You can download dat files of many airfoils at http://airfoiltools.com That should get you started.

I downloaded the program but I can't find how to get it installed. No exe. file. Is there a video? Thanks

This is a java program. You need to install java on your system. Its free.

Hello All
First, well done Dodo3441 for this small piece of software, very usefull to prepare Gcode file.

UNfortunatly with the enclosed file not working. Don't know why. It opens well but the profile is not complete. Just check with excel graphs and what is dispayed with WingWire.
FIle should be renamed as .dat file.
Any ideas?

Thanks for your help.

Originally Posted by bidouille

Hello All
First, well done Dodo3441 for this small piece of software, very usefull to prepare Gcode file.

UNfortunatly with the enclosed file not working. Don't know why. It opens well but the profile is not complete. Just check with excel graphs and what is dispayed with WingWire.
FIle should be renamed as .dat file.
Any ideas?

Thanks for your help.

Your file appears to have some problems
The text file is not parsed into two columns. I dropped it into excel and parsed it and got a very strange chart. It looks like you have also got you x and y columns back to front. I changed that and it looks like you are trying to make an elephant shape with extra squiggles in Excel.

Remember that wing wire has a smoothing routine to give efficient Gcode. It does not respond well to a file that jumps around.

The data file must be sorted into x coordinate order with the highest x coordinate usually 1.000000 first. to conform to the .data format.

If you want to cut irregular non wing like shapes wing wire is not the best choice. It is designed for wing type shape and smooth curves.

Other threads in the Cad Cam will give you some ideas.

Hope this helps

OK. Thanks for your answer. I will try with X 1.0000 first.
For your understanding, if you import the file into excel choose space as separator.
Then tou have to remove the second column that will most probably appears with a point.
After that you should get something like the enclosed screeen capture.

This is a wing separate (top is missing to lower number of point replace with a straight line).
Wing is separated in 2 halves to make remove weigth. The shape you see are made to imbricate together when you put bottom and top together. Ie : if you shift virtually the bottom part to right you will see that they fit together to be only oneHope it is clear for you
At the end this is a wing

I don't understand why it should not work as it seems that this soft translate XY/UV shape to XY / UV Gcode?

Regards.

I got the same as you in Excel. I can get the profile to load in Wingwire and get some similar shapes, but a lot of distortion at the leading edge and the trailing edge. I think it is the inbuilt smoothing algorithm in wing wire that is struggling. The algorithm was developed for conventional wing shapes by Dr Mark Drela. It interpolates extra points where required to ensure matching numbers of coordinates for the root and the tip with the sort of spacing that suits the assumptions built into gcode. Your coordinates move backward and forward across the x axis in a manner not expected by the algorithm.,

Try dividing your coordinates to just cut the top surface . This may indicate if a simpler coordinate grid can work. How did you generate the coordinates.?

I can't seem to find any dat format this program likes??? I downloaded several directly from here:

http://airfoiltools.com/search/index...D=1&yt0=Search

I tried both Selig Format dat files and Source Format dat files, the only choices available. Neither will load.

Here are a couple I tried. I had to change the dat extension to txt to get them to upload.

Tom

Oops, duplicate.

Tom

Originally Posted by T_om

I can't seem to find any dat format this program likes??? I downloaded several directly from here:

http://airfoiltools.com/search/index...D=1&yt0=Search

I tried both Selig Format dat files and Source Format dat files, the only choices available. Neither will load.

Here are a couple I tried. I had to change the dat extension to txt to get them to upload.

Tom

I loaded your data files into the program without a hitch. I even took the files you uploaded with the text extension and loaded them with the txt extension. This only requires changing the filter in the file opening window to all files locating in the browser and double clicking.

J

Thanks, I just tried it on another computer, my desktop in my home office, and it works. For some reason it did not work at all on my laptop out in my shop.

I will update the Java Runtime utility on my shop laptop and see if that fixes it tomorrow.

Thanks again,

Tom

Just a note. The problem was indeed an outdated Java Runtime setup on my shed laptop. Just a heads up for anyone that might have the same problem. I just cut a nice wing using the gcode it generated.

Tom

I've just completed my cutter Dodo posted on Thinggiverse. Great little machinery! Big thanks. I use it with a standalone GrBl/Arduino/Ramps-setup I found here https://github.com/ThomasHeb/4AxisFoamCutter

So - now I can use the Wingwire app to design cuts on my mac, export it to SD-card and go down and cut in my computer-free cave.

I'm very grateful for this!

Van,

That is a very nice program and cutter. The fact that you wrote this in JAVA is awesome. I wish I had the programming chops to write something like this.

This is my first post in RCGroups in a while. I used to be quite active in foam cutters.

Bill

nice to see you back Bill i still look back on the hobby cnc router post