Rule Benders
Automatic rule benders (Lasercomb, Kongsberg, Serviform, Data Technology, Prima, SLD and others) bend the cutting and creasing rules of a steel-rule die from the die's drawing. Their own job files aren't published, but their software imports CF2 and DDES3, the die makers' exchange formats, and works out the bends, notches and bridge cut-outs from them on the machine's own tooling. So ParametrIQ CAD writes the die for a bender as CF2 or DDES3, and the Rule bending report shows how each rule will be bent, and what the bender can't do, before it is sent.
Writing the file
Use File › Export › Export… and choose CF2 Die Files or DDES3 Die Files (see CF2 and DDES3), or the Rule bender (CF2) or Rule bender (DDES3) machine profile, which export with the settings benders want in one click:
- no subroutines (parts written out in full, as the bender bends each rule);
- whole circles as two half arcs, which every reader takes;
- a rule thickness of 2 pt where the drawing doesn't give one (CF2's pointage);
- dimensions, bleed and safe-zone lines and registration marks left out;
- in millimetres, the file named after the drawing with -bender.
Each rule keeps its type (cut, crease, perforation, partial cut, reverse crease, cut-crease) and its bridges: CF2 as a number and width on each line, DDES3 the same or, where the drawing has them at set places (from a DDES3 file), at those places (centred, or a tack to the left or right). V-cuts are milled, not bent, and glue lines aren't rules: neither goes to the bender.
The bending report
File › Reports… › Die making › Rule bending lists the die's rules as a bender makes them:
- Rules: each length of rule, joined end to end from the drawing's lines and arcs where exactly two of the same type and thickness meet (a junction of three or more starts new rules, as die makers break them): its type, its thickness when the drawing says, its length, whether it closes on itself, how many bends and bridges it has, and where it starts.
- Bends: every bend of every rule, in order: a sharp corner or an arc bent round a radius, where it starts along the rule (from the rule's start), the angle it turns (positive to the left, anticlockwise, seen from the drawing side; negative to the right), and an arc's radius and length. A whole circle is one bend of 360°.
- Bridges: where each bridge (nick) is along its rule and how wide, for the notches the bender cuts.
- Problems: arcs tighter than the Smallest bend radius, straights shorter than the Shortest straight between two bends or at a rule's end, corners sharper than the Sharpest corner, and bridges on a bend, where a notch can't be cut. Set them to your bender's (in millimetres, converted for inch drawings); 0 leaves a check out.
Save it as CSV for a spreadsheet, or as a web page to print, as any report. Fix what it finds (a larger radius, a bridge moved off a corner with the Bridge tool), or split the rule where the bender can't make it in one piece.
Native bender files
The benders' own formats aren't published, so they aren't written. To write one, ParametrIQ CAD would need the format's specification from the bender's maker (or the maker's permission and enough sample files, each with the drawing it was made from, to be sure of every record): the rule and tooling records, how bends, notches and bridges are given, and the units and machine settings in the file's header.