CASSWORKS

VERSION 1 22:02:2013

CNC Routing (essential information)

(PLEASE READ BEFORE COMING FOR CONSULTATION OR BOOKING A JOB)
Consultation is held on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday 10am to 11am. Room CR-108.
File Formats:
2D Drawings in .dwg AutoCAD 2000 or Illustrator .ai files
3D Drawings in .igs, .iges, .step, Rhino 4 (.3dm), .stl, .obj
For 2D Drawings
2D cutting will need a lead time of at least 2 days depending on work load.
Make sure drawing units are set to millimetres
All jobs of a specific material / thickness need to be saved as separate files. I.e. 18mm Ply components - 1 file,
18mm MDF components 1 file, 6mm MDF components 1 file etc.
Draw a rectangle (2440mm x 1220mm) with the bottom left corner set at 0,0 This represents the working area
of the machine bed and standard material sheet size.
Components need to be spaced 20mm apart from each other and allow for a 25mm empty boarder around the
edge of the material sheet.
Drawings need to be clean i.e. no duplicate lines, closed polylines and curves where needed except for
engraving and grooves.
Small cutters cannot cut as deep as large cutters. I.e. maximum depth of 3mm is 10mm deep. maximum depth
of 6mm 25mm deep.
All complicated curve shapes should be saved as a separate illustrator file. i.e. drawings containing splines.
All machining operations/ details need to be listed in the layers of the drawing. (It must be noted that
illustrator layers are not recognised by the cutting software and will be merged into one layer) Cut, Engrave,
Pocketing, Drilling.

Cut: All shapes for cutting need to be closed. This is because the cutter needs to cut on the outside or inside of
the line. If you are cutting 18mm Ply and want to cut 7mm deep. This would be described in your layer as cut
7mm deep. All cutting depths are taken from the top of the material. Please be aware that the cutter will leave
a cutter radius on the internal corners. A 6mm cutter is used for cutting as standard, unless otherwise specified
by the student.
Engrave. Open and closed lines/curves/splines are accepted for this operation. Engraving is when the cutter
cuts on the centre of lines/curve/spline or text. This would be described in your drawing layer as (engrave
3mm cutter - 6mm deep) or (engrave 2mm deep with V-cutter).
Pocketing: When you have an area on your drawing where the thickness of the material needs to be reduced.
i.e. If you are cutting 18mm Ply and need a certain area to be 12mm thick. This would be described in your
drawing layer
As a 6mm pocket (the shape needs to be closed for this operation).
Drilling: All drilling positions need to be denoted by circles. The circle size will determine the hole size. Please
be aware that only proper circles can be accepted. Circles that are converted to faceted lines will not work. If
you are drilling 6mm deep with 8mm drill in 18mm Ply. This will be described in your layers as (8mm drill 6mm deep)

For 3D Models
3D cutting is not magic. Most models will need finishing by hand. Some models cannot be cut due to their
complexity. Some models cannot be cut as there is no way to support/hold them during the cutting process.
These models might be better suited to rapid prototyping i.e. 3d printing. Small detail can/will be lost in the
cutting process.
3D cutting will need a lead time of at least 2 days depending on work load.
All 3D files must be clean. The file should only contain the model to be cut.
Most large models will not fit within standard stock material sizes. These models might need to be cut in
sections or the stock material will need to be laminated to produce the required thickness and size.
3D jobs must not be bigger than the machine working area of 2440mm x 1220mm. They might need to be cut
into sections to fit into machine.
In most cases all internal edges of the model will normally end up with a radius.
Maximum depth of cut will be determined by the cutter size. Small cutters cannot cut as deep as large cutters.