Stock and work probing

[chad]

This could be tied together with the work offset post above.

I would like to see some more probing functions built in to mach. Things I would like to see are the ability to set the probe diameter, jog into the x and y edges and have mach set the dro's to 0,0. Also some basic measurment stuff would be great. The ability to to find the centers of holes, measure from one hole to another, basic cmm stuff.

Chad


ps. I know poll's have a section but i wanted an easy way to judge feedback.

[fer_mayrl]

i think this would be a good thing, even better would be being able to touch off both sides of the stock, in a couple of places in each side, and if the stock is not perfectly square, have mach calculate the skew and transform the toolpath to compensate for that out of squareness.
I find it hard to do though.
Regards
Fernando

[Normsthename]

i think this would be a good thing, even better would be being able to touch off both sides of the stock, in a couple of places in each side, and if the stock is not perfectly square, have mach calculate the skew and transform the toolpath to compensate for that out of squareness.

Commercial Laser machines can do this. They have a 'magic eye' that looks at the corner of the sheet, and then determines how much the sheet is slewed. The machine then automatically compensates for this slew in the software.

Andy

[Scott]

I'm using a probe routine to locate the X Y corner of a holding fixture or the corner of a blank with a contact plate that either goes on the corner of the fixture or on the corner of the blank.  It works pretty good.  After cutting the first part at that location, I measure the part and adjust each axis if needed (1/32" to 3/64" at the most which could just be my contact plate).  From there on that work offset is set until I move the fixture or something else needs to be done.

Here's a sample of the code behind the button I have on my screen.

[chad]

cool thanks, i will play wth it.

Chad