Tabs and Leads
Background
Tab
A Tab is a small connection point between your Part and the Material from which it is being Cut. It’s designed to keep your Part in place for the duration of the Cut. Tabs help to increase overall Accuracy and prevent Pop-Ups, which can cause the WAZER to jam and ruin your Cut.
WAM automatically defaults to incorporating Tabs in default locations of each Cut Path. The location and size are designated on the Cut Group with a yellow indicator.
The default settings are that every Cut Path receives a single Tab of a size based on the Material. This will likely be sufficient for most Cuts and will seldom need to be changed. However, you should always review the default locations, in case they will cause problems with your Design.
Let’s take a simple square file as an example:
If you need to make changes, select Manual Tab Placement and move the problem Tabs by left clicking and dragging them. You can also add and remove Tabs by left clicking.
Additionally, there may be use cases where you cannot afford to place any Tabs, as a result you may want to select No Tabs.
NOTICE: When considering using No Tabs on a Cut, make sure you can afford a failure. There is a high likelihood that these parts will come loose, resulting in them either falling into the Tank, or jamming the Nozzle.
You may also adjust the size of tabs at the bottom of this step
Lead
Notice: Leads cannot be used when the “Centerline Cut Path” option is being used. If WAM cannot determine which edge to lead in/out from, a lead will not be used. Centerline Cut Path does not care for edges, and will simply cut along the center of the line drawn in the design file. For more information regarding Cut Path Selection, please read our in-depth article found here!
A Lead refers to the distance that WAZER will be cutting away from the Cut Path.
This is done to make sure that the oversized Pierce at the start of a Cut does not remove any excess material on your Part.
The Lead’s location and size are designated on the Virtual Cut Bed with a blue indicator.
Let’s take the simple square as an example. You can see small blue lines curved out around the tabs
Upon visualization of the g code, you can see the leads as small “tails“ that initiate the cut.
The leads and tabs will be materialized in cutting like this