Sketch text exported to dwg is horribly faceted - need to export to laser cutter help?

Hi all,

If I created a 3d model that is a sign, and I use sw's sketch text to
created the actual sign text which in this case is 8" high text.

Then when I make a 2d drawing of the sign face - I need to export as a
dwg then convert to adobe illustrator.

The problem is that when sw exports the dwg the curved portions of the
letters are converted to faceted polylines with very very large facets.
Any ideas here?

Thanks,

Zander

 

I tried to recreate your problem using Century Gothic set to 8 inches.

I exported the part as .sat and had no problem.

Then I exported the part after making a drawing so that the DWGEditory
would use dwg. Still no problem.

Are you using SW2004 or SW2005? I am on 2004 but use DWGEditor from
2005 to view my work. What font are you using?

 

Hi,

Extrude the 8" text, then create a front view drawing at scale 1:1 of
the extruded text. Export as a dwg file, open in autocad, (make sure
you typed some text with curved elements), select a curved letter like
an S, look at the resulting polyline, in my case the distance between
facets is approximately .35". If I laser cut this it will actually
have .35" flats or facets on it. This is essence is the problem I'm
having.

Thanks,

Zander

 

In your autoCAD tools/options settings under display do you have your
curve accuracy set to a high number (like 1000). If not AutoCAD will
display curves as facets.

 

Hey Zander,

You won't like this answer, but....

You might get smaller lines by tightening the resolution, but what you
really want for the laser are lines and arcs. My understanding is that
fonts can't be converted to arcs directly.

The best solution I have is to use the CAM program to apply the text if
that is an option. In many cases, I realize it isn't. In these cases, I
have found that it is best to trace over the font using lines and 3
point arcs in a seperate sketch and use this sketch for CAM. It's a
crappy solution, but produces the best results and the shortest GCODE
with the least amount of work of any other crappy solution I've found.

I've tried some conversion programs, but the result is many many small
line segments. Each line requires a line of code for the laser to cut
and the result looks and runs poorly.

I've been looking for a sure fire, quick solution for 10 years now. I
keep hoping I am missing something and will be enlightened. Perhaps
today.


Dave

 

Dave,

Mastercam will convert spline (curve) base fonts into a set of tangent arcs,
within a user specified tolerance, for CNC. I think Rhino can do something
similar. I've used it allot for engraving on our VMC's. I'll have to try it
on our laser.

Regards

Mark

 

On screen it appears curved. I used Century Gothic "a" and "R". Plenty
of curves. Some curved polylines appeared to be made up of many short
segments and others were made up of arcs. It was not clear why one
would be favored over the other. I don't know where the setting is in
DWGEditor to change the polyline accuracy.

 

In my sample, all text exported from SW is polylines - The letter O
(exported 8" high) for example is broken up into multple polylines with
8 to 10 vertices. An example segment is 2.5" long with 8 vertices.
(about .3" between vertices)

This is just no good! It's not a viewres thing.

Our laser/water cutter prefers native text created in illustrator or
Corel. If I export the text from illustrator via dwg it cannot be
opened in SW. SW will preview it but then fail to import splines. - If
I transmute the file into autocad r12 wether I fuse into polylines or
not it's too unworkable.

In any case these are all huge workarounds. What I need and want is
the ability to design a sign in SW then export clean data of any
included text for water or laser jet cutting. Any other workaround is
second best. I guess someone needs to create the ability to save an
eps file of a solidworks drawing.

Zander

 

We've had similar problems with some 2D file we export for Wireburn or
waterjet cutting. We've gotten better export results from the dxf/dwg
file if in SolidWorks under Tools/Options/Document Properties/Image
Quality we have the sliders moved all the way to the right. It works
for us with part geometry, it might also effect your text export. Give
it a try (if you haven't already) and let us know.

 

I sure wish Fabriwin would do that it converts splines to 3/8" lines they
didn't even try to do arcs, it looks aweful and the shop wonders what the
heck happened. Wouldn't you think a curve would be best represented by
arcs? Anyway I end up either taking the approach of creating 3P arcs
manually and at times I can use fabriwin's text tool but it is quite
limited. I haven't tried text in surfcam yet though.

Corey

 

OK because everyone sparked my interest I tried Importing directly from SW
to Fabriwin and got crappy text really crappy. So I tried going via dwg.
500% better a much more refined curve some of the elements were changed to
arcs and others lines and some small lines but all in all much more
accurate. This will be my method with splined shapes from now on.

Corey

 

Tangent arc would be great. MetaCAM has some pretty good tools for
converting to/from splines as well. I really need to wrestle this one
to the ground once and for all, but haven't made the time to learn the
best methods using SolidWorks, Illustrator and MetaCAM.

 

Why not apply the text in Illustrator then? If it's a matter of
lay-out, apply some guides in SolidWorks and use them to allign your
text in Illustrator.

In my situation, it is the reverse. I convert Illustrator to DXF,
import to Solidworks and export a DXF to my CAM software. If there are
splines in Illustrator, they can not be read by SolidWorks. Oddly, they
appear in preview, but never make it into the sketch. I actually have
to import the DXF from Illustrator into CADKEY v.19 and export it
again from there. At that point, it imports fine, but there are no arcs
or splines, only line segments. MANY MANY line segments. Thousands and
thousands of line segments. The number of line segments presents a
problem in itself.

I'm confident that I have the tools required to solve this problem, but
it's a matter of spending the hours to create a workable process. As
soon as I find a solution to one situation, another will arise in which
the solution is inadaquate and I'm back to where I started. For this
reason, my current solution is trace the imported line segments with
arcs and lines, charge high prices for the work and keep looking for a
magic bullet.

 

You've discovered a bug--in particular, a regression that appears to have
happened in 2004SP2

Solidworks has been aware of the problem since August of 2004. They claim
to have fixed it in 2005SP2--which won't be out for a while yet. I've had
dxf's generated by a developer at SW from an unreleased version; and the
problem does appear to be fixed. On the other hand, he says they "fixed it
by accident" rather than intentionally, which makes me nervous..

In the short term, you could generate your dwg using 2004SP1 or below.
Alternatively, you may be able to get Solidworks to make the dwg for you
using the unreleased version of 2005SP2. I can supply the contact info if
you need it

good luck...

 

Hi Michael,

I'm curious, how is the dxf you received from sw improved? I'm
currently using sw2004 sp0.0 and am experiencing the low res faceting
problem in spades so I wonder if we are talking about the same thing?
Zander