MrJoel

shape cut outs without spacing in between

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hey y'all, just need some help figuring out how to revamp a design I have.  It is currently about 4"x6" with 57 hexagons that are 1/2" x 5/8"   I currently have a .10" gap between all of them but I want to design this so that there is less cutting going on and that there is no gap between them.  I'm at a mental block on how to do this

 

hexagons ride right (2).jpg

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You could create a drawing like this then just tile it. However, in Inkscape anyway, there is no way I know of to join all the line segments so even though the nodes are touching, the plotter will start and stop at the line segments. 

 

image.png

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Each hexagon needs to be cut individually, otherwise the cutter will have to go over the same lines twice where the shapes join, and that's the same amount of cutting movement anyway.

image.png

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Agreed with the others. It probably CAN be done but will be challenging to design. The design programs will naturally want to connect all the loose ends and you'll have double cuts going on all over the place which will cause a huge mess.  Are you trying to just cut and weed out every other one or are these sort of like peel and stick type things? Hard to understand what you're ultimately after. 

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This is a peel and stick application.  if i can do it without a gap between then I don't need to weed it.  I do a lot of these and eliminating the weeding would be amazing for me time wise, but it has to aesthetically pleasing for the end customer as well.

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Depending on the quality of your cutter and over cut settings, the design I posted would probably accomplish your goal. If nothing else, you can tile it a couple of times and do a quick test cut to see how your cutter handles it.

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Design it as though you were weeding out every-other octagon. Then weld it all together.  If two shapes are next to each other then it cuts both outlines, so the adjoining side is cut twice.

But if every-other image is removed/ punched out / whatever-your-softwared-calls-it and the cutting program thinks it's empty (weeded) space and then welded, there won't be overlapping cuts....I think.

 

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Weeding? The gaps between the shapes are all connected, so with one pull you're only left with hexagons.

 

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See, this is 30”x10 yards of reflective 1/2”x5/8” hexagons... if I can save half the cuts and reduce the waste then I’m saving 10-20% of material too.  I do a lot of little hexagons!  

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2 hours ago, ShaneGreen said:

Design it as though you were weeding out every-other octagon. Then weld it all together.  If two shapes are next to each other then it cuts both outlines, so the adjoining side is cut twice.

But if every-other image is removed/ punched out / whatever-your-softwared-calls-it and the cutting program thinks it's empty (weeded) space and then welded, there won't be overlapping cuts....I think.

 

No, that won't work with a hexagon, you'll still have over laps.

If you're going to draw a new file from scratch, you could do a zig zag pattern like this, then go back and add in the horizontal lines. You'll still have the cutter lifting and dropping the knife, but it'll minimize it as much as possible.

 

image.png

image.png

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question on your size, a true hexagon that is 0.5" from flat edge to flat edge is going to have a distance of 0.577" from point to point.

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6 hours ago, darcshadow said:

You could create a drawing like this then just tile it. However, in Inkscape anyway, there is no way I know of to join all the line segments so even though the nodes are touching, the plotter will start and stop at the line segments. 

 

image.png

This extensions works some of the time.  Good when you get a bunch of line segments from some file and want to connect them into a continuous path, (lots of dxf files for some reason.)

https://github.com/fablabnbg/inkscape-chain-paths

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28 minutes ago, darcshadow said:

question on your size, a true hexagon that is 0.5" from flat edge to flat edge is going to have a distance of 0.577" from point to point.

Yeah, I mixed up the 5/8 with the rounded up .58

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Here, this should work and minimize blade lifts. You'll have to view the file in outline mode, in "normal" mode it looks kind of weird. There are 5 rows of hexagons and an extra row of vertical lines. You can tile the image and get more rows of hexagons then just delete the last row of vertical lines before cutting.

Honeycomb.svg

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On 2/5/2019 at 12:07 PM, darcshadow said:

Here, this should work and minimize blade lifts. You'll have to view the file in outline mode, in "normal" mode it looks kind of weird. There are 5 rows of hexagons and an extra row of vertical lines. You can tile the image and get more rows of hexagons then just delete the last row of vertical lines before cutting.

Honeycomb.svg

that worked great!  thank you!

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