Image to Punch & AutoCAD help -- Long

[mkemsaykyl]

Hello All,

I am not new to AutoCAD but I am not an expert either (not familiar with macros/lisps), with that said I have a very difficult task at hand with my work and I would like some suggestions or even help trying to figure out how to make this work.

 

First off...

Image to Punch is a software that converts any image to holes. Then I export a .dfx to AutoCAD.

 

Background...

I am a designer for a steel fabrication company and a large portion of our business is manufacturing exterior building panels for a third party company. Typically hundreds/thousands of panels at a time. I use SolidWorks 90% of the time to create these panels using parametric tables, then export the panels flats to AutoCAD where they get programed to one of three turret punches.

 

MY ISSUE...

We are covering the exterior of a very large structure with ~2500 panels - two different sized panels (pattern, small-small-big) - 4' tall x 3' wide - 160 columns and 16 rows, this is a big project in itself, but for this project we have to add ~10 million holes to the whole face of this structure. There will be ~3200 holes in each panel.

 

In the past, the largest panel job we have done was for trade shows at about 30 panels max and we did all the panel manipulation inside AutoCAD (which even for the small amount of panels took a lot of time) so we never needed a system to break up the image into smaller boxes.

 

STEPS…

I select an image and put it into I2P software, the software creates the image using holes. I export a .dxf file and I open and save it in AutoCAD as a .dwg file. I then find my outside boarders of the image based off the edge of the largest hole on outside of the image. Then I create a line as the boarder (edge) of each panel as they sit next to each other, based off of how many columns and rows I have. I then offset from each edge of the panels .200” all around. This creates a gap (tolerance from edge of panel to the closest hole to the .200” tolerance). I then turn off the border layer. From here I need to delete every hole (full or partial) that falls inside the gap between the border layer. This is one of my big issues that I have… Is there a way to delete every single hole that does not completely fall inside one of the boxes (panels) that I have created. This isn’t too difficult to do it manually, but I need to work around 2,500 boxes.

 

 

I also need to figure out how to add 2500 different images to 2500 panels and labels each one. This might be for another time.

Attached is an example of what I am talking about.

This is one image that will be split into 4 different panels.

The panel edges are not shown.

The white circles are the holes.

The red rectangles are my borders of where I determine the holes I need to delete. I need to keep the holes fully inside each of the red squares.

 

 

Thank you,

Kyle

[Dadgad]

How about using the Express tool FAST SELECT? You might want to add a Pline of suitable width to essentially fill the area you want to be devoid of holes. Anything that touches that can be selected and erased.

[mkemsaykyl]

How can i get a lineweight to be .40" thick? The layer only go up to 2.1mm

[SLW210]

_LWUNITS = 0 will give Imperial. It only goes to 0.083". Maybe linewidth would help.

[mkemsaykyl]

Thanks for your help guys. No luck though... I changed the width of the line to .40" and did a "erase+'fs" command. It only deleted the circles that it touched in the very center of the line. The width of the line had no effect even though it covered all the holes i wanted to delete.

 

I also tried something different. I created a grid pattern using lines that touched all the holes that i wanted in the center and outsides. All the lines i drew were touching each other and the holes that i wanted to delete. I then turned fsmode "ON" and entered the command "erase + 'fs". For the most part it worked, but it still missed a lot of the holes ~25% or so and it also deleted huge chunks of the edge 4-5" inward that weren't touching any lines. I am assuming there is a glich in AutoCAD. I undid all the deleting and commands and started again, this time it deleted less holes and no large chunks from the edges.

 

Any suggestions please...

Thank you,

Kyle

[Dadgad]

Thanks for your help guys. No luck though... I changed the width of the line to .40" and did a "erase+'fs" command. It only deleted the circles that it touched in the very center of the line. The width of the line had no effect even though it covered all the holes i wanted to delete.

 

I also tried something different. I created a grid pattern using lines that touched all the holes that i wanted in the center and outsides. All the lines i drew were touching each other and the holes that i wanted to delete. I then turned fsmode "ON" and entered the command "erase + 'fs". For the most part it worked, but it still missed a lot of the holes ~25% or so and it also deleted huge chunks of the edge 4-5" inward that weren't touching any lines. I am assuming there is a glich in AutoCAD. I undid all the deleting and commands and started again, this time it deleted less holes and no large chunks from the edges.

 

Any suggestions please...

Thank you,

Kyle

 

Maybe you could do it by creating a multiline style comprising numerous straight lines offset by an appropriate amount, and using that as the fast select object. You may find you cannot get enough segments into your multiline, I forget how many elements there can be, in which case create one multiline then offset or copy it to be able to select more of the circles.

[BIGAL]

Try creating a pline zero width at an offset such that it is just outside the holes to keep, using the option "F" fence via erase command pick the pline, this will erase only objects that it touches you do it a couple of times expanding out using offset depending on your hole tolerance required. It can be automated via lisp etc probably make sure osnap is off.

 

You could definately set up a grid based system of doing it this way panels do not have to be square can be any shape and will work, I used this technique previously so I know it works for an edge.