CAM - Sample DXF?

[cncdrive]

Hi Dan,

If you will build a converter which can read the various CAM versions formats which the UCCAM can't read now then if you will send me the code then we can build that directly into the UCCAM.
I mean your code could precompile the file and then the UCCAM would load it, we could place your code then inside the UCCAM.

[Dan911]

Hi Balazs,

Sure... it would eliminate a step.

What I've done is just created a barebones dxf template, converter extracts entity's and layers from original dxf regardless of version and writes it in new formatted dxf I know UCCAM reads.
The converted dxf file can only be read by UCCAM and won't open in a cad program, at least AutoCAD... haven't checked them all.

Anyone interested in trying here you go...

UCCAM Converter.rar.zip

Needs a button or hotkey #0531

plugin creates a folder in UCCNC directory "UCCAM_DXF" where converted file can be located.

Balazs pm me a email for source code, I use the pairing sequence for search/extraction.

Dan

[cncdrive]

Hi Dan,

Yes, that is what I thought about, I mean that you generated a new file with suitable format for UCCAM.
So, I thought about placing your coding into the UCCNC and make some modifications in the code to make that file in memory instead of on the hard drive and so the user would not even see that file and the whole thing could remain transparent for the user.
Maybe you can change the project type to Dynamic Link Library (dll) and provide an interface which accepts the file path/name and returns a list of strings with the file content?
Then it would be simple for me to insert your code into UCCAM, I will then just need to call that public function in your dll library, pass the filename/path as parameter and use the returned list of strings instead of using the original file.
And then I will not even need the source code.
What do you think?

And ofcourse for first it would be great if some users on the forum could test the conversion with different file formats.
I will also test it soon, but I do not have AutoCAD at the moment, I only have some free CAD softwares installed now, but will test your converter with them.
Anyways, it would be good if many people would test the converter to see how well it works for all possible CAD formats, so you will see if there is a need for any fine-adjustments.

[Dan911]

I'm a little confused, why would you need autocad or any other cad program ?

If anyone has a dxf file that UCCAM won"t open... use the converter on that dxf to generate a new dxf that UCCAM will open. What the converter is doing is writing the dxf that UCCAM can"t read in a format it can. This was my only option since I cannot change the way UCCAM reads a dxf.

Dan

[cncdrive]

I thought to draw some things and then save them in different formats and then try to read it using your converter and then UCCAM, just to test how well the converter covers the different CAD formats.

[Dan911]

Duh.. I realized after I posted but never edited.

[cncdrive]

Okey.
I will try to do it with QCAD first: https://www.qcad.org/en/

[ger21]

Rather than doing a conversion, why not just correctly read the entities in the first place, like Dan is doing??

[cncdrive]

Because currently we do not have the time to make those modifications and if Dan already done it then why do it again?
Our thoughts were to just make the UCCAM obsolete and move it from the main UCCNC to a plugin, but if Dan will make it to read all CAD formats then we will change our mind on it.
And we thought that developing the main part of the software is more important than the CAM, because there are lots of even free or cheap CAM solutions with more "knowledge" are available now.

And basicly not only modifications needed, but also to read splines new code have to be added/developed and again, if Dan already made that then why should we waste the time on it with doing it again.

[Dan911]

Okey.
I will try to do it with QCAD first: https://www.qcad.org/en/

Checked this out this morning and a Very cool free program...

Like I wrote in previous post UCCAM won't open dxf versions below 2000(R15) but R15 and above works. I think those who posted that still had problems was using a custom AutoCAD template and possibly with x-refs or blocks linked to a layer. Also maybe a title block. If file opened/created and saved R15 and above with standard
acad.dwt template you will see UCCAM works fine.

Also I see some programs claim to be saving/exporting a 2000(R15) and above dxf but polylines were still being saved in older dxf format. Why I seen/posted better success with 2004 dxf is that probably took that software time to catch up to AutoCad standard.

To sum it up there is already a free converter available for UCCAM and also is a good cad program to create simple 2d entity's, use the link cncdrive posted.

Dan