Contoured but cannot cut perimeter

I’m trying to cut out a simple bbq heat plate. It looks fully contoured:

But when I simulate it, it only cuts out the inside circles and doesn’t go around the perimeter … so strange

What am I doing wrong?

Heres my drawing

Thanks

I’m not where I can open up your file but I notice in the top picture there’s an error in the toolpath (the yellow warning triangle next to it in the tree view). What’s that say when you click it?

The bottom pic shows the outline wasn’t generated that’s why the simulation didn’t show it cutting.

To be honest I am not sure what I did importing your F3D file but then I deleted you set up. Extruded the part and everything went fine. Simulator ran the whole part and created tap file.

If you message me I can email you the F3D file I exported.

This may work

https://a360.co/2EKb1lU

Cool thanks loading it up now

So what did I do wrong? I noticed I had an error but I didnt know how to fix it

I’m not sure but if you clicked the warning triangle it tells you what it coukdny do and sometimes (not always unfortunately :slightly_smiling_face:) says why. Most often it’s drawing constraints or conflicts with lead-in/lead-out settings and the size of the scrap side of a cut.

Your perimeter never should have showed up as 8 separate cuts. You can see in the image I uploaded the whole thing is done as five chains. Four for each hole and one for the perimeter.

1 Like

If they were discrete & unconnected they can be treated as separate chains for pathing. Depends on how it was drawn. If it was a rectangle with overlapping ellipses subtracted from the rectangle I wouldn’t be surprised if the arcs were also multiple line segments.

[quote=“chowpay, post:10, topic:2162”]

That is exactly how I did it. I drew a rectangle then cut out the sides with an ellipses.

So 2 questions

  1. how do you link all the sides so they are 1 chain instead of separate chains?
  2. how should I have done this?

There are 2 add-ins you should download from Autodesk for Fusion 360. There’s a Sketch Checker and the Fill Gaps tools.

Sketch Checker will show where the lines don’t join. Fill Gaps will join segments.

Sketch Checker:
https://apps.autodesk.com/FUSION/en/Detail/Index?id=8050506996211430178&appLang=en&os=Win64

Fill Gaps:
https://apps.autodesk.com/FUSION/en/Detail/Index?id=1232847965088759508&appLang=en&os=Win64&_ga=2.95341211.666082701.1545442564-87990484.1537927391

It should be part of the app but it’s a paid add-in. Cost you $5 I think. :frowning: But it’s way quicker than doing the extend|trim line process.

3 Likes

If they were discrete & unconnected they can be treated as separate chains wouldn’t then have had 8 lead ins? and still cut when I imported his drawing I don’y know how I fixed it but ended up with the five chains I would expect.

I have used the sketch checker but need to look in to the Fill Gaps that maybe handy as well,

wooh so cool fill gaps totally did it. simulate now runs the full cut
Thanks!

2 Likes

This is the great thing about the forum & the internet in general - someone somewhere knows all the tricks & tips and we just need to ask & look :slightly_smiling_face: I think it makes us all more capable than we’d probably be otherwise (at least it’s true for me speaking from a hobbyist’s viewpoint).

2 Likes

The hard part for me is remembering where to look to find that trick. I have lost track of many thing I found useful on this forum alone :slight_smile:

I think my next larger project will be drawing up and cutting out a Grill Guard (Bull Bar/Brush Bar ect ect)

1 Like

If you have 2 points how do you close the gap? basically what the app is doing on your behalf. Is it just zooming in like crazy then touching the points? I cant seem to get it right manually.

Thanks

Yes, effectively. It’s sometimes really hard to find the disconnected points. You have to zoom way in & then moving to the next one you need to zoom out, move and then zoom back in. Pretty tedious. Autodesk should have the feature built-in - it’s pretty common in design apps.

1 Like

Thanks again for the help… Incase you’re curious they turned out great annnnd just in time for tomorrows bbq.
The first practical thing I made (the 2nd thing I cut out besides the bottle opener demo)

1 Like

Turned out great and nicely practical.

The picture of bending the assemblies is the best part of the thread

2 Likes