Not so sweet Cut Circle in Suite of HW

[gimble88]

Thanks for the idea. I don't see anywhere to specify the size or anything else about the leading anywhere in the cut circle wizard.

Spence

[Ron Ginger]

This one is driving me nuts. I took out all the G41/2 cutter comp moves form the threading wizard to eliminate these kind of problems. I do not yet understand what is happening, but it has to do with the cutter comp. I have been discussing it with Brian and I know he is planning to look closer at the comp code, but I dont know when he will get it done.

The leadin radius is set by the wizard to be 115% of the tool dia, so it ought to work for any tool size.

A recent thread on the yahoo group has been talking about the inc or abs mode issues, I need to go through the wizards and be sure they are consistently using that. A while back Art changed the default initial Gcode string and that broke several wizards.

Sorry I dont have a better answer on this one, but we will get it eventually.

[gimble88]

Thanks Ron,

I know it'll get sorted. I wouldn't have reported it if I was sure you already knew about it. Is there a list of known bugs I can refer to in the future so I don't end up taking time and bandwidth repeating old reports?

Spence

[BobsShop]

Hi, Gimble88.

Interesting - I used your inputs and got the same results.   Did some additional tinkering (never could leave anything alone!)  Editing the G-code and eliminating the reference to G41 altogether cleaned up the final result.  Of course, this also did away with the lead in and you may want that.  I then changed the PO to .0625 (1/2 of .125 - the size of your cutter).   By changing the position-offset (PO) to .0625 you get a nice leadin and no garbage.  This will not correct the view you get in the "Verify Tool Path," screen, but it should produce workable code for the finished product.

The Wizard appears to have a bug in it and Ron and/or ART will need to address that.

Bob@BobsShop - Going in circles - again.

[Ron Ginger]

I FOUND It !!!!!

The preview button code used a factor of 1.5 times the tool radius to calculate the comp radius. The post code uses 1.15 Apparently thats not a large enough move to make comp work correctly.

Ill send this fixed version to Brian to put on the web, but in the mean time there is a work around. The Preview button generates its code as Test.tap in the gcode folder. The post code generates its code into NewProgram.tap. If you preview the code, then post and return to mach, then load the Test.tap file you will get the right code for the comp move. However, that file will not have the coolant and spindle commands in it, since they are not necessary for the preview function.

I need to chack out some reported bugs in the thread code, lLl try to do that later tonight or tomorrow, then Ill post a new version in a new topic here with this fix and the thread fix. It should be up by some time tomorrow.

[gimble88]

Hey Ron,

Brilliant work.  Thanks for the rrrrrrrrapid response.

Spence

[TDAY]

Hello all,
  When Cut Circle generates G code it does an R instead of I and J,is there a way to change this to I and J?The problem is there is a hesitation at the half way points of the circle.I think Brian was told but am not sure.
Thanks
Troy

[TDAY]

Dont know if this matters,but iam altering the Free 2D Milling Wizard by Olivier and noticed that it will generate a arc using either I and J or R,by using whatever you have the settings in the General Confige,Motion Mode,Distance Mode,and IJ Mode.
Can this be made the same for the Cut Circle NFS wizard?
Troy

[Ron Ginger]

It could be changed, but I don't see much reason to do it. Either R or IJ are valid gcode commands, both should do the same thing. If the R method causes a hesitation then we ought to get Brian to see why that happens.

[titchener]

Did this problem ever get resolved? I'm still getting the problem after downloading the 3.041 version today.

I'm trying to do a cut circle with center at x1.25, y1.25, diam 1.784, cutter diam 0.5, inside specified, climb cut specified, pitch angle 5 (although still have problem if this is set to zero).

I get a lead-in arc on the inside but then it keeps going and cuts another one on the outside.

Not so good, I ruined a nice piece of aluminum.

I've stated this before and I still strongly feel this way, you need to create a thorough test suite for these wizards and test them carefully before bundling them with Mach. Wizards are something you you need to be able to count on as being bulllet proof, but for me they've been my biggest source of crashes and ruined workpieces.

Paul T.