very basic cad cam software

**charlieuk** · 20-02-2015

Cool cheers 40 trial sessions will be plenty

**charlieuk** · 20-02-2015

so I ended up drawing it in auto cad as I have used that a bit and I started to follow a you tube vid on how to load the dxf file but as soon as I try it freezes cam bam up and says invalid arc multiple times in the task bar at the bottom? any ideas?

**Clive S** · 20-02-2015

Originally Posted by charlieuk

so I ended up drawing it in auto cad as I have used that a bit and I started to follow a you tube vid on how to load the dxf file but as soon as I try it freezes cam bam up and says invalid arc multiple times in the task bar at the bottom? any ideas?

I don't use CamBam But there are open vectors in the dxf I have closed them with Aspire see if this works. ..Clive

**charlieuk** · 21-02-2015

cheers clive many thanks yes that has worked I will have to try and figure how to do that in auto cad like I say I only have very basic skills. I will now try and carry on with the tutorial.

**GEOFFREY** · 21-02-2015

I use alphacam and that uses "join", but I believe the same thing in autocad is "unite". Most other peoples DXF files that I use need to be cleaned up a bit AND JOINED to arrive at complete geometries. G.

**charlieuk** · 21-02-2015

I think im slowly figuring it out! I think I have managed to get the g code in to mach 3 however it seams that the z axis is going the wrong way ie when it should be cutting it raising up and when its not its going down towards the table? I assume there is machine setting some were that need to be changed? I cant see anything along the top at the moment but will have another look with a fresh head tomorrow. thanks

edit just realized I needed to say - depth of cut.

**Clive S** · 21-02-2015

Originally Posted by charlieuk

I think im slowly figuring it out! I think I have managed to get the g code in to mach 3 however it seams that the z axis is going the wrong way ie when it should be cutting it raising up and when its not its going down towards the table? I assume there is machine setting some were that need to be changed? I cant see anything along the top at the moment but will have another look with a fresh head tomorrow. thanks

edit just realized I needed to say - depth of cut.

Your Z home zero should be at the top and all Gcode Z moves going -ve Clive

**Clive S** · 21-02-2015

Originally Posted by GEOFFREY

I use alphacam and that uses "join", but I believe the same thing in autocad is "unite". Most other peoples DXF files that I use need to be cleaned up a bit AND JOINED to arrive at complete geometries. G.

Geoffrey (We met at the model show last year) Thanks. Join does work in autocad I don't think unite does. When I use autocad using join it appears to be able to join only one arc at a time (I must investigate further) but in Aspire you can just select all objects and join the lot at once. Clive

**EddyCurrent** · 21-02-2015

Charlie, CamBam has a 'join' feature too, also set your depth of cut to a negative value for Z to go down.
Juist tried loading the your dxf and you are correct, it's in too bad a shape for CamBam to open, you could easily have drawn those in CamBam.

**GEOFFREY** · 21-02-2015

Hi Clive, yes it was nice to put a face to a name after meeting you last year. Alphacam also allows you to put a box around a drawing to join and form a closed geometry, but if the break is too large it will not join them and lines/arcs need to be extended/trimmed before the join can be completed. That is what I meant when I said "cleaned up". I have never used Autocad, but suspect that most of these programs are basically very similar. For me tha advantage with Alphacam is that when a drawing is completed, the cutter paths can be put on in the same program and the G code is then automatically output and post processed to suit the machine. I like it nice and simple - I suppose that suits my mind!!! G.