DWG file inported into aspire

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Leo
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Re: DWG file inported into aspire

Post by Leo »

I have Ron's DWG loaded into Aspire with no issue at all.
I get it at 484 KB

It is a 2D line drawing - as I would expect from a DWG.
There is no thickness to it - at this point and nothing for a ball end mill to do.

On a 18x24 size material - if I use a 1/4 ball end mill at 75% stepover and .25 DOC at 75 IPM I can entirely pocket the stock in about 1 hour.
Just cutting the lake would be half that time. At 75 IPM - that is slow. An industrial machine would be a lot faster.

It's a Lake. The numbers would be for Depth - at 10 foot increments.

nywoodworker - from the import point - what did you try to do?

Perhaps if we recreate your steps - we can see something to help you with.
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Re: DWG file inported into aspire

Post by nywoodworker »

Ron,
I downloaded the DWG that you sent it worked. The fist cut ,the biggest one, is estimated time to cut is about 14 min.
I'm will try to see what the scaling factor is. I will have to look for it. Also I will look at setting up a account with One Drive . Maybe you or some other in the room will take a look at it . You guys are a big help. I feel like such a rookie... I tried looking at the nodes it seems to ave quite a few but when I take some out the map really changes in shape. Again I don't have much to compare it to.

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Re: DWG file inported into aspire

Post by nywoodworker »

Leo,
I had someone convert a pdf file. I asked him to put it in a CAD program. He did it in a DWG. All i did was import that file into aspire.

I have set up a account in one drive and would be glad to send it to anyone who wants to take a look at it. It looks to me that I need to add people to my one drive to be able to share.

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Re: DWG file inported into aspire

Post by nywoodworker »

OK I just compressed the DWG file I am having trouble with. The estimated cut time is over 500 hours for just one cut.

Ron made a DWG for me of the same lake and the same cut in his takes 14 min using his file.
Attachments
Print2CAD-Kiwassa Lake (2).zip
kiwassa Lake
(477.2 KiB) Downloaded 131 times

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Re: DWG file inported into aspire

Post by ssflyer »

OK there's you problem! I simply took a few minutes, imported the image from the PDF, and traced it - voila, clean vectors! :mrgreen:

Looks like whoever converted it for you used a demo of "Print2Cad," and it did a remarkably poor job. I didn't even bother to open it in any of my CAD programs, simply opened it with Aspire. First thing I noticed is that there is a layer called, "Demo," which has their demo watermark on it, in the middle of your lake. Turning off that layer leaves a big hole in your lake! :o

Now to the real problem with the time estimates - the silly program created about a gazillion open vectors, trying to simulate the stroke of each line in the PDF image. Zoom way in and you can see what I mean. :shock:

If you really want to pursue this, you need to do a couple of things:
1) Learn how Aspire works - go through all the tutorials. It really helps to have a firm grasp of what and why things work. Looking at your DWG file, I can't see how you even attempted to create toolpaths for it, to get your estimated machining times...

2) I'd look into all the free places you can download real GIS data for just about anywhere. USGS comes to mind, but most states offer similar. Paul Rowntree wrote a program that makes this rather painless, actually. You can check it out, HERE.

You can download and use it, but he'd like a $25 donation, which is well worth it for all the work Paul put into it.

Hope this helps! :D
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Re: DWG file inported into aspire

Post by cac67 »

nywoodworker wrote:OK I just compressed the DWG file I am having trouble with. The estimated cut time is over 500 hours for just one cut.

Ron made a DWG for me of the same lake and the same cut in his takes 14 min using his file.
Whoa! This is a zoom of what should be the end of a single vector. Either the settings were off on the convert to vectors or that service is not the one you want to use. I had better luck with inkscape.
engine cover5.PNG

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Re: DWG file inported into aspire

Post by TReischl »

One thing you can do to avoid the whole downloading/converting of GIS files is to stop in bait & tackle store in your area. The places usually have a book full of the area lake maps at a reasonable price. Then just scan them in, convert to vectors and away you go.

The nice thing about doing it that way is that you can load the scanned image into a paint program and get rid of all the lettering or move it into places that do not interfere with the cutting.

Make sure you post an image of your project when it is complete, we all like to see that stuff!

You won't be violating any copyrights since those books always use the GIS data which is in the public domain. If you start copying them using their legends, etc you would be in a gray area. But the hydrographic map itself is not anyone's property.

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Re: DWG file inported into aspire

Post by nywoodworker »

Ok so the DWG file I had was bad. I knew something was not right. Things took way to long. I have looked at some of the tutorials. They are helpfull but I feel so incompetent trying to do this stuff. I know I can make a copy of the lake from the PDF file. Is this a better was to go about converting it in something I can use in aspire.

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Re: DWG file inported into aspire

Post by ssflyer »

The problem with that is that tracing a bitmap will give you closed vectors around each line, which is not really conducive to construct a topo from, either stepped or 3D.

Paul's BigTopo will create a STL file from the coordinates you enter, for doing a 3D map. You simply enter the lat/long extents and it downloads everything for you.

Here's a sample of where I live, done with Paul's BigTopo:
Attachments
HomeTopo.PNG
Ron Sloan

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Re: DWG file inported into aspire

Post by TReischl »

I forget that I use Corel Trace which has a "centerline" option. Can't recall if Inkscape has the same, but probably.

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Re: DWG file inported into aspire

Post by ssflyer »

Yep, Inkscape has it, too.
Ron Sloan

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