Vicon - DXF Import Fails at Small Scale

[sblackburn]

Good morning Gary,

Back with another request from you. I understand if you don't have time, and I'll understand if there is any copyright issues. I work in a small town in Blenheim, Ontario. There is a community park if you will, being built there. The park is about 60% complete so far. I've been asked to cut out some lettering for the entrance gate. The entrance gate will simply be "Talbot Trail Place". I was wondering if you could make these letters into a dxf format, with a Times New Roman font. The park has a neat virtual tour that can be seen at blenheimontario.com/blog/talbot-trail-place-3d-virtual-tour/ . If you check out the tour you will see what the gate will look like, and how they would like the letters. Thanks again for the work you've done for me, and let me know if you don't mind either way.

Steve,

 

[SignTorch]

 

[sblackburn]

Hey Gary, Wow, Thanks for how quick and great it is. I have a couple issues importing these letters, Any idea why? Imports the P O A as one cut line, and the E has different spacing from top to bottom. Any info would be great! Thanks so much! I'm looking forward for making this for the community here. Donation to follow for sure!!!

 

[SignTorch]

I'm going to guess, the E is bloated because you didn't scale everything up to size before applying kerf compensation. At less than an inch tall the kerf offset almost doubles the width of the narrowest parts of the letter.

On the other letters, the holes are kerf compensated to the outside of the hole rather than to the inside as it should be, and it looks like the hole became connected with the perimeter, which at that small scale could be a product of automatically joining nodes that are close together, which effectively eliminated the holes, which would explain why kerf compensation went to the outside.

Try scaling it to size first, and generally you should avoid applying auto correction to otherwise correct shapes, to avoid unpredictable results like that, although that problem will probably go away when it is scaled up to size (before applying kerf compensation).

 

[sblackburn]

I'm getting there slowly. Was able to figure out the E, by adding a large kerf to the letter. Adding the larger kerf is my only option really with this program. It did this to the O P A. I think your right when it comes to them joining because of how close they are. No matter how I import it, it keeps joining. Sorry to bug you again, but thanks for all the help so far! Any ideas? If for some reason I can't get it, I'll always program the torch to not cut the parts that join the pieces. Thanks again.

 

[SignTorch]

are you per chance using sheetcam?

 

[sblackburn]

Nope, We just have a simple program that came with our table. It's Vicon. It's great for sheet metal work, just not the best for creating and editing.

 

[SignTorch]

I'd like to see that program, lots of people have lots of problems with Vicon software, in the last year or so it has become my worst nightmare,


try this one, the letters are 12" tall, that might eliminate the problem of separate sub-paths getting joined

 

[sblackburn]

Exactly as your picture is, is exactly how it imports this time! It's perfect! Thanks so much. Vicon has treated me well with all the duct I pump out. It's a super user friendly duct program. However, when it comes to the editing and creation of work such as yours it becomes a nightmare for sure. Let's put it this way. The fellow that helped set our shop up with our machine said that Vicon is great, but there CAD capabilities are more like a Ghetto version of AutoCAD. I've gotten used to using it to make most of what I need, but I've relied on your skills when I'm in a bind. Thanks so much for your help Gary! I'm looking forward to cutting these out and finishing them for the project! I'll make sure to include pictures of it when there hung on the entry way. The donation to come might take a bit, but it is indeed coming. The guy that wants me to cut them will be donating to you. My time is for the community, but yours will be reimbursed! Thanks again!

 

[SignTorch]

Thanks, that is helpful to know about Vicon, since I usually don't scale my DXFs up much, that explains things, to some extent.

I just chose the 12" height arbitrarily, if it needs to be a certain height just let me know...

I don't really have a lot of time in that one, it's actually the simplest request ever...


I'm mulling over the idea of making some DXF software to resolve various problems like that, I always thought DXF problems would go away in a couple of years (10 years ago), but they're like weeds...

 

[MidAmerica Ironworks]

What kind of issues do you have with the Vicon software? I just purchased a used table and didn't have an issue when I took an artsy .dfx file to have it cut for a demo.

 

[jether]

Your right, as for me the problem in E as what you have said it is too close.

 

[sblackburn]

Vicon is great for sheet metal and cutting dxf. It's tricky to learn how to use the sketch and edit functions. If you have files from signtorch they usually import great 99% of the time. If you try using others creations, (not all) but a lot have troubles importing. I'm not sure if it's the format they were made or if its the auto scaling that vicon has.