Unable to align imported profile on it's origin

[Home Shopper]

I have drawn a part in AutoCAD 2010 and then imported it into Cut2D (see attached file) in format R12.
The part aligns itself with the boundaries of the material, or the chosen zero point for the material, but it does this by using a centre calculated from the overall length and breadth of the part.
When I drew it in AutoCAD, I based the drawing on an origin chosen because the part needs to be aligned on a jig in the mill. The AutoCAD drawing was created with its origin at the centre of the left hand circle within the shape, as that is the most logical place for the mill setup. That hole locates on a peg, which can be defined as 0,0 on the mill, then the outer profile is machines using Cut2D.
I can't find a way to align the origin from the AutoCAD drawing with an origin in the material. Either the centre of the material, or a corner, would do.

When the part centres itself in the material, it is extremely difficult to calculate where that centre point is, and so it is very difficult to set the jig up in the mill to a known position. That's because the ends are curves with tangent sides, so the max X and Y dimensions in relation to say, the bottom left corner of the material, can only be determined with considerable calculation.
Or am I missing something obvious?
Previous parts have been symmetrical (circular gear blanks being cut out of rectangualr sheet), so centring within the material made the centre point of the shape and the centre of the material co-incide, but this shape behaves differently.
I'd appreciate any help.

[kilrabit]

I do not have cut 2D, but this is what I would do in aspire, and hopefully they are similar.

1. Go to job dimension and origin make the job center of the plane, center vectors in job set up. Draw a small center circle in the left circle, draw a poly line to the center of the material, and you will see that the line is 11MM long. You can use the measure tool, but I prefer the line, and I can always see the length in the bottom and just put it on another layer to hide.

2. In the job set up, choose the job origin offset, and put in the 11 MM for the off center line of the job, and this will move you material 11 MM to the right.

3. Choose all of the vectors, and then click the move icon, and move the vectors 11 MM to the right and they will be center of what you want, as the start, since it was 11 MM off center. The centering tool moves the entire averaged vectors to the center, not just the one you want.

4. Now you center will be 11 MM off, which will match the center of the circle that you want to start at.




Roy

[Home Shopper]

Thanks for that advice. I modified your method and have come up with a workable solution as follows:
If I select the left hand inner circle (the one whose position is critical for the jig) and go to Move Vector, I get a readout of the position of the centre of that circle. In this case, 14.5, 15
If I then select all vectors, and move Relative, by -14.5, -15 that moves the whole shape while centring the left hand circle on 0,0
I then know where the shape is in relation to the origin of the mill, so I can either move the whole shape to where the peg is on the jig, or let it remain there, if the peg on the jig is at 0,0 too.
I could also place it anywhere else, using a co-ordinate move. Problem solved.
As a general method, I can forsee a problem with shapes which are irregular and have no handy reference which would immediately give a usable reference for their centre, so maybe the way to go in those cases would be to create a shape which is used solely to provide a reference point, and is not intended to be machined. So an extra circle or rectangle placed at a known position on the object when it is drawn outside of Cut2D would provide a reference point which would allow precise movement to a known position.
That's a workable method, I think.
Thanks for setting me off on the right track. Much appreciated.

[Greolt]

This is what you can do when needing to import a precise origin for use in Cut2D, Vcarve Pro, etc

Before saving the drawing in the CAD program, create an all encompassing circle that has its centre on the origin needed.

Import the DXF into Cut2D, or other Vectric software, select all vectors (Ctrl+A) and centre in job (F9)

This will bring the desired origin precisely to the centre of material.(0,0) Then delete the circle.

Greg

[Home Shopper]

Elegant method; and so simple.
Thank you.

[CosmosK]

Another technique:

Use the measure tool and click on the point you want to be the origin. It should snap to it. It will show you the X,Y location of the point. Then select all the geometry and move them these values. Seems better when you want 0,0 to be a corner not the center.