Laser cutting has made the art of model airplane ...（激光切割了模型飞机的艺术）.pdf

Laser cutting has made the art of model airplane construction easier. It can give the builder the quality and precision to construct an accurate model. Why do I say can? Well, preparing the file for cutting is just as important as a good glue joint. The time spent with your file is worth the end result. Once you have your file, it can be used to cut another set of parts just as accurately as the first or, you can mod it for your next proj ect. Ok, you just spent your vacation from work designing your dream plane on your favorite CAD software. Now what? What needs to be done? There are a few things that a builder needs to do to prepare their parts to be cut. First thing check to make sure your cutting service you choose can cut the size and thickness you need. Various services have different size cutting tables so see if there are any limitations. To prepare your file you should remove any text from the drawing and ensure that all lines are on the same layer. (Well cover labeling your parts later) Also ensure that all lines are of the “continuous” type. Files should be saved in the industry standard “.DXF.” Contact your laser cutting service to see if they require any special instructions that need to be followed with your file. For our example here we will be using a set of wing ribs for a sport plane based on the Ugly Stick. I will be using Qcad for this exercise but feel free to sub in your favorite software. The goal is to have the parts to be cut, laid out on the material to be cut. Some things to consider when doing this is grain orientation of the wood and reducing waste. The ribs here are to be setup to be cut on a sheet of balsa 3”x36”. The first thing I do is copy the rib to a blank page into Qcad. I then create a second temporary layer to draw the 3”x36” balsa sheet on, to use as a reference. This is done s