Messages

1

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 scaling and keyboard button mapping

« on: March 30, 2020, 05:40:29 PM »

Chuck I sent you what I had in a message from the link on your info avatar so if you don't get an email from me please let me know.

2

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 scaling and keyboard button mapping

« on: March 30, 2020, 11:39:12 AM »

Chuck--I should be able to help you out with that. When I get some time I will fire it up and see what I have and send it to you.

3

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 scaling and keyboard button mapping

« on: March 29, 2020, 10:59:49 PM »

Adding the dro for percentage scaling can be done like they had in Mach3. I used it quite a bit on stuff like 2d carvings and text. It has been quite a while since I added it to my mach4 and I only really run my mill in the winter time unless I have to make something or fix something in the summer. Every winter if I want to add or change something I come across I usually have to do two days of research to remember how to make the modifications and programming.

4

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Question on 4 Axis Toolpath?

« on: January 27, 2020, 12:43:42 PM »

If anyone is able to get a rotary toolpath to show up orientated along the y axis, it would be appreciated if you share it here......thanks

5

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Question on 4 Axis Toolpath?

« on: January 15, 2020, 12:28:59 PM »

The script that Dazed+Confuse shared in this thread back in 2018 works for objects orientated on the X axis, does anyone know how to get it to orientate and work on the Y axis?

6

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Question on 4 Axis Toolpath?

« on: January 14, 2020, 01:20:36 PM »

Thanks Mauri for the clarification on that. That was one of the things I figured out last night after I realized I could get the chess pieces to show up correctly in the X axis. I also noted that DRO value that you enter corrects for the z position. What I was attempting to accomplish last night was to be able to swap the rotation to the Y axis, which I thought I could accomplish by changing the zero to a one in the script for the "A rotation" button down script and it would orientate the piece on the screen correctly but the when you enter a value for the dro it moves the z axis but does not regenerate the toolpath like it does when it is set for the X axis.

April of 2018 Dazed+Confused listed the script that was need to correct for the z axis so the radius could be adjusted or corrected to show the toolpath. He wrote "mc.mcToolPathSetAAxisPosition(inst, 0.000, 0.000, getValAsNumber);" for the "dro Radius" which would be the x, y value to be 0 and the z is whatever you input in to the dro. That is what I believe makes the correction so that whatever the work piece Z zero position is, it can be corrected for the toolpath generating. When I wrote that line of the script for the DRO as you stated " mc.mcToolPathSetAAxisPosition(inst, 0.000, 0.000, 0.000);" and tested it I found as you stated the g-code has to have the top of the work piece as zero.
I am going to attempt to work on getting it to swap to the Y axis again tonight and be able to have it correct it with the dro radius  value but if you have any ideas I would appreciate it. Using the code Dazed+Confused published back in 2018 works for the X axis as stated but simply changing the axis value in the line “mc.mcToolPathSetARotationAxis(inst, 0)” from 0 to 1 doesn't seem to work as itended.

7

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Question on 4 Axis Toolpath?

« on: January 14, 2020, 01:42:00 AM »

I figured out most of the issues I am having. The script as Mauri wrote it is for a machine with the rotation along the x axis. Once I realized that I could get the tool path to display correctly as long as I set the DRO value correctly. However if I change the 0 value to 1 for the button down function in the " mc.mcToolPathSetARotationAxis(inst, 0)" It will and does give me the picture I posted above and changing the DRO value does not correct it. I took the same gcode for the piece above and changed all the Y coordinates to X and it did display correctly. I also changed the setting for the rotation in the toolpaths tab as well to say "Rotation along Y axis." So it appears the orientation is correct but the value I am entering in to the dro is not correcting it like it does when I use it in the X axis.....Any suggestions on that?...Thanks

8

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Question on 4 Axis Toolpath?

« on: January 13, 2020, 09:03:09 PM »

I have attached a picture of what I get when I select "Rotate around Y axis" and "A Rollover" is checked. I am running mach4 version: 4.2.0.4300. The object should be a chess rook and as you can see it appears to be two of them side by side with the area between them filled in with the tool path. I also get the same type of picture with the chess pawn I tested out. I believe I have only twice been able to get it to generate correctly or as one would hope to see the toolpath generate, once with the pawn and once with the rook but only once each and only after a lot of just making changes and regenerating the tool path. However, when I started over and went through the exact same steps, to the best of my knowledge, the closest I can get back to what one would want to see for a tool path is what you see in the picture. When I first purchased mach 4, I inserted the code and added the dro suggested earlier in this post thread as can be seen below the axis dros', in the attached picture, which worked at one point but it does not work now on this newer version of mach 4. Anyway if anyone has any solutions from what you see here I would appreciate your suggestions. Also, I home and zero all of the axis first on startup, go to the tooth path tab under the configure menu and set the A rotation around Y as it seems to always default to "no rotation"

9

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Question on 4 Axis Toolpath?

« on: January 12, 2020, 06:54:04 PM »

I had posted some time ago about this problem and I was using the example of a chess pawn. I continue to have the problem and very sporadically I can get the object I am working with to come up in the tool path window as desire but is very seldom and I have not been able to repeat it. What I get is a tool path with everything stacked up in a line with not evidence of any y movement, so it basically looks like a disk. The other view I can create is kind of like a single half outline of the object in the y axis. The very few times I have been able to get the a axis to show up correctly I record all current configuration settings and steps on what I did but am not able to recreate after I restart mach4. I came across the making sure all axis are zeroed before starting but there must be other things that are also causing issues, so at this point I can't say for 100% that the zeroing axis is even an issue even tho I always start that way.

10

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Zeroing and extents

« on: January 10, 2020, 08:57:25 PM »

Thanks SwiftyJ....I added that to the button click script for the "Display Work Envelope" button and now it changes states and will turn the soft limits extents box on and off....thanks for the help