Hi
In my 2ft (609.60mm) X 3ft (914.40mm) work area I have a number of 3/4in (76.200mm) Dowels in a line across the board. At present there at 2 squares in and 2 squares apart, but as I need to drill the ends with a 1/4 (0.25mm) drill on my cnc router they have got to be more precisely centered on the work area. I know its the align tool that gets it all straight, but when I try to use that tool it shoves everything to one side or the other.

I've looked in the manual as suggested by other members , but I can't see any thing about this problem.


I'm sure its just a simple procedure.

Thanks for any tips here.

Centurian.


My attachment was too big so uploaded a zip file instead to solve that problem, I hope that's OK.

Hello.

I don't get what you want to achieve.
I guess that:
Do you want to populate all your sheet with those circles that represent your dowels?...
But you want to get them aligned, and at a certain distance (margin) of your sheet limits...?

One tip:
Use the contourn visualization mode (type Ctrl +5 until you get it). You can find it in Menu >View > Visualization Modes (more or less, my gui is translated to spanish).

Some issues:
At contour visualization mode, I can see that some "dowels" are behind others... They ares showed as wide black lines, in contrast to "correct" dowels, which are in thin black lines.

Also, at this mode, it is evident that the dowels are not in line, but as a kind of zig-zag line. I don't know if that is on purpose ?

Here I'm using Inkscape 0.91:
There are many tools that could help you: the align tool, the snap tool, the use of guides instead of grids. The new measure tool for comprobations. You can convert auxiliar geometries to guide lines for help. There is also in Menu> Object other dialogs like "align and distribute" or "arrange"...

What you think?

Hi
And thanks.

Yes. I want to eventually cover the whole of the work area with as many dowels as I can. I didn't continue with them until I was sure there was a way to align them up with equal distance between them and the edge of the board area, therefore giving the router an equal journey around the board. Each dowel has to have a 1in hole drilled in the top to receive a propeller (I know the yellow hole is much bigger than it should be but that's just to show anyone else there's a hole to be drilled at some stage, it will be 2mm wide when I finish it). Its much more cost effective doing it this way than drilling each piece individually by hand.

There maybe one or two that are doubled where I've duplicated them to make the first line and then duplicated that line to reach where I am now.

In unison I think the word is, equal on all sides.

I hope that's clearer than my first post.

Centurian.

I'd probably use tiled clones.

Hi.

I reckon you are using a CNC-system which accepts "standard" g-code.
For what you are doing have a look at the python g-code generator tools found here: G-Code Tools.

if you are using Windows you need python to use these tools, can be found here: Python.org.
(Mac and Linux have python installed.)
Install the 2.7 version as it will run more python code and has more support libraries available.


Please post your results! Will be nice to see all the propellers!

Yes I'm generating Gcode from DXF files in Inkscape.

I've been to that site and the Gcode converter link is dead. Its not a problem as I'm using Cambam at present to convert.

Although I'm trying hard to get these Dowel's to space evenly, I recon the Cambam's Gcode converter will create a path regardless of the slight inconsistencies of the circles position on the work space. You've only got to guide the spindle to the first hole and let it run its course from there.

Thanks a lot.

Centurian.

Hello,
I'm not sure if you have solved your question.
As I said, there are amy tools that can help you for your work.Changing the visualization modeI will be of great help, without a doubt.

As Lazur said, you can use cloned tools to get an array of the elements over the plate. You have to test it until you obtain the result of you want.

As Ragstian said, after tracing all your elements, I understand you can use the Gcode extension to export all the drawing to a format that can be read by you CNC machine.

Here's an array of .25 circles made with tiled clones.
Grid spacing at .75 for illustration.
No fill, no stroke, viewed as outline.

Thanks a lot for your help

I'll have a look at cloning the dowels instead.

Cheers.