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Tangential cut

Tangential cut

You can get this dialog box pressing the 'Tangential cut'  link located in the Startup dialog

You can use this if you own a Cnc machine like this  . If you press 'Tangential cut' link  the following dialog will appear:

This feature can create GCode for 3 axes Cnc machine with an addictional rotary axis added where usually the milling tool is installed.
This rotary axis will drive an horizontal bar with a shaped hot wire connected in the below side.
As the X, Y axes move, the rotary axis keep the shaped ot wire normal tangent to the current path. The result is a shaped 3D cut.

The main part of this dialog is the driving Path. The x, y axes will follow this Path.
The main Path will be rendered in Red in the 2D picture.
You can create 2 types of Path:

• An Elliptical arc path. Just specify the X and Y radius and the start-end angles.
• An Esternal path. Just press the "Load an external Path and apply it..." button and select the DXF, DWG or Hpgl file including a single Polilyne. This Polyline will describe the Path

You must then specify how far from the coordinates origin you want to place the bottom-left corner of the virtual Foam Block. This is rendered in light yellow and automatically computed using the supplied Path and Arm lengths.

The Cutting Z quote set the Z value used when cutting. The Safe Z quote set the Z value used when moving above the foam block.

If you set the right Left and Right Arm lengths the application will also compute the minimal foma block size required. The Arm lengths are the distances of the outest points of the shaped hot wire, referred to the rotation center and the moving direction.
The Left path will be rendered in Green, the Right in Blue. Specifying the right arm lengths you can also see a message Ok or about a possible problem with the setup.

In the right side you can see some buttons, customize and export the cutting Path:

• Update Picture - the attual parameters will be applied to the 2D preview
• Customize GCode - The Customize the G-code  for foam Tangential cutting  dialog will appear
• Create GCode - Create the final GCode file 
• Fit to screen picture - you can maximize the content of the picture

I suggest also to take a look at this page, to better understand some important concepts of devFoam: DevFoam FAQ and important concepts