want to do anything to. Try tabbing and see if it works. Not sure if tabbing is an advanced feature of the pro version. 

Russ,
Thanks for the step by step info. Povides a basis for a tutorial. 
RICH

Hi Paul,
 I keep forgetting to ask about the lic first.
I removed mine and cannot tab a circle.
Straight line shapes seem OK.
Didn't realise you were not offsetting.
I do like Rich, just draw the vector to allow for the offset.

Just select the vector, select the tool (in LAYERS tab below)
Set the finish depth.
Define the TABS.
DONE.

Rich,
   This would be a very LOOSE basis for a tut. There's most likely a much better approach. This is just how I stumbled into making it work lol.
Russ

Russ,
I would think of tabbing as the breaking line for bending something or maybe knife cutting marks in balsa
for breaking out shapes. On the other hand you could use it to get cuts on a third axis. I would need to look at the generated code. So what the user would need, based on the chosen settings of tabbing, is what to expect along
a line, shape, etc. and then apply that to whatever they may be trying to do. Of course you also can always do it a different way with just lines and assigning cut depths or offsets. Same old story, you have a tool to do something how do you want to apply it to the task. In that case it could be an automated way of doing something and no need to it in CAD. 

This is the first post in a year that someone asked about it. I can probably sit here for 24 hours fooling with tabbing  trying to find where it won't work or is flawed. Heck, only going to guess that 300 hours of my time went into the LC manual. So in that light, a "quick and dirty "  basic tutorial on it's functionality would be easy and would leave the practical application to the user.

Think you said the magical word, namely "approach".  It's a killer of a word, when you think about it. Since it implies how a user will utilize the software to do something and it's just not possible to anticipate. So "a way" is better than NONE even if it's not the best way. In fact that's the really hard struggle part in doing a manual / tutorial since you want a blend of here is how it works, here are the shortcomings, here is a tested approach, and then practical application at a low or advanced level.

So rather than rambling on and in consideration of the above, sometime in the future, I'll add a tutorial on tabbing use even if it's loose...........poet and don't know it..........

RICH