Hi guys
is there a way to tile a job that is bigger than my cutting area in Estlcam? I regularly cut .dxf files that are supplied to me from a customer. Problem is, he just sent me a .dxf file that happens to be bigger than my machine. I am able to slide the stock through the machine that I am currently using, but I cannot figure out how to tile the job. I believe this is a function in vcarve, but I currently do not have that software. Is there any native way to do this with estlcam? I can’t seem to modify the .dxf in onshape to cut the job in half and add a reference hole. Even if I could, estlcam wants to cut full parts instead of just stopping at a particular spot so that i can continue after sliding the stock down (if that makes any sense). Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!
I haven’t used it but there is a Tile function in Estlcam.
Edited to remove a video that didn’t answer te question.
Hi Paul,
Thanks! But that is for taking a single part and multiplying it. I dont know what to call what I am trying to do, but I believe v-carve calls it tiling. I need to take say a rectangle that is too large for my machine bed, cut it in half, reference a new zero and continue on. I guess this video explains what I am trying to do better : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jhnKr4fc_c
Don’t know if you’re running a MPCNC or LR but I went to the MPCNC forum and searched ‘cutting oversized pieces’ and got a number of hits that seemed to address this issue, probably be a good place to start.
I don’t think there is anything automatic. I would probably pull it into cad, add some line/marks at a few spots where I had to cut the long contours into smaller pieces. That would let me do the half manual tracing of the parts. While I was in CAD, I could also draw the locations for reference dowels.
I haven’t done it myself though.