Optimize the order of the elements in the laser cutting

[goatchurchprime]

I've loaded up the file hybridV1x20_1100x650Sheet.dxf using ezdxf python library and plotted the 11801 LINE and SPLINE elements in order with colours going from blue to red (top left to bottom right).

It seems to be in a reasonable cutting order in the actual file, so if things are all higgledy piggledy where the laser is travelling one end to the other just to make a single spark, that's happening in the Lasercut software (or I've not got the most recent file).

So if things are in an odd, it's either because the software is mixing everything up during either the [Unite Lines] function, or it's the reordering as applied to the colour settings.

Experiments to do:

1. Load file and do a dry run without doing Unite Lines
2. Load file and do a dry run without reordering by colour

If case 2) is buggering it up (due to some low-memory swap sort) then we can save the three colours into three separate files and import them one at a time in the right order.

Oh, and could that messy "Hybrid v1 4 punch" writing not have loops in it (letters "bdp4") which cause little scratchy bits to stick out. Or could it be a light etch cut instead so it didn't go through.

Even more optimizing would be to change the speed it cuts out the slots depending on which part of the design we are on, so it didn't leave so many glitches to cut off. How long have we got?

[dfaligertwood]

The text was adding about two minutes to cutout time when I timed it on tuesday. Is it possible to replace with a shorter version identifier? Hv1.1 (4 punch) and Hv1.2 (prusa), for example, would have the same information as the current versioning without taking as long to cut or any problematic letters.

[plastictactics]

I have been etching the text - quicker and looks better (in my opinion). I'm working on a more compact design with some other changes to speed up cutting. Layer order had a small effect on cutting time, and excess nodes (on the curves) had a huge one.

I'm working in DXF but the layer order and grouping seems to turn to chaos on import into Corel Draw. Can anyone recommend a robust format that could be used by everyone, or will it inevitably take a bit of optimisation for each kind of laser cutting software?

[Sean-anotherone]

Not sure if this is the right place but Martin & others commented that the parts were needing quite a lot of trimming and some cuts were not all the way through - I did a quick clean of the mirrors and a tiny adjuctment to the alignment but this did not really improve the cutting so I made a new program with the main cuts running at speed 75 instead of 80. I also sped up the "text" cut to 130 from 120. This seems to be cutting better and the trimming and cleaning still takes longer than the cutting.

I have saved this as a new laser file by appending "-5% slower" to the filename of the earlier version