This tutorial outlines the process of preparing a 2D digital file for tool-pathing with FlowPATH for use with the school’s abrasive water-jet cutter. The water-jet is only capable of 2D cutting operations, and has extremely limited control of the depth of the cut so work should be designed with 2D lines and with the intention that the lines will be cut completely through the material – not etched. Depending on the hardness of the material it is possible to etch or score a cut instead of cutting all the way through, but this should only be done with ductile materials as it will cause shattering or breaking in more brittle materials.

2D File Creation
1) The FlowPATH software will only accept 2D geometry, and it works best with lines and arcs, splines may cause some problems. The lines can be made in any 2D application capable of exporting DXF files; possible applications are Maya, 3dMax, Rhino, AutoCAD, Illustrator and VectorWorks. If your model is made of surfaces or polygons it is necessary to duplicate the edges of the objects to make 2D lines, you cannot use the surface geometry directly for water-jet cutting. Objects and parts should be made at full-scale, the limits of the bed size are 40” x 20”. Pieces should also be on the XY plane with the Z axis up.

2) Once you have suitable geometry created in a 3D application you must export it as DXF. When exporting you should save as Release 12 (R12) format, this format imports with the least amount of errors into FlowPATH.

Download pdf FlowPATH Tool-pathing Tutorial