Hi,
Tried to post here some time ago and seems as the server had been down. Anyway, Is there a way to move the tabs in LC to be on a straight line, instead of anywhere LC puts them. Reason; I ruiened a piece of African Rosewood, none the less, it took out a corner where the tab had been placed,and have tried to do many tabs, and even moved the chain,and still LC puts them right in the corner and in the pocket. I'll salvage the piece somehow, SIGH..... but this would be a nice feature if it already does'nt do it. Any Information is ,and would be Greatly Appreciated.    Thanks,    Hank S.

HANK,
Have a look in the Members Docs as i just posted a tutorial on tabbing. You can modify the created tabbing by deleting elements of the chain.
Like the ones that are placed on the corners. You can play with the tabbing via the inputs and see the affect...may not be what you expect.
Can probably just draw them more quickly in CAD if you can't get exactly what you want from the automated tabbing.

Moving chains and elements is not fun at all. LC is an importer of dxf files. You can do minor fixes with chains and elements, but , even that can get complex. LC is not a drawing program.

Since LC starts the tabbing at the origin ( where the first Z plunge occurs) and you can change that location, it would seem that the tabbing would then be different. Still will get corners, but you can delete those.

That's all i know......

RICH

Rich,
Very Good Explanation on the working of tabbing,however some extra digitizing to get the tabs is working,and that is all that's needed.I never suspected to have gotten, that an offset, saved to another layer, was able to locate tabs in other positions, then in corners and such. Can now resize the offsetting, and continue with the original ,and all is well, on this ONE part,but shall see when the next part is different, and go from there. Very Good Heads up reading, and Time, You spent, on giving me and others a way of changing tabs, at the moment. Still a little confusing, and not sure to remember it for next time, but will leave me a positive way of doing so, when the next time warrants. Thank You for Your Efforts, and Always a Solution to a Post.     Thanks,    Hank S.

Hank,
It's a start. Need to hack your way by trying a number of different things and see what happens. I personaly have never had a need for tabbing.
I'll explore doing it manualy one of these days. That way you get exactly what you want and no need to figure out what the logic is in LC.

RICH

This file shows how to do tabbing manualy.
RICH

RICH,

Thanks for that file. Now why did'nt I think of that ! Sometimes the Easiest, is Just Too Hard to Grasp......   Thanks,   Hank S.

Hank,
The manual way will be fine for some simple things.
Now suppose you wanted to create Tabbing for numerous profiles... like those airplane breakouts in basa wood.
Now that would be a pain to do. It seems like both would be time consumming ..... lets say you had 25 pieces on the 8" x 12" wood sheet....
Don't have an "quick" answer to that one for a one of kind. Probably a CAD routine could be used to accomplish it and that i will leave to someone
else. 

RICH

RICH,
I'm gunna try this one more time,Last two posts are trashed. The fourm has always been a pain in my a$$ to post on,for reasons beyond my control. If this one post does not post,I GIVE UP! PERIOD.... Now to business, I have the ability to change the Line Type in my CAD program,and in doing so, have LC recognise the change in line type,and does it's own tabbing solution. I have enclosed 4 picts. of my CAD,changing the line type,and this has been more efficiant in producing GCode for the tabbing. It does save alot of time and can be altered to acomidate where the tabs are placed,and can be edited out of the corners if so wished. That had been the problem as I encountered before. Now with the changing of the line type,it has proven to me that this is quite faster, and it also follows curves and slots inward and outward. So this could be done as manual, or edited, for keeping the dash's out of the material where not needed. Simple, Yes ,but I have yet to try it on the machine to get a real sense of what it LOOKS like, and how correct it is.I have loaded the GCode in Mach,and have done in SIM Mode,and it seems perfect to run. Only time will tell,and wonder if there are any hitches, yet to be seen. So the enclosed 4 picts are to get a feel for what is going on. Enjoy !!  Thanks,   Hank S.