[WOODKNACK]

Anybody really know how to use the converter? I was wondering when you click on PRIORITY after you have a DXF file loaded, What does CLOSE ENOUGH do? can you confinsate for the width of your cutter here instead of doing it in cad? If not then what does this do???

[dkowalcz]

Originally posted by WOODKNACK
Anybody really know how to use the converter? I was wondering when you click on PRIORITY after you have a DXF file loaded, What does CLOSE ENOUGH do? can you confinsate for the width of your cutter here instead of doing it in cad? If not then what does this do???

Yeah, Doug's manual is a little terse.

Close Enough controls what the delta is between two entities to be considered "joined" for the optimization. Optimization in this context means not retracting to Z between two entities that share an endpoint.

There's no cutter comp in ACE, where the DXF lines are defines the toolpath.

Best advice I can give is to draw a simple square, run it through ACE, then look at the gcode generated. That's how I learned to use it. Not a bad program once you get the hang of it.

I'm trying to get the rest of the source from Doug so I can modify it a bit.

[chasbear]

I keep hearing about ACE converter and going to the Yeager site to find it, but I don't see it listed anywhere there. I was beginning to assume it must be discontinued and is now pulled from that site, but since I see here this current post about it, I thought I'd ask . . . howcomzit I can't find it?

Also, I can't think of anything better than for Mr. dkowalcz to be involved with it, I love your TurboCNC!

[WOODKNACK]

downlad his trial version of cncpro and I believe its in there.

[chasbear]

Thanks, Wood, I'll check that out!

Charles

[WOODKNACK]

I have a problem that is really getting to me. When I draw something up in my cad prgram and then convert it over using ace converter, there seems to be alot of places in my gcode where my machine just hangs for a minute or so. anybody got any ideas. I would really like to fix this problem or at least solve it!

[HomeCNC]

I think I placed it on the FTP site here as well.

[WOODKNACK]

why wont it read fonts from my cad program? i convert it with ace and nothing is there? any ideas.?

[HomeCNC]

Fonts in most cad packages are not geometry. You must find a conversion utility or trace over the font with lines and arcs.

[WOODKNACK]

thanks

[balsaman]

I use Corel draw to do text, then select the text and convert to curves, then save a dxf file. Also I think the express tools pack for autocad (as found on the CD), will convert text to geometry as well.

Eric

[NeoMoses]

DeskEngrave is the best little program I've found for making text G-code. It's available here: http://deskam.com/deskengrave.html and it's free! Definately worth taking a look at if you want to engrave text.

[WOODKNACK]

Ya i have that but it it limited .

[kong]

Woodknack, if I remember correctly, you are using turbocad? If so, if you use TrueType fonts, they can be exploded so they can be read by Ace - I think you will need to explode them twice, then Ace will cut them as a bunch of G01's. It's worth spending some time playing around.

[marvinstov]

Hi Everyone,
Just got my machine running a couple days ago and have made some drawings (TurboCad) to experiment with. Sometimes when I use ACE Converter I get nothing in return. File is there but zero bytes. I have played with the settings and read all I can find about it but no help. Any one else have this problem?

Thanks in advance.
Marv

[kong]

You must make sure you save your drawings as Autocad v12, or Ace will do all kinds of strange things! Can't say I've had a file size of zero though?!

[marvinstov]

Thanks Kong,

I'll try that. I have been saving them as DXF files and yea it's doing all kinds of strange things.

[kong]

I'm using Turbocad 7.1, so I save as DXF, then go into the setup section on the top right, and choose autocad r12 format in there. I'm sure you knew that, but just wanted to be clear. Hope you're not offended!

[marvinstov]

Kong,
Actually I did not know that, thanks for waking me up. I just tried that and it looks like a real G-Code now. Thanks again.
Marv

[idgara]

Woodnack, try outlineart. Pretty basic interface, but works for me. You can download from
http://www.qwerks.com/allsoftware/O/3_software.html
$20 to register
Rgds, Lin