Where are all my tabs?

[harryball]

I added tabs to my tool path and the yellow boxed T shows up where it should, but on the actual toolpath only a few actually show up. I've checked the depth of cut, the height of the tab... I even set the tab height greater than the material thickness and the same tabs show up as before, none of the others. I really don't want to sit here and re-enter several hundred tabs for small parts... what happened, how do I get them to show up?

Robert

[harryball]

I just deleted a group of them and added them back, same result. Not sure what's going on.

[Wemme]

Hello Harry
I think if you allow some material between the parts it will work.
Waste full I know but just Curious if it fixes it.
Regards
Bart

[BrianM]

Hi Harry,

I've had a look at this and it is a bug with V3. I've fixed it for V4 but in the meantime if you break up the long straight line spans by inserting some points you're tabs will work. To insert some extra points just go into node editing mode - click on the vector and press 'N'. Then click on the long spans and press 'I' to insert a point. You're tabs should then work.

Sorry for the inconvenience


Brian

[harryball]

This path does not cut between the parts, it is a path created around a group of parts so basically a big rectangle with a pattern down the sides. I deleted this and created an outline with an offset of .250" and had the bit cut to the inside, added all my tabs and that did the trick. I did a quick test, adding nodes would have fixed the problem but I'm happy with what I have now... and the numerous tabs are added back.

The internal and external part cuts are running separately. I'm working this part sheet out to be as time efficient as possible since it's a production item. I expect to be running hundreds of these and this one sheet represents enough for 30 units.

I feel another thread about toolpath efficiency coming on though... let me try and work it out first to make sure I'm not just missing something.

Robert