Hi Rich,

I keep the manual handy and have read all the references.  As far as part positioning goes, I use the horizontal traingles to set the start point and tool offset in LTurn.  As far as design software goes, I'm the first to admit I know nothing about ACAD but I do have several years into CD and can knock things out quickly.  The ACAD manual is 2-3 inches thick and all I want is a nice, smooth curve.  It's not obvious how it's done in ACAD - sure simple radius-based arcs are easy but the ones I'm shooting for don't map into that.

As far as the multiple polylines - all I was putting together for that bushing profile are straight line segments.  Click the start point, double click the endpoint to terminate the segment.  I have no control over what CD generates.  Maybe this is something I could figure out in ACAD.

With regard to the finish pass - it isn't a problem for me right now.  All barrels have to go through an incremental sanding phase and finish application.  I'm shooting for 0.010-0.015 oversize coming out of the Mach3 run.

Thanks again for the advice/insight.  As I've said, I appreciate the efforts you all are putting on this.

Cheers,   Joe

Joe,
"I have no control over what CD generates." - My point exactly!

Just try wiening yourself off CD, and i know how hard that can be, but in the long run you'll benefit.
As far as ACAD, you probably only use 5 % of it's capability.

If you want to have something oversize, just put a  value in the "Stock Clearance" in the dialog ( figure 5.14 in the manual).
RICH

Hey Joe,
As you read thru the manual ,if you find stuff that is not clear or leaves you wondering in any way, or want to make a comment good, bad or ugly feel free to just post the comment. The manual is not meant to teach you how to use a lathe, but, nothing beats a fresh pair of eyes for finding something.
Appreciate it,
RICH

Hi Guys,

I am keen to help with this development.  I am not an expert but have read the well documented manual and tried to follow the instructions as best I could.  I created a model in Solidworks and from that model created a dxf upper profile and saved it in ACAD 11/12 format.  See attached dxf.

Whenever I load the saved dxf into Lazyturn I get a greatly oversized profile.  Lazyturn allows me to change the stock diameter to any value I wish but will not allow me to change the profile diameter to anything less than the default value that Lazyturn gives it.  See screenshots below.

Regards

Chrisjh

Chrisjh,
Move the profile in your CAD system to proper QUADRENT. See Appendix "B" in the manual Figure 3.5.1.      See attachments.

RICH

Thanks Rich,

I am kicking myself for missing the obvious.

Kind Regards

Chrisjh

chrisjh: if you don't mind, I have a question for you on how you were able to export your dxf in the origin that it was drawn. How did you accomplish this?

I'm not a solidworks pro (I have solidworks 2005) and I only figured out how to get a reasonable dxf for turn by accident. By looking at the pics below, you'll see that when I export the drawing to dxf, I put the sketch just on a custom sheet with no text or blueprint template as you can see and making sure it's 1:1. Now when you look at the dxf in LazyTurn, you'll see that it's stretched like yours.

Now what I found accidentally because I was trying locate it in different places on the drawing to find the proper origin, is that if I put it right at the bottom of the sheet (anywhere along the bottom) it comes out right but it has to be right on the edge as shown in the pics below.

Some pictures will be on a seperate post as you're only allowed 4 pics per post.

I'd like to know how you were able to place yours at a specific origin?

Thanks for any help-
Dave

Here are the pics of how I got it to work:

Hi Budman,

I too am not a Solidworks pro.  I use SW 2007 and have no formal drafting or CAD training, hence my ignorance of quadrants and origins.  Thanks to Rich I am now better informed.

The method I used is as follows:

1.  Create the model in Solidworks.

2.  Create a drawing of the model showing only the top or side view ensuring that the scale is 1:1.

3.  Save the drawing as a dxf.  (SW gives you the option to save in various dxf fromats including ACAD 11/12)

4.  Close the dxf in SW and open it again in BOBCAD (I do this because I don't know how to move origins in SW or DWG Editor.  I tried to follow the help but gave up!!!)

5.  Use BOBCAD to move the origin to the correct quadrant and trim the drawing to show the upper half of the profile only.

Regards

Chrisjh

Chris,

Thanks for the rundown on how you do it.

 I was hoping that you had known a way to locate the origin in dxf form so that I didn't have to go to another program but no big deal, I guess I can use ProgeCAD (like autoCAD) if need be.

I do appreciate your reply and your help - 
Dave