Lines in to continuous line
I'm doing sheet metal works for customers and sometimes it includes laser cutting which I order from a 3rd party company. I usually get complains when the shapes have too many lines like this reindeer attached. It slows the cutting very much and thus increases the costs.
Is there an EASY way to get 1000+ lines to maybe even 100 lines? 1 line would be great :D I've tried PEDIT and JOIN commands from Autocad but they do not work or I don't know how to use them.
I'm using SW2015 and AC2015
2 Answers
In SolidWorks you can select any number of connected segments and use Fit Spline to form a single spline that closely matches the profile.
Some laser cutting software will not function with splines, so try a test file first.
Another consideration is what you are using to generate the sketches to start with. I usually use Vecot Magics for image to DXF conversions. It allows you to specify more of fewer line segments when exporting the DXF. Do you have the original image for this project? I can convert it and you can see what the results are.
The problem you raise is important and everyone has to deal with that. Redraw deer on a parallel sketch plane using that arcs tangeants for all curves continue. CNC turning arcs into multiple line segments with their own definition. When you send a lot of line segments file is like you interfériez in software conversion between the drawing of the curve and the machine language of this curve. You do not leave him a chance to make his own curve segment!