ULS Vector problem

[Dave Johnson29]

Hi All,

I have a weird thing going on. I drew a DXF of a square with rounded corners and a large hole in the middle.

When I run it with the speed set to the fastest setting, it burns the corners and round hole quite slowly but the straight lines really fast.

I get the hole and corners cut through, but not the straight sides.

Currently I am getting around it by having the straight sides a different color and cutting them at a slower speed.

Any suggestions on why this is happening and how to fix it.

Thanks for any help.

[Mike Mackenzie]

Dave,

Due to this system being based off of a Roland plotter this effect will happen. the plotter is looking at all lines as small line segments thus slowing down on curves and speeding up on straight lines. The only thing you can do to control this is to slow the speed down to a consistent cutting speed to equal curve and straight line speeds. The other option might be to cut through auto cad and use polylines.

We fixed this issue with later systems / Drivers as well as motion systems and controls.

You have to remember you are working with a system that is 20 years old a lot has changed since that system was built.

[Dave Johnson29]

Due to this system being based off of a Roland plotter this effect will happen.

You have to remember you are working with a system that is 20 years old a lot has changed since that system was built.


Thanks Mike,

I will try the Polyline thing. Did not think of it.

Yup, I know this is old and I am living around a lot of it's limitations but the price was right. :):) I either got it for $300 or free. I can't recall which.

Would you have a main board that would drop into this thing that uses later version (W2K?) of the printer driver? I am stuck with win3.1. It is not all that bad as I am running it in VirtualPC 2004 and it is pretty cool.

[Mike Mackenzie]

Dave,

The problem you would have is the motion system, It is a roland plotter and control system. Even if you could get the main control interface changed you would still need to be able to control the motion system. Those two were tied together on that system. You might search out and see if you can find a similar roland plotter mechanism with later up to date electronics that you can retro fit.

[Dave Johnson29]

Even if you could get the main control interface changed you would still need to be able to control the motion system.


Thanks Mike,

Sounds like too much time to chase down. I will live with it. Thanks for the reply though.

[Margaret Turco]

Dave, Did you combine or group the square?

[Dave Johnson29]

Did you combine or group the square?


Yup, Grouped it. Same, same.

Thanks for mentioning it though.

I suspect Mike has once again hit the nail, the curves are not vector arcs they are a zillion short straight lines and the laser is being accelerated and decelerated for each one.

My CAD software will export to R2000 DXF which should incorporate polylines or actual arcs. I will give that a try today as I have been using R10 but not sure what level Corel can read.