I caught an error in my design. The bow former pieces end at a level that is too high. I corrected them and now they end flush with the forecastle deck level. I hope there are no other errors that I have overlooked.
Ok, let’s get ready for laser cutting. The laser cutter software is called RDWorks. It has some basic tools to create and modify shapes, but… Well, have a look at the message that appears at the bottom left of the RDWorks window. I think it says it all.
I tried exporting one of the bulkhead shapes from Fusion 360 as a DXF and importing it into RDWorks. There is a problem. Notice how the edges of the shape aren’t smooth and sometimes overlap.
This is not a problem with RDWorks. I found lots of people complaining about issues with the DXF export function in Fusion 360. Apparently, it outputs splines in a format that many other programs can’t handle.
The solution I found is a Fusion 360 plug-in called “DXF Spline To Polyline“. The plug-in adds a separate DXF export option to Fusion 360 that converts splines to many short line segments. Here is the same bulkhead piece exported using the plug-in then brought into RDWorks.
Once I confirmed that the plug-in was working as expected, I exported every shape (bulkheads, fairing lines, keel, rudder, transom, etc.) as a separate DXF file. There were 51 in all.
It was pretty clear that arranging the parts for cutting using RDWorks would be a pain. I found some strong recommendations for the popular open-source vector graphics software Inkscape. Learning the basic operations within Inkscape didn’t take long.
In Inkscape, I created a new document with a size equivalent to a 24″ x 4″ wood sheet. Then I imported a DXF and moved it into place. For items that will be scribed rather than cut, I set the color to red. Labels were adding to pieces using the text tool. However, in order to make sure they would be scribed by the laser cutter, I had to convert the text objects into paths using the Path -> Object to Path menu option.
When the whole Inkscape document is saved as a DXF then imported into RDWorks, RDWorks will interpret each color as a layer, so the separation between the lines to scribe and lines to cut is preserved.
Here’s the first sheet of objects. I will end up with four total.
While working on the layout for cutting, I realized that I’ll have some extra space. So I designed a cradle for the model to sit in while I work on it.