Messages

1

VB and the development of wizards / Re: VB / LUA evaluation- no license key

« on: April 06, 2018, 10:03:16 AM »

Pretty sure I am in correct directory - get syntax errors with syntax errors infile and none when I remove them.

I parked this problem for a bit - glad to hear the feedback  on LUA and MACH4, might move towards there.

2

VB and the development of wizards / Re: VB / LUA evaluation- no license key

« on: April 05, 2018, 06:43:00 PM »

Thanks for the confirmation..

I found my macro files had a mix of UNIX and windows line endings.. I have been editing a few for a while I note the error is not explicit every time it happened- need to back track and fix my line endings.

Settings has Tool change pos of 0,0,0  which I cant appear to edit..

In General Config 'Tool Change' is 'Stop Spindle wait for cycle start'

I was trying to see if some popup would appear as part of the MACRO M6Start.m1s. However nothing appears. And program continues when I press cycle start.



tool = GetSelectedTool()
Dim UsersName As String
UsersName = AskTextQuestion(“Please enter your name:”)
Message Please change tool now, “ & UsersName & “!”
MsgBox “Current tool at start of change is “    & GetSelectedTool()
SetCurrentTool( tool )

3

VB and the development of wizards / VB / LUA evaluation- no license key

« on: April 05, 2018, 07:44:11 AM »

I want to develop some customization for my router setup. So that means MACH4 with LUA or MACH3 with VB. I am unsure which and wanted to try both before comitting.

Is there a list of restrictions - I know some - 500 line limit, no THC in plasma.

Will MACH3 allow me to run VB macros without a license ?

 I tried some M6 tool changes and the pop up AskTextQuestion or msgBox to M6Start.m1s  I added do not appear to pop up .. but MACH did stop and Cycle Start button continued the program. 

I also noticed I could not add the tool change position to the GUI . 
 
I did get notified of some errors too, which I corrected - but still no execution of the VB lines.

4

Newfangled Solutions Mach3 Wizards / Re: tiling - X only very long piece

« on: March 13, 2018, 12:20:45 PM »

Yes - a cut operation across a boundary is something we will be trying to avoid in the tool path selection.
While I aim for 1M feed every time, the nature of one long cut might mean , that i Feed 500mm.  This sort of custom feeding, I am still  considering I should switch to MACH4.   

I also will have a  blank space  on workpiece  - so first cut is 10mm, next one might be 1750mm   , so instead of regular 1000mm tiles, it could be move to something else, in order to be faster.

I see an investment in the CAM toolpath routing, its containment to 1000mm sections and nesting into suitable sublengths. I see reasonable support in Fusion for this, but I have to consider other packages too.   Perhaps this is where good experience of post processor will come in.

Thanks for bearing with me, this is relatively new to me, but hope to be putting this into practice in next month.

5

Newfangled Solutions Mach3 Wizards / Re: tiling - X only very long piece

« on: March 13, 2018, 08:54:09 AM »

TPS WROTE:

>> if the value of your measuring wheel is in Mach3, it should be no bigger Problem to
>> "modify" x-axis value after a ref according to this value.

Thanks you picked up great on what I am trying to do.. and I think you lead me the correct way to do it.

I would really like to get to one file 0_3000mm, and it now sounds like I can use my  measured DRO value to be the real X position.

So at the moment I am trying to figure out if one file for 0_3000mm or  3 files of {0_1000mm,1000_2000mm,2000_3000mm} is better.   

I would prefer to use one large file to cover the complete 3M piece and add it to it suitabe post processing that will trigger the correct mach and user behaviour needed for every 1M tile.

and have a prompt (that I have to do) for MACH to indicate that  "current  '1000mm tile' is finished - please move piece 1000mm in X direction" .Then the user moves the feed 1000mm (or 990 or 1010... approx   ).  The measure wheel updates the DRO and now the measured DRO value is used to indicate where X has now moved and user clicks continue.   

I actually lack a ESS at the moment,  parts due to arrive soon, so


joeaverage WROTE:

>>  transitioned to Mach4 about 18 months ago

An experienced ESS user (not here) recommended I stay with MACH3 - perhaps he is limiting his vuew.  I have a lot more customization to do - so maybe better flexibility with MACH4.

6

Newfangled Solutions Mach3 Wizards / Re: tiling - X only very long piece

« on: March 13, 2018, 06:02:58 AM »

Thhanks for bearing with my questions.

I have figured out a measuring method for my 6M work pieces with a friction wheel and angular encoder.(accuracy aside for the moment).  The quadrature encoding can be connected to WARP9 and should then appear in the Settings Panel in MACH3..

My next questions and steps are  

i) to add this value to main screen for easy monitoring
ii) with respect to the 'To DRO' / 'Load DRO' buttons in that panel.. Does this copy the encoder value to the X position .
iiii) I can write a MACRO to update my CNC file based on this encoder position, perhaps a G54.1  code to to update location based on the error between desired and actual

Then back in CAM I can produce a toolpath in large 1M tiles , update it with suitable macros in preprocessror and send to machine.



 

7

Newfangled Solutions Mach3 Wizards / Re: tiling - X only very long piece

« on: March 09, 2018, 08:31:10 PM »

The use of work offsets will be useful.  I also see there are other ways to accomplish this and I am just working through all the bad ones now!

Thanks for detailed description of the MACH domain, that tallies with my understanding, but it took some reading to realize why this is so, machine stability and knowing its HOME is critical, it would not be good to be typing that in manually as I suggest.  My method of recording the feed length could be better - some connection to  read the value direct from lenght encoder  and feed that to the a MACRO which would  modify the value of work offset after I move my work piece and need to adjust the relative offset slightly .


In my post processor I will continue with producing files per 1000mm movement section.   

8

Newfangled Solutions Mach3 Wizards / Re: tiling - X only very long piece

« on: March 09, 2018, 06:01:27 PM »

Thanks for responding - yes sort I want to mark 'soft' home positions at different spaces along a very large piece .

My  pieces are long 6mtrs and I move them through the CNC frame along the X axis and clamp them exactly before continuing with the next gcode file.   It works well but we do a lot of a manual marking and measurements.. I would rather that our post processor and MACH3 know we have a virtual area of   (X * Y ) 6000  x1200 ..  When we move the workpiece linearly  1000 mm, we would confirm measurement (manually, laser, etc., - maybe its 1005 mm)   and then enter the new offset  1005mm .. MACH3 would then work on the rest of the file from there and update all its X measurements based on the entered offset.. 

Then MACH3 would display the new offset and move the tool relative from there. 

My post processor needs some work to generate toolpaths in 1000mm sections all in one file., instead of the current method of 6 files of 1000mm


The actual accuracy of my measurement between linear X  moves is OK and enough for what I need.

9

Newfangled Solutions Mach3 Wizards / tiling - X only very long piece

« on: March 09, 2018, 12:40:17 PM »

I believe tiling is not supported in MACH.

I have thought about a workaround, but dont know if the basis of the idea is possible.

Is it possible to tell MACH that its at a particular very long measurement greater than its machine table. MACH would then work there in a relative manner.

Is there any way for the user to input a measurement which will tell MACH3 that when I do ref all home  its actually at 2400 mm and next time its ref all home its 4800 mm.