1. Hey guyz. Welcome to the All New Phlatforum!



    Sign Up and take a look around. There are so many awesome new features.

    The Phlatforum is a place we can all hang out and

    have fun sharing our RC adventures!

  2. Dismiss Notice
Welcome to The Phlatforum PhlatPrinter III

Generating g-code from SolidWorks?

Discussion in 'Trouble Shooting - Support - Help Section' started by meistertek, Dec 29, 2008.

  1. meistertek

    meistertek Member

    Offline
    Messages:
    318
    Trophy Points:
    16
    Location:
    Chicago, IL
    I am trying to figure out how to generate g-code for the phlatprinter from SolidWorks (all my 3D designs are done in this software). I can output DXF files, but these dxf files will not have the tool diameter offsets offsets in them for Mach3. Is there a way to generate tool offsets in Mach3? It looks like dxf line type may be the way that Mach3 id's toolpaths. Maybe by using line type changes and line offseting in SolidWorks I can generate the correct tool paths?
     
    meistertek, Dec 29, 2008
    #1
  2. meistertek

    meistertek Member

    Offline
    Messages:
    318
    Trophy Points:
    16
    Location:
    Chicago, IL
    Maybe importing the my SolidWorks DXF's into Sketchup would work. I also noticed a mention of converting DXFs into PhlatCode (which I assume is g-code) in the design posts, but no mention of how this conversion is accomplished.
     
    meistertek, Dec 29, 2008
    #2
  3. kram242

    kram242 Administrator Staff Member

    Offline
    Messages:
    6,311
    Trophy Points:
    13
    Location:
    NJ
    Well I think you may figure out a way to do it out of SW, but I really do not see it as being an easy workflow.
    My suggestion would be to lay out all your parts flat in SW within a 22x42 area (safe cutting area) then export out to SU, from there using the PS you can work up the g-code for your cutouts in mach.
    Hope this helps?
    Mark
    EDIT - Just posted after you :) Yes thats how it is done(dxf to gcode) by using the PS plugin for SU
     
    kram242, Dec 29, 2008
    #3
  4. meistertek

    meistertek Member

    Offline
    Messages:
    318
    Trophy Points:
    16
    Location:
    Chicago, IL
    We were only 3 minutes apart in our two posts :lol:

    What you said above sounds good, it looks easy to add the offsets using the PhaltScripT plugin in SketchUP when I viewed the PhaltScripT video on the PhlatBoyz web site. A lot easier than messing around with line offsets and line types in SolidWorks that's for sure.

    Is it possible to import DXF files into the free version of SketchUP? I guess I'll be finding out soon, I'm going to try tomarrow!
     
    meistertek, Dec 29, 2008
    #4
  5. kram242

    kram242 Administrator Staff Member

    Offline
    Messages:
    6,311
    Trophy Points:
    13
    Location:
    NJ
    Yes you can import dxf and dwg into the free SU but you cannot export dxf or dwg
    but that is ok because the PS will allow us to the create gcode for output
    Mark
     
    kram242, Dec 29, 2008
    #5

Share This Page