Old apps for new!

We may have now cracked the problems with the DXF files for the laser cutter. It seems that by making sure that the files were set to the latest version, I may have caused the problem myself. Our laser cutter has a very old application and my colleague Lee sends the oldest version of the files he is able to in order for them to work. The moral is, I suppose, that new isn't necessarily the best - sometimes old is.

Wha?......................

I am still having problems with my DXF files. They open fine in SolidWorks and DraughtSite but not in the special software used for the laser cutter. All the circles and vertical cuts are missing still. I have no idea what's going on.

Always check the date!

Over the weekend, in the free version of SketchUp, I re-drew the TagBot and Micro Pan and Tilt cutting plans. The results when I opened it in the Pro version looked great and I then exported a DXF file from it. Next, down to the laser cutter to check the export quality. Oh dear, not good at all. Over half the lines missing and all the circles. Went away with head bowed and tried to fathom exactly what I had done wrong. Eventually, I discovered that my copy of Pro had somehow defaulted to version 14. The current version is 2013 which is about six iterations later. I only had version 2010 available to me but I tried it and it's close enough for jazz so the files and some card have been left for a test cut. Once I have measured the test cuts against the actual hardware, I will order the acrylic sheets and get them cut ready for assembly.

Gotcha!

I have played with so many 2D CAD applications over the past couple of weeks that my eyes and brain stopped coordinating for a while. However, I have finally found nirvana. The pro version of SketchUp 8 is magic to learn and use and also exports the .DXF files needed for the laser cutter. I had used the free version of SketchUp before so maybe it wasn't such a big learning curve as it might have been but within about twenty minutes I had created a fully scaled cutting plan with all dimensions scaled. This is still not the definitive plan as I have not got the measurements of the wheels with me to copy across to the plans as yet. Once again, I am very lucky in working for a university as we have a site licence on SketchUp Pro. The cost of the personal licence, unfortunately,  is quite high at £322.00. There are many cheaper options for educational use however.

Forget you? Me? Never!

Or something like that anyway.

I have been exceptionally busy over the last few weeks and I'm afraid this blog has suffered a bit. The Hub-ee wheels arrived and they are terrific. I have worked my way through various pieces of software to design for the laser cutter and I am now checking out SolidWorks. This is fine for me as I work in a university that uses the program and I was able to get a legal copy with licence. Sadly, this will only work until I retire next year so I am still investigating other methods of producing cutting plans for laser cutting. In the meantime, I have taken, and passed, an important exam and been to a wedding reception in the National Marine Aquarium. My life is busy and I will have to find more time for robotics.