Dear community,
I am very happy that the CNC machine is ready to be shipped to Portugal! The company is Blue Elephant and before shipping they will record a video to show that the machine is running properly.
I have never used a CNC before so I chose the Window-S3 block and sent them the detailed .zip files to cut.
They responded saying that “The design file you gave us, which we can only open in the format dwg, looks like a top view and cannot be used for machining. Can you convert the other two designs to dwg format for us?”
What does that mean and how can I do that? Is it possible to have any .dwg file with specific dimensions and cutting paths that can put the machine to the test?
Thank you in Advance,
Gabriel
Hi Gabriel,
Short answer:
Try sending them the dxf file from the window-s3 page.
Longer answer:
Your blue elephant CNC will take an NC file, which is mostly just a bunch of X,Y,Z co-ordinates in space. Your CAM program will need to be informed of the dimensions, feed rate and spindle speed of each of the tools you use (for example, we cut our Wikihouse blocks with an 8mm Chipbreaking Compression Cutter made of tungsten Carbide, others might use a 9.5mm Downcut High Speed Steel cutter). Each tool will need to give the machine different instructions, as the XYZ co-ordinate system follows the centre of the tool; a higher diameter tool will need to follow a different set of co-ordinates than a lower diameter tool.
This is further exacerbated if you have a tool changer - your 8mm cutter might be in position T2, mine is in T5.
Blue Elephant can take that DXF file and generate something to run on the machine, they did it for me when I bought one last may.
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