Machsupport Forum

Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: tinman13 on January 25, 2011, 01:14:11 AM

Title: how to record points?
Post by: tinman13 on January 25, 2011, 01:14:11 AM

Hopefully this won't be too stupid of a question...
I would like to be able to jog my machine to a position on the table and record that as a point, to be imported into a cad program.
I have been playing with the digitizing wizards but they all seem to be for Z axis probing. If I could have a key command to record the x and y position in a text file that would be perfect!

Thanks for any ideas.   Steve

Title: Re: how to record points?
Post by: Hood on January 25, 2011, 03:02:57 AM

There is the JCode plugin on the plugins download page which although not exactly what you are looking for may be of interest. It is used by jogging  and it records the point and then writes a G Code file of the moves you have done.

Hood

Title: Re: how to record points?
Post by: RICH on January 25, 2011, 06:28:59 AM

Steve,
CopyCat saves designated points to a file but may be more than what you want. For a single move just may be easier to reference the axis and then move to
some point and manualy make note of distance.
FWIW
RICH

Title: Re: how to record points?
Post by: RICH on January 25, 2011, 06:37:05 AM

Here is another one.
I use Snagit and you can capture text with it. Thus you can capture the test which is in the DRO's and save as a text file.
RICH

Title: Re: how to record points?
Post by: tinman13 on January 25, 2011, 11:22:02 AM

Thanks for the replies, I will check out the JCode plug in. I am hoping to be able to jog a webcam around a part and record the points in a cad program, then stitch the points together to create a dxf drawing for plasma or flame cutting. I don't need perfect accuracy, actually on most parts within .1000 is fine.

Thanks again, Steve

Title: Re: how to record points?
Post by: RICH on January 25, 2011, 11:44:09 AM

Have a look at Copycat as it will generate the code. There is a manual for it in Members Docs.
You could just backplot the gcode file and have a dxf file  for you use.
RICH

Title: Re: how to record points?
Post by: tinman13 on January 26, 2011, 11:38:44 AM

I did a job using JCode last night and it seems to be almost perfect for what I needed!

Thanks for the info. :)

Steve

Title: Re: how to record points?
Post by: Hood on January 26, 2011, 12:16:51 PM

Good news :)
Hood