“strange that mostly, there are no issues”.
I always see the “many edges” in the exported shape, but that hasn’t seemed to cause a problem.
I guess I can’t explain what’s going on since it’s clearly before it gets to SketchUp.
Ok, thanks for the replies. Maybe I can dive down into the raw dxf data. Corel has no problem “eating its own”.
If you also notice the blue point is recognised as the corner, but in actual fact it isn’t. I am also unable to snap a dimension to that corner. I don’t actually know why the issue is there, its either in Corel Draw or the export from that I guess.
I would just draw the shape in SketchUp with maybe a top view and parallel projection camera setting. That might make it easier for a 2d shape. SketchUp is more than capable of drawing such shapes.
One interesting thing is there are some entity types in the file that SketchUp ignores. I would expect DraftSight to ignore them, though.
I can’t see the corners that are messed up in your DraftSight screen shot. Are they messed up the same way, or were you just observing the unexpected many edges?
Several years ago, I used a workflow where I first did the design in Sketchup, then used a pluging “Platz?” to get into CorelDraw for the laser cutting. But, this was much nicer, but maybe just because I’ve used CorelDraw for so much longer than Sketchup has been around.
Ian’s screen shot shows the corner cut off the same way I’m seeing it cut off in SketchUp.
That is the top right corner (zoomed right in) of the below image shown, from reading above I were assuming its supposed to be square?
yes.
Thanks again for the replies.
Unless I see the problem occur more often that what’s been happening so far, I’ll just “fix” the corners in Sketchup. For me, that’s easier than doing 2D design in Sketchup, then importing into CorelDraw for laser cutting.
Maybe this will make it easier to see. This is in the bottom left corner. This is a screen shot from DraftSight, too.
I wonder how you are making those corners in Corel Draw.
Are the things you’re making just flat things anyway? I was under the impression you are making things that would be assembled into 3D objects.
I don’t even draw the edges in CorelDraw. But,this example I did, so maybe that’s relevant…
Actually, this may be the only instance where I didn’t use an online tool (boxmaker) to create shapes with the tab edges based on specified box dimensions. On the others I imported the jpeg into CorelDraw, then copy/pasted the edge(s) I needed. That worked with no issues.
In this case, I just drew the shapes rather than import the jpeg. I’m going to try doing it from a jpeg input on this one, just to isolate the problem.
Yes, they are assembled into 3D objects. But, I’m just using Sketchup to check the design as I go along. The “source” has to be Corel, since that’s what drives the laser.
The issue only seems to occur rarely–I’d like to isolate what causes it, but I need to move on (unless it starts happening frequently).
bottom front.dxf (49.0 KB)
Just FYI…
I had to make the outer perimeter larger. After doing that, no issue. (attached).
Yes, unexpected number of edges reported by entity info, but it causes no problem. I explode, run “make faces”, delete internal shapes (holes), pull to 3 mm thickness, then save.
Then, I import into the 3D model as a component.bottom front.skp (696.0 KB)
It’s weird that straight lines are divided into some many segments. I’d find that annoying in the SketchUp model because it would make it more difficult to work with.
At least you’ve got it to work.
Just to follow up, in case someone else might find this useful…
I haven’t had any more issues like I was seeing on that one .dxf That’s after successfully importing, exploding, “facing”, and “pulling” around 100 dxf files.
I did have a few instances where make faces wouldn’t work. But, it was because there were line segments in perimeter of the enclosing shape that didn’t quite touch.
Even with the line widths set to “hairline” in CorelDraw, they are still displayed with finite width. So, unless you zoom in very far, the line segments can look like they touch. But, the endpoints of the segments must coincide or overlap for an closed shape.
“Combining” the segments in CD makes a single curve, but not necessarily a closed shape (I didn’t realize this). “Join curves” can easily bridge the small gaps, but I bothered to find the gaps and fix them to help gather insight on why I was having trouble that one time.
As I was continuing the work, I was thinking about how this process compared to doing the 2D work in Sketchup. I still think using CorelDraw for the 2D work is better. There are features in CD that aren’t easy to replicate in SU (at least that I can determine).
One of the most useful features in CD is the ability to drag the origin to any location. Then objects, or groups of objects can be positioned with their center, or top, or bottom, bottom left, bottom right (etc) at a specific x, y location. There’s “domino like” icon that remains checked that specifies where on the object/group the specified location should apply. You don’t have to be careful to click on the group or object at the correct point before doing the move.
In SU, I can use the tape measure to make guidelines, then use the mouse to drag objects or groups of objects “abeam” the guideline. But, I can’t just define a group and indicate I want the maximum y location of that group.
Admittedly, I have just used Sketchup for 3D drawing, so some of the things that seem inconvenient in SU may never show up while doing a 2D design, So, maybe if I did the 3D drawing using separate 2D SU files, rather than doing it all in 3D space, it would be just as convenient as using CorelDraw.
Anyway, I haven’t figured out why I had that one instance where the exported DXF didn’t seem to match what was in CorelDraw. But, I really didn’t try hard to recreate the problem–just moved ahead waiting for it to happen again–it didn’t.
Thanks for the help!
I tried making the corners both by using a rectangle, and drawing separate line segments. The issue was definitely NOT caused by line segments not touching at the corners.
Perhaps line segments not touching in the tab sections caused the issue. But when that happened in other cases, I didn’t see the “chopped corners”. Make faces just didn’t work.
If anyone’s interested, I can try harder to duplicate.
