Hello all
So I want to plasma-cut stainless steel sheet, to give the blanks which I bend to form hexagonal-cross-section curvaceous forms.
I take it it is familiar that someone whould want to print on paper at
1:1 size a shape, so that the paper can be glued to a piece of particle-board ("MDF" seeming a good choice) and cut around with a jigsaw to give you your template, around which you sweep your plasma cutter.Your template will be offset from your intended blank by (nozzle_dia/2
- kerf_dia)/2, right? (or + kerf_dia/2 if you template is on the "other" side)
Found selecting a mathematical formula as being a good way to specify the object's profile.
So far, have written a little computer program which works out the blank shape (so you can check with card whether your form is what you think it is) and template shape, given an profile of an object expressed as a mathematical formula. Get a two-column table of x,y points - which I need to plot.
What does anyone use?
I have previously been a Linux user (about to re-install onto my old computer) and currently using MacOSX, really as a Free-Software platform. But anyway, would prefer a solution in the Free Software world, though interested in hearing all solutions which people use.
The problem I have had is that while "gnuplot" will plot proportionately correctly, I haven't managed to specify the absolute size. On the other hand, drawing programs like "xfig" will draw a shape to an exact size, but won't import x,y data from an external source.
Richard Smith