Hi,
I need to prepare some files for laser cutting. I always export to DXF, that works fine. In the software that analyzes the files, the curves are numbered and they are all over the place. The order of the curves is far from optimal. I would like to sequence or order the curves in Rhino before I export them to DXF so that the curves will be cut in a defined sequence.
How does this work in Rhino?
I guess you need to turn the question around… What does your laser cutter driver use to determine the cutting order?
I believe that Rhino exports objects in the order they are found in the object table… I don’t think that method can be changed.
Thanks for the quick reply.
I don’t know how the software determins the order. All the curves are numbered there. How can I see / check the object table in Rhino? I could check if the order in Rhino’s object table corresponds to the numbering in the laser software.
One thing I had already tried:
I had opened a new Rhino document and copied the curves over in small groups because I assumed the curves would get numbers according to the order in which they are created in the document. I checked in the laser software, but the order of the cirves is still the same like in the original document from where I had copied the curves from. If it would have worked, I would have copied the curves over to the new document one by one and exactly in the order I would have liked them to be cut. But, well, does not work that way 
I actually had done this a looong time ago already for a different project. All curves were generated by grasshopper and as far as I remember I used a gh plugin to sort them before baking and if I remember correctly that worked (no, I think I just assumed it worked but I never really got the feedback if it actually did lead to the curves being cut in the desired order, I worked with a different company back then). I can’t remember which plugin that was and also this time the curves are not generated in grasshopper. I hope there is a smart way of doing this. Maybe referencing the curves in grasshopper and there editing the table order?
I just called the service line from TailorSteel. They told me that the numbers given to the individual curves in the Sophia software have nothing to do with the order in which they will later be cut. An optimized order will be determined by the laser cutter and its software (which is not Sophia). I don’t have any influence on that.
That is good news to me. The names/numbers in the Sophia software made me believe that this might be the order in which the curves would be cut - that is not the case. Since I don’t have no influence on this anyway, there is no need for me to deal with the rhino object order.
Thanks for the great support!