sno-cad printing

sammer · Post by **sammer** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 4:45 pm

I'm not sure if it's just me?
designed a nice ski in snoCAD-x 1.0.7.c
saved the split template (letter) then printed it out.
it was supposed to be 191 long 140 tip 106 waist 115 tail
when i printed it out its 175 long 134 tip 100waist 110 tail
so i saved it again (a4) and printed pretty much the same.
it's the board outline so it should be the same dimensions as my drawing.
any thoughts? i think i'll split it in half add 6mm to the middle and stretch
it out to the length i want to make my template.
just kinda wierd!
sam

knightsofnii · Post by **knightsofnii** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 6:29 pm

i had to throw mine into photoshop, get it to measure out the right dimensions on their grid, then take snapshots of each piece with a pinch of overhang, then printed all those out and carefully pasted them together. it was just the side profile for a mold though. what a pain.
ive never done it straight off snocad, could never get it to print on more than one page.

TexMurphy · Post by **TexMurphy** » Wed Feb 06, 2008 7:21 am

I just yesterday noticed that my dimmensions are off as well.

Though I have a theory.

I alligned the A4 pages so that the last and first support line of each page overlapped. In my naivity thats what I assummed they where there for. But Im quite sure I should have alligned it so that there is equal distance between all support lines.

Roughly Im lacking 5-7 cm of my ski and that would rougly be the total ammount of overlap. I need to print another template and align it in the other way to see if it matches better.

Tex

sammer · Post by **sammer** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 10:48 pm

thanks all, the length thing ive got figured out.
its the width thats making me scratch my head.
perhaps i'll try cad-ing my design wider and printing it out
to see what happens.
sam

knightsofnii · Post by **knightsofnii** » Sun Feb 10, 2008 8:18 am

go to some university where they have archtecture school,
get one of the students to put it in autocad and print it on a plotter for you.
shouldn't cost more than 5-10dollars if they are allowed to do it.

my only problem with that was the old snocad version i was using didn't convert properly to dxf and we had a bitch of a time scaling the board down from 148 FEET long!??!?! no joke.

i eventually gave up. i think it works much better now, but i think it was something to do more with the stock settings on their autocad than snocad itself.

Skierguy · Post by **Skierguy** » Mon Feb 11, 2008 7:50 am

I had the same problem and only noticed it after holding up my cut out hardboard template and thinking that doesn’t look like 191cm. I ended up using the template as a ski for my Dad. I found my problem to be when printing (I assume you saved as a PDF). It appears that Sno-Cad is plotting to the actual dimensions (8.5x11) and the PDF viewer is scaling down the image to fit within the printable margins. Thus the shrinking dimensions in all directions. Make sure that the paper scaling is set to "None". I will try and get a screen capture of the setting tonight.

dg · Post by dg » Mon Feb 11, 2008 10:15 am

Yeah that's exactly the issue - make sure the print driver isn't scaling the page (don't use fit to page).

Also, before you commit to a full print, print off one page - perhaps one with inserts on it. You can test the print by measuring the distance between the grey dotted alignment lines running across the board. They should be exactly 20mm apart - anything else and the PDF print driver has scaled the drawing...

iggyskier · Post by **iggyskier** » Mon Feb 11, 2008 10:38 am

I have been taking my snocad files, exporting the DXF, and getting them CNC'ed.

And I just noticed last night that they were a tiny bit off. Somewhere along the line they gained 1mm in the tail, 2mm in the tip, and almost 1/2 in length. Not sure what the issue it.

sammer · Post by **sammer** » Mon Feb 11, 2008 4:55 pm

thanks guys, found "fit to page" was checked in my printer options.
I had been thru all the printer setup and couldn't find anything
so i tried printing again and there it was.
thanks again

sam

dg · Post by dg » Mon Feb 11, 2008 10:23 pm

And I just noticed last night that they were a tiny bit off.

I measured the raw DXF in a CAD application and didn't find anything off. I think it might be some error in the conversion process your CNC process is performing (eg generating the toolpath or something) - or possibly some misalignment on the CNC machine - less likely though.

iggyskier · Post by **iggyskier** » Tue Feb 12, 2008 12:01 am

dg wrote:
And I just noticed last night that they were a tiny bit off.
I measured the raw DXF in a CAD application and didn't find anything off. I think it might be some error in the conversion process your CNC process is performing (eg generating the toolpath or something)

yeah, talked with Dan and that is what he thinks as well. Going to talk with my CNC guy to see what he says.

I have gotten normal cad stuff cnc'ed without issue. just the snocad files seem a bit off.

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