Hi Everyone,

Just received my Lazy Cam pro license and could use some help.

I am trying to Inlay a logo into wood.

It is a stylized text pattern that I will need to pocket the letters and also have the typical islands for various portions of the letters.

I have attached the file in the event someone can see what I am doing wrong... Lazy Cam seems to be able to cut the lines of the inside and out side of the letters just fine, but I cannot seem to get the pocketing feature to work....

Eventually, the idea was  to create offsets as well so the two inlay pieces fit together....  Funny... Thought that the offsets would be the thing that would give me problems...

Thanks in advance..

Pete

Hi, Pete

Took a quick look, Think you need to put a box/border around the text to pocket out too.

Post your dxf please.

Chip

Thanks for the quick reply Chip,

Unfortunately, I really don't have a good answer as to how I ended up with the logo file I have...  Was trying a lot of options.

I attached a couple of DXF/DWG files that I created initially,  but I was not able to open them.  I think I ended up using the attached JPG file since DXF was giving me grief out of Illustrator.

If so, then I think I know why I have just an outline now...  probably used the "trace" option during import....  Is there another option?

On another note, regarding the box around the text....  I can do that, but I wanted to explain further in case I was vague before...  the pocket needs to be the actual letter shape, ( between the lines) not the surrounding area of the letter....

Thanks again...

Pete

Hi Pete,

I tried having a look at your dxf but nothing showed. This will need to be saved as AutoCad 11/12 ascii type dxf.

Thanks,
Dave

Dave, Chip,


I was able to convert the file to a DXF that can be opened...

Think I am on the right track, but still could use some help.

Could one of you try to open the file again and offer any advise you can....

One of the files is what looks like a center tool path, (named "Center") and the other (named "Outline") is what you would expect and what I think I need to pocket the letters with lazy cam...


Thanks in advance.

Pete

Hi Pete,

Ok, had a look at the dxfs and they did open but with a lot of broken areas and "fragments" all over the place. May I ask what you used to create this dxf? I'm thinking part of the problem is that it's not clean enough to be functional.

Have a look at the screenshot of your dxf zoomed in. You'll see all the little bits around and the lines are very very jagged which would cause your machine to go nuts, lol.

Dave

Dave,

Wow, that is amazing!

I used Illustrator to create the DXF but then used a third party to convert it to a release #12 so it could be imported into Lazy Cam...

Guess I will try to use a program like Turbo cam to create a DXF that can be imported..

Pete

Pete,
You want use something that is vector based / not something that will generate a line based on screen pixels or dots. So use turbo cad or any cad program and it will save you time in the end.
RICH

Give ProgeCAD a try as it's free as well and very much like AutoCad. 

Dave