Any tips or tricks to get a dxf of a closed contour with internal shapes for mounting points to cut on the outside of the outer shape and cut on the inside of the inner shapes? Wazer won’t ungroup them because it’s a closed contour, and I dont see how to import the inner and outer shapes separately and realign them to be able to force WAM to change the side of the contours to cut on. TIA!
The WAM software takes any internal features into account automatically. It is vital to cut on the outside of all external features and then cut inside any internal features to make sure the cut-out pieces are 1:1 and true to design.
The pic above is pulled from WAM. The “Outside” cut path option is highlighted. As you can see, the design file that was imported is the white, while the cut path of the nozzle is green.
If you are seeing a different cut path orientation on your file, there may be an issue with a closed feature. Are you able to achieve what you are looking for when selecting the outside cut path?
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This is so weird, yesterday WAM was NOT doing this… I imported my file and it was able to do what you indicated.
That is really odd. There have been no changes to WAM lately and I do not see any error logs on the back end of the system. If you continue to experience issues, please let me know and share the DXF/SVG file with me. There could be an issue such as one of the features not being closed.
If WAM detects that a feature/poly-line is not closed, WAM cannot assign an inside or outside edge - resulting in the cut path being center-line. (Even if the feature is located inside a closed feature, if it is not closed there is no way to assign an inside/outside edge)
Are you experiencing any other issues on WAM? I will keep my eye out for anything odd in the meantime 
It was the same file I used today as I did yesterday. When I attempted to split it into different objects to assign an outside path and an inside path to cut along, it moved the entire grouping to another location, in a position that mimicked being copied N times, but only showed the original object in a new location.
If the file contains features within another feature, the object cannot be split.
Essentially, if a feature is found within another it is assigned to the same “Cut Group”. On its own, the cut group can be split apart with this function because there are no features inside it to build/reference off of
Would be nice to be able to index these objects to set up a jig. Currently, any offset in my dxf is ignored when I import in to WAM
In gratitude,
Clint Johns Sacred Heart Schools, Atherton
Resident Tinkerer of the H.E.A.R.T. Lab (Harnessing Empathy to Achieve Real Things)
Preferred pronouns: he, him, his
Creative Inquiry Department
Robotics Team coach
cjohns@shschools.org
If you are concerned about offset, it may be easier to let WAM make those calculations. Using the inside or outside cut path options in WAM automatically adjusts the nozzle path to account for the kerf. Using center-line cut path will place the kerf on the design lines.
A few things regarding kerf - It is approximately 1.2mm. Divide this by 2 to get your center point and you get approximately 0.6mm on each edge of the kerf. This is essentially the offset WAM accounts for, and moves the path of the nozzle accordingly. I recommend designing your DXF normally, without the offset in mind, and letting WAM account for the offset. Use the “Outside” cut path option for 1:1 cuts.
As for a jig, I recommend using the X and Y positioning in WAM to help determine where to place a jig and create reference points. The black dotted lines in WAM refer to an objects “Cut Extents”. The origin of the object is the top left corner of the cut extents. You can place this origin anywhere specifically in step 2 of WAM.
I hope this information helps you line-up a jig for any of your use cases!
Ok that makes sense. I can follow that. 
In gratitude,
Clint Johns Sacred Heart Schools, Atherton
Resident Tinkerer of the H.E.A.R.T. Lab (Harnessing Empathy to Achieve Real Things)
Preferred pronouns: he, him, his
Creative Inquiry Department
Robotics Team coach
cjohns@shschools.org
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