First - this is a CNC Wood Router and I am attempting to 'cut' an outlined piece of wood - yes... my guitar pick guard. My final expected piece will the be very curved outline, routed out of a piece of plastic with small 'tabs' or 'bridges' left at strategic places in outline which 'hold' the routed outline to the blank. I will remove the blank from the table, and then use a knife or some other cutting tool to to cut through the tabs which will free my routed pick guard free.

I have my contour defined in DCAD. When I switch to DCAM to start creating the tool paths, there doesn't appear to be an option to create 'holding tabs' (little sections of the material that remain and span the routed gap so the actual outlined piece does not start moving around during the routing process). There is a 'bridge' function of course - but that appears to be method of connecting multiple contours together to create a single machine tool path. The DCAD Help file indicates that function - but that is not applicable to me - my outline is a single outline.

It seems to me a 'workaround' would be to take my outline, create a second copy parallel to it - offset by at least my expected tool width. Then I have my two elements or contours that I could 'bridge' to create my holding tabs. That's a fine idea - but because this is an imported DXF and is VERY curved - these curves amount to a gazillion little straight lines. 'Selecting' just the outline and then trying to figure out how to 'stretch' it or otherwise create an offset 'parallel' outline of some dimension .25" (or greater) just seems ENORMOUS to me.

Here is a 'picture' of the outline I am trying to route...



Any ideas out there?

Thanks!
Arden

(and I apologize for all the posts... Dolphin wants me to 'learn', 'use' and 'say good things'... right now - I'm at the 'learning' part - hopefully REALLY quickly to the 'use' part...)