I have been playing with Sketchup and the Phlatcode thingy.
Can someone look at this file and see if it looks like it will cut right?
I am waiting on Uncle Sam to give me my money so i can order a Phlatprinter.
It is a plane we hand cut like 50 of last year for our raptor riot competition and would love to machine cut them this year.
www.raptorriot.com there are pictures of them on that site Attached files f22.skp (431.6 KB)Â

 

This is a good start Jnida63. You will also want to use the weld plugin to weld your sketched lines into a closed border, you may have to weld the lines more than once to get the geometry to close and add a surface. Also you will want to download the PhlatScripT plugin to generate your tool paths. The best way to learn how to do all the above is to watch Marks video on PhlatScripT at: http://www.phlatforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=65&t=68 Once you watch this video you will pick up some more techniques to layout your parts in sketchup

 

Ok, thanks for the help. hoping the tax check is in the bank tomorrow so i can order my Phlatprinter!!

 

Well - Before I get started and make you feel bad, the model looks great! There are a couple small errors, and my first model was totally honked-up and I threw it away to start over. Yours needs a couple of tweaks and you're ready to rock-and-roll!

First thing I did was "Ctrl-A" (select all), right-click, "Explode". Then Ctrl-A again, right-click, "PhlatEdges", "Clear all Edges". You want all the edges of your parts to be black when they're not selected, and you don't want anything to be a Group, yet.
The 2 ailerons in the upper left need to be moved to the right at least 1/8" to leave room for the cutter to go around the part. Likewise the main fuselage/wing section needs to be moved up by 1/8" or you'll be jamming your Y-axis beyond zero to go around the wing.
I notice all your cutouts are 3/8" wide - Are you planning to use material that thick? If not, you should narrow those, keeping them on center. It's nice there are only 4 cutouts on the entire model - that will make it a lot easier to change foam thickness for different models.
I trimmed the line at the back of your fuselage profile so it didn't touch either the inside line or the outside line. If it's treated like a cut, it will be at least as wide as your router bit (1/8") and I don't think that's what you intended. Again, personally, I'd just slice that with a razor so it would be easy to glue once that part was installed.
Anyway, after that, there are a couple of errors to fix. The first one is on the left elevon - zoom in closely at the upper right corner and you'll notice the vertical line is actually left of the end of the horizontal - you actually want to erase the vertical and redraw it from the right-end of the horizontal straight down to meet the trailing edge line, to keep both elevons the same size and shape.
The next error is on the main motor/propeller cutout on the wing - the upper horizontal line for that cutout is partially doubled, and the 2 overlapping lines don't touch. I don't know what you had in mind there, but you'll need to fix that.
After that, triple-click each part (fully highlighted), then "Plugins", "Weld", "Yes" to "create a face" - and do that to every part on the sheet. I believe you have to do the cutouts in the wing separately, also. Do every part.
Now, since they probably all have the blue-side up, you're okay. If not, triple-click the part that doesn't, then right-click, "Reverse Faces".
Now (I think) you're ready to start adding the cutter-paths.
Select the "Inside Cuts" icon first, and apply that to the 3 cutouts on the main wing. Take your time to be sure the cut is applied to the inside of the hole.
Then select the "Outside Cuts" icon and apply the outside cutting paths to every part.
When that's all done, press the Space Bar to get back to "select" mode and drag a selection box around the first part you want to have the pp cut. If it has cutouts, BE SURE the cutouts are also selected before you - - - make the part a "Group".
Then do the same to the next part you want to be cut, turn it into a group, and so forth until you have selected the cut-order for every part on the sheet.

@#$%#%@#$ !!! Sketchup just burped and died! Okay fellas, what did I forget?

 

Ok, i know i have alot to learn and yes, the planes are made from 3/8ths thick dow P/P underlayment, basically Bluecor so the thickness is correct.

 

Ok, I think I am getting it figured out some, take a look at this and let me know what else I need to learn.

Wonderful informative video Mark, although it seems that the plug-in has been updated since the video, took me a few to figure out the centerline depths.

Hope i am getting close!! Attached files f22.skp (541.3 KB)Â

 

Jnida63, you are doing excellent! Unfortunately you listened to me too closely, as I forgot to tell you about adding TABS to your parts, before you Group them.

Tabs are needed to keep the parts from dropping out and snagging on the PP table as the material feeds forward and back. Mark talked about it on his video, as did Crash, I believe.
Anyway, you'll need to Ctrl-A "Select all", then Explode everything again. Don't erase the PhlatEdge lines this time - they look great. After that, click on the Tabs button and put at least one tab on every vertical line, at least one on long horizontal lines (like the 4 parts in the upper left), three or four inside each cutout area, and three or four around the fuselage and canopy sections. You'll need to add one near / at the nose of the fuselage, so you'll need to zoom in quite closely, then place 2 or 3 tabs next to each other. (Tabs on curves are very short and unless you put a couple next to each other they may not hold the part anyway.)
By the way, more tabs don't hurt at all, but having no tabs is a pain in the (general seating area of your body)! If those parts start popping free and jamming up against (the roller, the edge of your table, the cutout for the router, anything) then the roller gets jammed up and your parts look like something from a horror movie. Having too many tabs just causes you a tiny bit of work cutting them off after the machine is done. Not having enough tabs will probably cause you to scrap a couple sheets of material, before you realize the problem and edit the file to put the tabs in. (Now how do I know that? ) I would place 10 or 12 around the perimeter of your main wing section, for example.

So, after you have added tabs to ALL the parts and cutouts, then triple-click each piece and turn it into a "Group" , in the order you want them cut.
By the way, the cut-sequence you selected before was excellent, and the file would have worked perfectly except for the lack of Tabs. Sorry!

 

Doh. i knew about the tabs too, i just forgot about them, soo much to digest in one day i guess

 

I write myself notes on post-it paper. There are dozens stuck to the doors of my computer desk cabinet.

 

Ok, thanks so much for the help, the Tax money is in the bank and i will be ordering the Phlatprinter Saturday once the bank lets me draw on it.

I think i have this one done, i might have gone crazy on the tabs, may not be enough.

Feel free to post this file in the airplane section if you want.

I hope it is good enough, the hand cut ones fly like a dream. Attached files f22.skp (711.3 KB)Â

 

Jnida,

I think you may have posted the file without the tabs again by mistake? You are darn close once you have added tabs. Next you will want to generate your PhlatCode (CNC code) If you wanted you could order Mach3 or download EMC2 (linux based control) now so you could see your cnc code. Or as an alternative you could use NCPlot v1.2 a free program to view your code: http://www.ncplot.com/ncplotfree/ncplotfree.htm

 

Ah heck, they were there, now they are gone, back to work
File above should be fixed now. Autosave put some files with (1) and (2) behind the one i wanted

 

Note, Phlatprinter premium kit has just been ordered, now how do i get the discount for the electronics? do I order them and they contact you about the discount price?

 

Jnida63 - I looked over the file and it seemed fine, so I generated the g-code to see what that would do. For some reason it seemed some parts had been "group"ed, then "group"ed together in pairs. (Maybe it's something I did.) I had to re-explode everything (twice) then re"group" the items before generating the PhlatCode would work. It took only 980 lines of code to complete the sheet (good), and all the tabs are there, but the program ends with the cutter UP and in the middle of the sheet, so I added 4 more lines to retract the bit and return to home. I've seen other files that end like this, and have no clue how to automatically get "closure" added to the g-code.
I'll attach the file so you can take a look. Attached files F22_3rd-try.cnc (15.4 KB)Â