making file for laser cutter (pdf)

[spikey]

Hello guys (and gals),

me again with a newby question. i kinda have all my parts finished and i now would like to get the laser cut. The place that will do this for me (local university has a fablab) needs the drwaing in 2D .pdf file. which is do able. Just make a wire frame, view it in orthographic view and voila a 2D Drawing. But now comes the hardest part. i need all those parts neatly arranged on a area of 600 x 300 size.

so i though to make such a plate and constrain them to it instead of each other and afterwards make the plane invisible or just delete it.
that should work but i just feel like that there should be an easier way to fix that.

any idea's

edit: well not so easy, unlike i expected. when i pick a part after i constraint it with it's surface to the 'plate' i can still move it in ALL dimensions.
so i can still pick it up. which is not how i intended it. oke. lock it to a certain view angle and you constrain all the motions to the plane does solve that issue. but now i also nee to rotate it around it's central axis. (is that Y?) so i can start puzzling it all in.

so indeed hoping for idea's here.

kind greats

Matthieu

ps: i just ordered a 3D printer for myself (Geeetech delta one)

[saso]

you could try:
- quickly place them in FC
- export to svg
- try this beauty http://svgnest.com/ (http://hackaday.com/2016/01/22/pack-you ... lgortihms/)
- save it to pdf (inkscape should be able to do it if you have nothing else)

PS: report back the result since i have no idea if it will really work
PS2: if you want to be really cool, you can try to port SVGnest to FC

[spikey]

try to port anything to anything is way above my 'clearens level' i'm afraid.

but still i'm going to try to follow your tip i allready stumble at you first line.
quickly plqce them in fc? i'm been trying for the last hour now to get something rotated. and while i do i get 20 dozen constraints that i didn't place.
really don't know what's going on here. I believe that it may be a bug. (unlikely, probably me doing smething wrong again) but still. looks like it and feels like it.



so do me a favor an elaborate a bit (lot) more on how you mean "place them" how on what and where (couase that ain't working )

kind greatings.

Matt

[spikey]

oke i think i get the hang of it now.

completely misunderstood, silly me! sorry

i'm gonna give it a try.

[saso]

well, like with most things in fc you can do this in different ways...

since we are talking about laser cutting, i assume we are talking about 2d shapes, the most simple way to do them in fc would be the draft wb, when you have them done (also create one of the size of your plate) you just select all of them and export from fc to svg, then upload this svg to svgnest and let it do the magic.

but as i understand you have some 3d shapes, assembly,... well there are other users here that are much much better at the different workflows in fc but it does sound to me like you are over complicating things, your goal is just to place all the part so that they are flat to the xy surface, or you could also use sections tool to create 2d draft shapes from your 3d parts, or another way i guess would be to use the drawing wb,...

would be easier to help you what could be the best way for you if you would show some pictures of what you are working with or if you are able to share the model?

[spikey]

hey

well a few hours later i'm still not much further and believer you are right with over complicating things.
that's why i though that this could all go a lot simpler.

anyway no problems sharing. i'll put the two assembly files i have to this post but if you need something else please don't hesitated to ask you'll get it asap.

your goal is just to place all the part so that they are flat to the xy surface

indeed and i think i got this done.

or you could also use sections tool to create 2d draft shapes from your 3d parts

sound great. but how?

or another way i guess would be to use the drawing wb,...

also tried this.. but not really working, the way i do it anyway.

anyway. i'll post it with this.

[saso]

or you could also use sections tool to create 2d draft shapes from your 3d parts

sound great. but how?

Well the section tool is in the arch wb (did not try that yet on your model), but here is another similar way of doing it that I have tried just now and works well for your nesting file:

- draft wb
- select all of your 3d objects
- create shape 2d views of selected objects (http://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/index.ph ... hape2DView)
- deselect the 3d objects and select all your new 2d shapes
- go to export and export as flatten svg

If you want to try svgnest however you will need to create one more shape that is the size of your plate, so you will be able to tell it that you want all the other shapes to be placed in to that shape.

[spikey]

eh wow...

well yeah that is sorta exactly what i need.

i did change the files in the mean time though, i arranged them like they are allready on the wood slaps so it would fit.
i just realise that i hadn't done that part yet.

so i'm going to try to do the same thing like you did but then allready sorta organised, allthough i know realise i need to make another change
hope that it will work. i'm not familiar with drawn yet.

i'll go and read you last post over and over again en hope to get it too

thanks very much!!

[saso]

i have tried to play a bit with the svgnest but have problems with reversed arcs in inkscape it opens and looks fine but not in svgnest, so it is probably easier for now to just place them manually by hand (as you already have) and hope that the software of the laser cutter will not have this reversed arcs issue

[spikey]

i'm getting some where but not the way it is supposed to be yet (not like you)

i'll would like to show you how i mean but it doesn't let me save it so i can show you.
all is in and over the left upper corner and the page is only a standard A size also i have the FreeCad logo in the corner.
All fine with me but you don't and when i go and get it lasered that might be a problem.

anyway i'll start from the beginning.
1) as i posted i rearranged all the parts that will fit on one slab of wood (600x300)
2) made the virtual piece of wood i used for that invissible.
3) selected all the right 3D shapes
4) pressed the blue shape with black greyish 'views' besides it (second after the pages select)
5) but i got the error message that i can only select one shape.
6) the button besides it to the left (dotted scqurae around a yellow cube, fist after the pages select) did let me do all the shapes but it said i needed to select a page first.
7) so i selected the page, plain A0 just te be sure.
8) pressed the 1e with yellow and dotted again and it showed on that page. but as said in the upper left corner and bits missing

what am i doing wrong here

kind greats. and thanks for all your help