Laser/Plasma

Laser or Plasma Cutters use light or plasma energy to cut a range of different materials from paper to steel plate.

The cutter will follow a path with a Kerf distance (plus Stock to Leave if specified) offset from the selected curves. 

You will need to place the curves to be cut into the following layers in the Rhino document:

KaroroCAM/Laser_Plasma/Inside Curves - for curves to be cut to the inside of the curve

KaroroCAM/Laser_Plasma/Outside Curves - for curves to be cut to the outside of the curve

KaroroCAM/Laser_Plasma/Open Curves - for open ended curves to be cut along the curve

Tolerance

KaroroCAM uses polylines (collections of line segments) to create toolpaths. All curves are converted to segments using this Tolerance setting as a guide. The Number represents the maximum deviation from the input curve to the final polyline.

The green toolpath curves in these two pictures show the extreme of the 1mm vs 0.001mm settings:

TIP: Use a tolerance one decimal place better than your machines smallest movement step - ie for most CNC routers 0.01 is recommended Tolerance

NOTE: Tight tolerances can lead to large file sizes and slow machine movement while cutting 

Outside Corners

This menu allows you to switch between Sharp and Round outside corners on your toolpaths. Laser/Plasma toolpaths are an offset from your input curve - based on the Kerf radius and stock to leave settings - with the two options being the difference in how offsets can be calculated on external offsets. 

NOTE: Rounded corners tend to be a better choice on angles less than 90 deg. Sharp corners can lead to smaller G-code files on cutting jobs that are mostly 90 deg corners.

NOTE: Rounded corners are effected by the toolpath Tolerance setting. 

CUT OPEN CURVES FIRST

Check this box to cut open curves before inside/outside curves, when not checked, open curves will be cut last

Tool

Tool Shape

For Laser/Plasma toolpaths only a Laser/Plasma tool option is available.

Kerf Diameter

This setting is the effective cutting width of the Laser/Plasma - please refer to the details from your machine supplier for the recommended dimension.

Stock to Leave

Stock to Leave

This setting allows you set an additional offset to your cutting path to leave some extra material on your job for future processing/finishing.

Tool Position Open Curves

You can choose for the path to be centered or on the left or right of the selected of the open curves - with the offset being half the kerf diameter:

Lead In/Lead Out

USE LEAD IN AND OUT

Check this box to enable radial lead ins/lead outs for the Drag Knife toolpaths.

NOTE: Cutting curves in the KaroroCAM/Laser_Plasma/Inside Curves layer will get radial lead ins to the inside of the cutting line.
Cutting curves in the KaroroCAM/Laser_Plasma/Outside Curves layer will get radial lead ins to the outside of the cutting line.
Cutting Curves in the KaroroCAM/Laser_Plasma/Open Curves layer will get extended at both ends by the length of the Lead In Radius

Lead In Radius

Sets the radius of the radial lead in for Drag Knife toolpaths

NOTE: You will get a warning if the radius is too large be generated - if you get this warning please reduce this radius figure

USE CURVE SEAM FOR ENTRY POINT

By default KaroroCAM Laser/Plasma Toolpath places the entry point of the cut at the mid point of the longest segment of the curve. If you check this box the current Rhino curve seam is used as the entry point.

NOTE: You can use the Rhino Command CrvSeam to manually adjust the curve seam position and therefore assign you own entry point per curve for cutting.

NOTE: This only applies to closed Inside/Outside Curves

Post Process

Post Process Laser or Plasma Cutting

Click this button to proceed to the Post Process Selection and Gcode File saving

VIDEO - 2D Profile Cutting in KaroroCAM