Shapr3d to CNC process (DXF export)

[spencersmb]

I’ve been searching for the last few days on this topic and I either can’t find a complete answer or I don’t know the right terminology. Maybe someone here can help me out.

If I draw up a complete cabinet in Shapr3d and have several solid pieces, is there a process to convert each solid/panel/part into a 2d flat path to export as a DXF file to my CNC software that I can layout into a cut file for it?

Thanks for any help!

[GJetson]

You can export sketches as DXFs for CNC. (I do this a lot.)

When I have a panel with both pocket and profile cut operations, I’ll add construction planes for each operation. (It doesn’t matter how far apart the planes are.)
Then I’ll Project to each of those construction planes, to get all of the vector paths.
When projecting, just select the surface to be projected (for example, the bottom of a pocket of a certain depth.)
Each of those projections will be its own unique sketch.
So I’ll name the sketch for the depth of the pocket, or I’ll name it “Profile” if it’s a through-cut.
And then I’ll select all of those sketches and choose Folder+ to keep them aligned with each other.

That gives you all the closed path vectors for a panel. Now it has to be oriented flat, prior to DXF export.

After I’ve projected all the panels I want to cut, and named the sketches with something like: NameOfPart-Pocket—oneHalfInchDeep

… then I’ll move those sketches (and/or folders of sketches) to the origin of the model.
I’ll rotate them to be flat on the ground plane and lay them out as they might be on the cnc.

Then export the DXF.

I pull that DXF into Vcarve or something similar.

The imported DXF will come in with the layer names, so that it’s easy to distinguish vectors of pockets vs profiles, even with all the vectors aligned.
I’ll typically change the colors of the layers to be unique.
I may isolate layers and select vectors to make sure paths are closed and there are no extraneous stacked vectors.

That’s the gist.
It may sound a bit laborious but once you’ve done it a few times, it’s fairly quick.
Put on some favorite background music and just start clicking.

[spencersmb]

Thank you so much for detailing your workflow - I’ll give that a shot!!

[SCALEMODEL]

There is a little app called Unfolder that could automate the process.

I know Onshape and Solidworks can do this but it’s bit expensive and doing it in Shapr3d is tedious process.

This app unfolds imported OBJ’s and for furniture should work very well.

Unfolder - Create papercraft easily

Oh Blender Sync feature is pretty cool.