POLL: Mach3 Lathe and G70/G71/G72 roughing, facing, finishing

[Mcgyver]

 

ahh thats too bad... I really got my hopes up...

Thanks a lot for even trying.. I really appreciate it.....

I hope brian could take the time to add the feature to mach...

In the mean while.. ill have to use bobcad to make toolpaths.. its working but not the way i would like..

yet again.. many thanks for trying..

best regards

robin

[SDConcepts]

why not have the profile entered into the wizard?  ultimately when do you a profile there are some rules that apply and i would be happy to help with ideas on how to get this figured out.  ultimately you would need a cycle for turning and boring and i think a wizard would do just fine until the actual coding can be done in MACH3.  ultimately its the repetitive coding that gets tiresome for the profiles.  figuring out the points is not that difficult. 

[Mcgyver]

whell,

It would be great if the contour can be entered in a wizzard..

but scott tried to figure it out and he said that this wouldnt work... or am i misunderstanding something?

greetz

mcgyver

[poppabear]

Well, I did find a Work around but had to use a Plug in to do it.............

So I do believe it can be done now as far as retriving the lines following the G7x code.

Here is the real issue, if ANYONE knows the math required behind these functions, then please post it, especially for doing contours. The Thing is, you would have to enter the Contour in as an Equation for the curve, and I think that may be beyond most users, (I do include my self in that statement, I can do the math, but dont really know if I want to spend the time figuring out the contor equation of some curve. Prior to running the thing.

Realy that is what the CAM is for that will do these functions already............

If it comes down to just the ability to run the already existing G7x spit out by your CAM, then I think we can run it from with in a Plug in..........

Scott

[SDConcepts]

on  a standard cnc when using a g70/71 one of the rules is that you have to have ascending contours.  basically you can't do things like a ball and rough them out.  the g70/71 will rough out the front half only.  so ultimately i thnk all you really need to do is create a program that will:

1. create a wizard that will let you input a contour
2. offset the contour by what should be left for the finish pass (user defined finish depth)
3. generate code to rough with steps (user definied depth and feed rate)
4. generate code using the original contour for the finish pass (user defined feed rate)

also i believe that EMC has figured this out and my understanding is all this software is open source.  as long as your not profitting from this i don't think borrowing their code would be an issue. 

[Mcgyver]

Whell..

The machines I worked with do have that function. (e.g. old siemens controll)

Depending on the geometry of the tool  I only have to program the toolpath and the cycle and the machine does the rest...
So i can rough and finish  a ball shape... it doesnt have to be ascending...

Too bad that the function is so difficult to create in mach...

[melee]

Hi All,

I have only recently come to the world of CNC programming and Mach, but I do have quite a bit of experience of real time systems programming, in Linux and Unix mainly.

I hate Visual Basic (and everything Microsoft) and Cypress VBS is a cut down version of a cut down version, but at least there is a usable macro programming language available for Mach 3

I have put aside my prejudices to write macros to give the functionality which is missing currently from Mach Turn, in relation to canned cycles for roughing profiles in terms of X depth (M71) and facing profiles in terms of Z depth (M72)

With these macros there is no need for a  M70 finishing macro, as you program the finished tool path in the M71/M72 loop section of the code and once the roughing is complete, that tool path is cut in finishing mode

There is a limit of 100 lines of GCode in the M71/M72 loop at present.
The reasons for this are explored in notes in the M71 macro, but basically Cypress VBS does not handle multi-dimensional arrays of data well and I could not be bothered to spend hours studying documentation for Visual Basic to try and find a workaround which would enable me to set the array size dynamically as I would do in C or C++.

However if your finished tool path is so complex that it cannot be described in 100 lines of GCode, its a pretty special part.

The M71 and M72 macros are zipped up with example GCODE and a README file

Please READ the README!   If you follow the required syntax and methodology, they will work, if you do not they may well not work.

They are posted on my webspace at
 M71 macro files
and
 M72 macro files

Please test them and give me feedback.

I have used this for real, cutting the ball ends in the 3rd test program for the M71 macro, into 28mm stainless bar and produced 4 perfectly matched parts.

I cannot give individual explanations or dissect your particular GCode, but will attempt to reply to responses as time allows.

Enjoy

Melee

[Shadow5731]

  Though new to the forums, I see no reason why the option should not be added....maby instead of the size of what needs to be done at times, potentially an option?

  Maby let the command have some lieniency to aide in compatibility would make Mach a new controlling program for the potential future....maby add the option with it's defaults for many controllers at the most (AM GUESSING as I have limited experience with CNC as yet except with using it for sharpening coldsaw blades...a bit less than a year with a company I worked for before too, BUT, maby a good option I think)

  All up to the designer to make the choice, but from what I've seen so far, he's got a pretty-good shoe to fill myself.  (no offence either, but even before I ran the program here, I looked at the updates and all)