OK so I've had the JGRO for about a year now and every time i want to do something i wish i had more work area. My plan was to get the experience building the JGRO and then use it to cut a JOE anyway so the time has come.
I've read many posts and understand that on my machine some of the Joe parts are going to be bigger than my working area. I know that Joe has even cut some of the long parts of his kit into 2 pieces for easier shipping. I understand the concept of setting up a jig and cutting part of a piece and then moving it to finish the cut. What i can't figure out is how to split a DWG into multiple pieces with an overlap so i can make my parts in 2 or more steps. I've been using Vcarve and if i edit a DWG in Autocad lets say the long pieces of the bottom gantry and split the file lets say 14 inches in and save it. and then come back and split the file again at say 12 inches and save the other half this should give me an overlap and as long as i jig the pieces accurately then i know i can make the cut. When i try to save the file to gcode in Vcarve i get 1 open vector and of course I'm going to have 1 open vector because I'm trying to split a file and save it in 2 parts. I don't really want to learn another cam package but i do have access to a few because my room mate work in a machining facility. Is there something really obvious I'm missing here or let me hear form some folks who are doing this and describe what process you go through. Like i said before i searched and even saw some cool videos on doing this but my head hurts from banging it on the wall all weekend. Thanks for any help anyone can give.
Scott