Thread: Anyone here got autocad?

Ummmm. Why on Earth did you generate the scripts, in anticipation of making this request? Is your present CAD program incapable of using scripts? Or was it an exercise to persuade you to install AutoCAD?

Have you at least tried to mimic the commands of your scripts in your present software? Script files can be HUGE. I hesitate to respond more favorably, until I know more. I've already deleted three paragraphs.

Joe

The scripts were generated by an engineering calculator not a cad program.
If they generate drawings then I might have to bite the bullet and learn how to use autocad

The tricky part about automatically-generated scripts is deletion of superfluous blank spaces in the output file. AutoCAD allows use of the space bar as a pseudo CR/LF. This can be very convenient for manual data entry and Command replication, because the space bar is easier to find than the Enter key. However, if blanks are contained in a coordinate string of a script file, everything goes into the weeds. Or something like that.

Many years ago, I generated a script for a circular slide rule in a spreadsheet, with an output region for the script. I'm not sure if I can find the files now, but IIRC, I had to do a lot of manual deletion of extraneous blanks. I have several script files, but don't remember how I generated them - probably some sort of auto-generation, and almost unsure exactly what they do.

Gear tooth computation is a fairly straightforward exercise. The tooth shape can be saved as a Block, and the entire gear can be assembled as a Polar Array.

There may be more modern software you could use to marry the two functions. I'd investigate that avenue first. Transferring files hither and yon could be a nightmare in itself, not to be entered except if necessary.

I hope a real CNC guru chimes in soon.

Best regards,
Joe

Thanks Joe,
There are so many variables in autocad that I don't want to go through the steep learning curve if it cannot print from the gear making scripts from the engineering calculator that I have used. The cost of autocad is also prohibitive from a hobby aspect.

Most of our local cnc crowd are more focused on fancy relief carving than in using cnc as a manufacturing process. So they generally don't have autocad.

G'day, Bob.

I agree, full-blown AutoCAD wouldn't make any sense for the hobbyist. I've used it only in professional practise. But I did acquire AutoCAD LT at about US$500 many years ago, for preliminary sketching and my own use.

According to my very imperfect understanding, CNC for relief carving still needs x-y-z coordinates and cutter radius offset for the tool path. X-y must be a subset of the data. That "should" be applicable to your objective. Of course, anything involving computers and power tools renders "should" obsolete.

If you have a "local" CNC crowd, goodonya, mate. Pick their brains as much as you can.

Joe

Hi Bob,
Are the scripts Gcode?
If so then here is a link to convert Gcode to a dxf file. Dxf is a better choice as it is universal and not Autocad dependant.
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8814
There are a number of us that do mechancial CNC work but have not responded because your request is unusual and a bit obscure - scripts could mean anything from Gcode to macros to basic. Normally the drawing file is taken to Gcode as a final process and not backwards to a drawing file.
Hope that is of some help.

I use autocad all the time, we use it for work to draw up aircarft manufacturing designs and I use it at home for the cnc lathe and router

Post up what you got and Ill see what I can do with it

Steve

Hi Steve,
The scripts are autocad scr files,
I'll try to attach them here,
nope they were not accepted so I will post them as text files
but they will need to have the extensions changed from txt to scr before they will run properly in autocad.

Thanks for the link Rod, quite an interesting read.
In hindsight I suppose I should have posted the original question on the zone.

Bob,

For doing your testing, you could give ProgeCad a try. It will run the Autocad scripts, and there is a demo version here. It looks very similar to Autocad R14, and doesn't seem to be crippled at all.

First file comes up with unknown command error, second one is this

I was going to suggest listing part of the file for examination, but you've done so for both files - complete.

The "scr" file type, used by AutoCAD, is a default type for Microsoft screensaver, hence the difficulty in uploading and manipulating. I copied and renamed the files to *.scr for AutoCAD runs. Also had to rename to only 8 characters demanded by my old version of ACLT.

The first file generated an unknown command. I deleted the parts before "CIRCLE" for action, and got two concentric circles. All this seems to do is define the bore and either the pitch circle or the outside circle. The block definition is sort of pointless. A needed block for a polar array would be the geometry of an individual tooth.

The second file generates a side view of the gear. The shape defined here would be z-coordinates for CNC, but I have no idea how they're implemented.

I got a read error from Importing the dxf version of the second file. Error at line 851. My version of NotePad doesn't include line numbers, so I don't know where it is.

[Here's a screen capture (I hope).]

Over to you, Steve (simso).

Joe