bill steer

HI, what is the best way to determine if a bunch of lines and arcs are a closed contour for cnc cutting purposes ? That is to say all end points must have mating end point from another object, and there can not be more than 2 objects with these end points. Also, and open contour. Same as above, but the starting and ending end points dont' touch anything. thanks, bill

HI, I am a nubie and working my way up learning curve. Can someone give me a few hints ? What is the quickest way to shorten / lengthen a line on one end or both ? What is quickest way to create a new parallel line next to an existing one ? What is the quickest way to cut a line 2" inches from the end ? thanks, this would help me alot ! bill

Why does the precision disappear in the object viewer window, when I have both a arc dimension selected and a diameter dimension selected ? I want to change all dimensions in the drawing to 2 places. what is the quickest way to do this ? thanks, bill

I have VW 2010, I have seen other posts that recommend Vectorbits.com for duplicate item purge, but web site is non-responsive. Is vectorbits still around ? Is there another way to find & delete lines and circles on top of each other ? thanks, bill

I have vectorworks 2010. How can I find the length of all items selected, including lines, contours and holes ? Thanks, Bill

Thanks, but doesn't the above suppose I know where the doubles are ? I don't know where they are, just somewhere on drawing. How do I find them ?

Hi, What is the best way to locate lines on top of lines and arcs on top of arcs? They are Same position and size. You can select and press delete, then see the one under it. How can I find / move / delete all these instances ? thanks, Bill

I am a beginner. If I have locus around a drawing, what is the best way to quickly click and put .25 circles on each one ? The radius / drag seems a bit slow. I see you can double click on circle tool and it will bring up box, I can close box, and next click gives me one circle, but this is too many clicks. I just want to click on various points. thanks, bill

I am converting font to polyline, then converting polyline to lines. A simple name and address will give me about 20,000 lines, some of them less than 0.00001. How can I control the precision of this conversion process so I have fewer lines ? Thanks, Bill

HI Charles, Your plasma g-code looks like good start ! A few comments for laser cutting . a) Cutter comp can be set to zero. Laser Kerfs are 0.010. If we need to be right on, we just adjust the hole size a bit. Our Trumpf laser actually has cutter comp built into it, but we have never used. We try to keep things as simple as possible. b) A button to guess at and set holes to white automatically then user can click items on / off as needed. c) Your automatic selection of lead in point looks good for 80% of the time, but need to give user ability to select 1st entity and the pierce location. Lasers can make "final" parts (most of the time) with no grinding of leadin / out points, if properly positioned. d) Our current cam program will put all "like" entities in sub routines. Main program moves to pierce point, then sub routine turns on laser and incrementally cuts and turns off. Just a be cleaner and if you need to make adjustment, there is just one code to change, rather than maybe 50. e) We currently use our cam program to make code, then we use our database program, "Omnis Studio" to post process to make the code just the way I like it to run on laser. Misc note : Omnis is great RAD program, we have used for 22 years, but it has never really "caught on". f) Would need button the click on "non contour" enities to cut. Sometimes just need to cut lines or arcs that are not contours. Just allow user click then put moves in sub program. Sometimes we turn laser on / off between clicks, sometimes not. Post processor handles this now. Why don't you email me, great2b1@aol.com off list to discuss moving forward. Maybe I can email you a quicktime movie of what we are doing now ? Thanks, Bill Steer

Hi, I think there is a Mac market for a Vectorworks CAM script to produce CNC G-code files that laser cutters can use. Basically using the lines & arcs create straight x-y moves, arc moves, turning the laser on and off. Allowing the user to click on entities to adjust leadin and out moves, then writing it to a text file. There is no CAM for the Mac market place so you would be the only one with this product ! Thanks, Bill

Forgot to say we are in Santa Fe Springs, Ca, Just a bit south of Los angeles

HI, can you recomend someone that is fluent in Vectorworks script ? We might want to create some metal box drawings using script to calculate various dims, and hardware. We use a different cad program but are slowly transitioning to vectorworks. thanks, bill steerPico Metal Productswww.panelboard.com