I may be betting well ahead of myself here, as I still have so much to learn in the CAD side, etc,
But here’s my next questions
How do you/can you control the cut order of something? So, for example if I wanted to cut a sheet of circles, with a little circle off set from the edge (round decorations with hanging hole, cutting glass) - I presume it would be preferable to cut the inner hole before the circle - so that the whole piece stays in place? What happens if I am doing a sheet of say 10 circles with holes?
Second Question
If I were doing shapes that butted up together perfectly - for ease, let’s say squares (although I can cut squares in glass quite well). Do each of the squares have to be individual shapes, or can they basically be one large square with a grid lines cut through separating the square?
Not sure if that makes sense. Think of something like a Rubik’s cube face. So rather than cut nine individual squares with spaces around all, can I cut one big square and then cut horizontal and vertical lines to separate it into nine? Avoid wastage (art glass is VERY expensive) and makes less cutting time.
As for the cut order of operations - there is nothing to worry about! WAM will prioritize any inner features that are surrounded by an exterior edge first. If there are multiple features within a closed loop, WAM cannot prioritize one over the other so it may cut internal features inside the same loop randomly.
Above is an example of order of operations 1 -7. It is important to note that the circles inside the rectangle may be cut in order of the end user drawing them in the CAD Software. However, I did draw the rectangle first so WAM corrects that order of operation to make sure it is last.
As a final note, I recommend using a tab on every single feature in the off chance that the object gets blown away and lost at the bottom of the tank, or gets loose and comes into contact between the nozzle tip and material - causing a backflow and clog issue along the abrasive system and failing the cut.
Question 2
This is a great thought to keep in mind during the drawing in CAD. A lot of shapes (or the same object multiple times) may use the same line. In order for WAM to cut this same line only once, make sure the line is only drawn once in CAD.
With that said, if you have a Rubik’s cube and draw 9 squares - but put a single line of each square on top another line in CAD, that line is now doubled. WAM will read all lines drawn in the CAD file, no matter if it is only shown as one (stacked on top of each other). In order to achieve 9 squares without cutting the same line multiple times, draw a tic-tac-toe board (2 lines by 2 lines) and enclose the board with an outer perimeter. Essentially, it would be a big # sign. Hopefully that makes sense!
Sharing lines will save time, abrasive, and material! There are even fun nesting software and websites out there that will take all your imported shapes and optimize the layout to share as many single lines as possible. If you incorporate those nesting styles into your CAD drawings, you’ll be a pro in no time!
p.s. My favorite nesting site is SVG Nest and downloadable software is Deep Nest
Perfect, this answer makes sense and actually I had a quick look at a question someone else had made about the order of cutting (it was a series of wavy lines with two vertical cuts, the suggestion was to offset the two vertical cuts by a very small margin so WAM classed them as outside lines and did them last.
So, I did a quick + sign, and surrounded it by a very slightly bigger square, and hey presto I cut four squares with only one pass on each inside edge (hoping that makes sense!)
I will have a look further as well at your other suggestions
Tabs on glass are a bit of an issue though, especially on something like a small hole, as smoothing off those tabs isn’t always as easy with a bit of glass!
I’ve raised a further question as I appear to have an issue with manual tab positioning
Would the same apply if I was say wanting to nest Hexagons? I can’t simply draw a tic tac toe board, and if I did it line by line, I’d have to be mindful of the exact angles and lines?
Or would this be a case for creating a hexagon in say Inkscape, which I am now familiar with, and then using nesting sites?
