Using a CNC machine to produce your AutoCAD designs provides incredible time savings and precision. But this developer has created some apps for the Autodesk App Store that will give you even more tricks up your sleeve when working with files for CNC.
Lay
When you want to quickly lay out the details of a complex assembly in the XY plane, use Lay.
“This is useful when you are designing products made from sheet materials (furniture, woodworking), and when you need to do detailing, arranges every detail drawings,” developer A>V>C> writes. “The plugin allows you to put selected solids in the XY plane of the world coordinate system, regardless of how they were arranged in space.
“In a single click the plugin can do copy and a few turns of solids. Moreover, you can immediately select all solids components in an assembly, rather than to lay out solid by solid. As a result you get a neat column of details sorted from highest to lowest with text title.”
Sawing Table
The Sawing Table app helps you rapidly create a list of 3D solid dimensions.
“This is useful when you’re designing products made from sheet materials (furniture), and when you need to create sawing (cutting) table,” A>V>C says. “The program measure solids, regardless of how they were arranged in the space, and it can find identical solids and can group them. Results can be inserted in a Windows clipboard or AutoCAD table… You no longer need to measure many dimensions and insert it to table manually. You can avoid a lot of mistakes and your work will be reduced to a couple of clicks!”
CNC Prepare
Well, the name says it all—CNC Prepare. This app helps you get your AutoCAD files ready!
“If your production is using CNC milling machines, you will probably have to prepare the outlines of parts before exporting,” A>V>C> writes. “It is not enough to make flat shots from 3D solids. You also need to remove the overlaying lines and intersections, convert splines to arcs, close polylines to loops, and assign the right layers according to the type of process. To speed up the process, making loops are commands from this plugin.”
So if you’re looking to optimize your work with CNC, be sure to check out Lay, Sawing Table, and CNC Prepare.
Check out the entire series for more indispensable AutoCAD apps available on the Autodesk App Store.
