LaserCAD DXF Import Woes

Discussions and help on this commercial controller.

Moderator: twehr

LaserCAD DXF Import Woes

Postby iGull » Mon Mar 26, 2012 7:59 pm

Apologies for wingeing on about this software, is it only me that has issues with it ?

Because of the (hopefully temporary) adobe illustrator import problems, I am using DXF as a last resort.

I have managed to get it down to a process that 'works' - I use the term 'works' loosely :D

Here's what I have (bear in mind I'm using Mac with it's CR line endings, but it is set up as PC CRLF endings) - none of my Mac or PC CAD apps have any problem reading the files.

All of my graphic apps/CAD apps are the same here, so it's definitely a LaserCAD thing - get it wrong and it just crashes - not a gracious 'Sorry, I can't do that Dave' and return to the app - it just shuts down with some option to tell Bill Gate$ about the issue.
I digress, here is the process ...

1 Select all
2 Release any compound paths
3 Repeat 1 & 2 until you can't release any further compound paths.
4 Select All
5 Ungroup
6 Repeat 4 & 5 until there is nothing left to ungroup (this leaves your primary file in a god-awfull mess of course, so don't save it !)
7 Export to DXF in the following manner ...
Autocad v2000/LT2000 (or 2004, it doesn't seem to matter).
Scale 1:1 millimetres (in my case)
256 Colours (although 16 also works)
JPEG for any bitmaps
Preserve Appearance
Outline text (although I would have done that as a matter of course).
8 Import the DXF file to LaserCAD.

Now, I use various colours to determine what I want to do and LaserCAD does similarly - it allows the end user to attach various parameters to each colour (layer if you like). They're the basic RGB colour set, but I only use about three or four. All works well until you import anything that is blue (RGB 0,0,255) - it seems to assume that this is to be rastered (engraved) as it 'fills' any objects in solid blue ! Whatever happened to user preferences ??? Now I have to go back and change my work practice again :lol:

However, without the blue issue, it does seem to work. As an aside, I tried just a standard DXF without any ungrouping etc in LaserWorks (Shenhui) - worked just fine - and didn't raster the blue layer either.

Anyone else have these problems, I don't see any comments in the forums?

Cheers

Neil
EMOs are a sign of weakness ...
iGull
 
Posts: 171
Joined: Mon Dec 06, 2010 2:59 pm
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland

Re: LaserCAD DXF Import Woes

Postby twehr » Mon Mar 26, 2012 8:41 pm

iGull wrote:here is the process ...

1 Select all
2 Release any compound paths
3 Repeat 1 & 2 until you can't release any further compound paths.
4 Select All
5 Ungroup
6 Repeat 4 & 5 until there is nothing left to ungroup (this leaves your primary file in a god-awfull mess of course, so don't save it !)
7 Export to DXF in the following manner ...
Autocad v2000/LT2000 (or 2004, it doesn't seem to matter).
Scale 1:1 millimetres (in my case)
256 Colours (although 16 also works)
JPEG for any bitmaps
Preserve Appearance
Outline text (although I would have done that as a matter of course).
8 Import the DXF file to LaserCAD.

All works well until you import anything that is blue (RGB 0,0,255) - it seems to assume that this is to be rastered (engraved) as it 'fills' any objects in solid blue !

However, without the blue issue, it does seem to work.

Neil


Neil,
Thanks for taking the time to write up a process. It will likely be useful to others.

About the blue...

I suspect that at some point (you or default) LaserCAD thinks that last thing you (it) did with "blue" was to engrave. Therefore, you import a "blue" and it want to engrave for you.

Like any other layer (except bitmaps) in LaserCAD, you can tell it to engrave or cut that object (or even cut after engrave, if you so choose). The point is, once you set the blue to cut, I believe the next time you import a "blue" it will automatically want to cut for you. It just always remembers the last things you did with a color and applies that to new imports. Reloading a saved LaserCAD file, however, will (or should) always reload whatever operations you had assigned to the individual layers when you last saved it.
tim
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"The answer is usually easy and obvious once you know what it is." tw

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twehr
 
Posts: 439
Joined: Mon May 24, 2010 4:49 pm

Re: LaserCAD DXF Import Woes

Postby iGull » Wed Mar 28, 2012 7:04 am

On the blue layer thing, you are correct Tim.

I did some more testing yesterday and the program must save it as a preference automagically when it shuts down (rather than allow the end user do it - bit like the origin thing LOL :lol: )

I must have been playing with it at some point and it saved the result.

Cheers

Neil
EMOs are a sign of weakness ...
iGull
 
Posts: 171
Joined: Mon Dec 06, 2010 2:59 pm
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland


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