Hi,
While I calibrate my LR2, I have also been finalising my first big job. I’m building a single seat airplane, and have all the CAD work done in Sketchup. I then exported the STL file as a DXF and opened this with Estlcam. Pretty straightforward.
Except that my work area in Sketchup is 2500mm x 1220mm, and the fuselage fits neatly into that area. However in Estlcam, the drawings are far too big. See attached pics. Repetier shows the same drawing / work surface disconnect.
Bugger bugger bugger… I’ ve just loaded the Sketchup DXF into FreeCAD, and the dimensions of the work area are 2741mm x 1310mm (!?) That’s many months of work. I’m not actually sure how to recover from this at the moment. I’ll try scaling (in FreeCAD) and see what happens. I’ve adjusted the Estlcam work area to these new dimensions, and everything fits. So it is @#$%^ Sketchup which is to blame!
Duncan
Ha ha. Seems like I’ve been having a conversation mostly with myself (I must be getting senile…).
Disaster averted. QCAD to the rescue - a perfectly scaled DXF.
Hi. Yes, greatly relieved.
I’ve designed a very small single seat “Flying Flea” which I call the “FleaBike” - mainly because it is a sit-ON, not sit-IN airframe. The pilot straddles the fuselage as though it were a bike.
This design allows for straight sides, which can be built on a flat work surface. In order to get the main fuselage structure to be perfectly aligned (without having to measure, cut, trial and error, throw away the piece and do it again), I’ve designed a one-piece “template” cut from 1.5mm Birch ply. This is what the LR2 is for. I then simply bond on the structural pieces (19mm x 19mm Spruce) directly onto this template, and everything lines up perfectly.
