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LazyCam (Beta) / LazyCam Pro 2.47 Errors
« on: October 16, 2007, 05:42:59 AM »
Using the latest version of LazyCam (2.47) I have discovered the following error conditions. Since I was unable to find a
list of known bugs, I will post all of the errors that I noticed within the last day or so while trying to generate pocketing
paths.
1. If the outermost feature has an entity in the lower left corner aligned with the origin, it isn't possible the place an entry
point at that spot. The workaround is to temporarily move all of the graphics such that the origin stands alone, and place
the entry point (arrow head). Resetting the origin after this aligns the graphics with the origin again.
2. When moving a chain to a new layer, the default layer name is one higher than it should be. e.g. If the highest existing
layer number is N, the default layer name is always N+2 instead of N+1. Thus, using the default layer names results in Layer
1 being labeled "Layer 2", Layer 2 being labeled "Layer 3", etc.
3. The "optimise" function always horribly complicates my tool paths with a huge number of diagonal rapid moves. It is not
obvious to me what this function is supposed to be optimizing. Repeated applications of "optimise" alters the rapids but it
does not significantly improve the huge number of (unnecessary) rapids. The cause of so many rapids is that the entity paths
are not aligned in the same direction, causing the number of chains to approximately match the number of entities.
4. I have some intricate tool paths that LazyCam simply can't handle in any sensible way. As an example, a design that should
have only four contour paths (i.e. 4 chains) turns out to have over 250 chains. It has been impossible to completely fix this by
altering the tolerance before reading the DXF file or even by manually altering the ordering and direction of each chain. Chains
oftentimes have segments that are in conflicting directions. This causes a huge number of unnecessary rapids. Applying any
pocketing with islands to this pattern produces junk tool paths.
5. I have seen where four symmetrically placed milled holes (one per quadrant) produces valid pocketing paths for the two
holes on the right (quadrants 1 and 4) and nonsense for the holes on the left (quadrants 2 and 3).
JPEG images showing the most severe of these problems:
SevenLayers.jpg All 7 layers shown with rapids turned off (they would otherwise obscure the contours). Note
that the 5 innermost contours work fine, with one chain per contour and when pocketing with
islands. Only the second from outermost contour has problems.
Layer01Rapids.jpg Only the outermost 2 contours are shown and the rapids are shown.
Layer01Clean.jpg Only the outermost 2 contours are shown and a single "Clean" operation has been performed.
LazyCam can not handle this correctly since it can never reduce the number of extraneous rapids
below what you see. Repeated applications of "Clean" only makes it worse than this. Attempting
to perform pocketing with islands between the 2 contours produces junk. Likewise, attempting to
pocket the innermost contour produces junk tool paths.
Layer01Optimize.jpg Only the outermost 2 contours are shown and a single "Clean" operation followed by an "optimise"
have been performed. Note the strong diagonalization of the extraneous rapids. Adjacent entities
are not being chained together.
I tried attaching the named files but I get a Can't Find File / Invalid Path error message. Apparently the
attachment Browse function doesn't provide sufficient path information to include the attachments.
How do I get past this?
list of known bugs, I will post all of the errors that I noticed within the last day or so while trying to generate pocketing
paths.
1. If the outermost feature has an entity in the lower left corner aligned with the origin, it isn't possible the place an entry
point at that spot. The workaround is to temporarily move all of the graphics such that the origin stands alone, and place
the entry point (arrow head). Resetting the origin after this aligns the graphics with the origin again.
2. When moving a chain to a new layer, the default layer name is one higher than it should be. e.g. If the highest existing
layer number is N, the default layer name is always N+2 instead of N+1. Thus, using the default layer names results in Layer
1 being labeled "Layer 2", Layer 2 being labeled "Layer 3", etc.
3. The "optimise" function always horribly complicates my tool paths with a huge number of diagonal rapid moves. It is not
obvious to me what this function is supposed to be optimizing. Repeated applications of "optimise" alters the rapids but it
does not significantly improve the huge number of (unnecessary) rapids. The cause of so many rapids is that the entity paths
are not aligned in the same direction, causing the number of chains to approximately match the number of entities.
4. I have some intricate tool paths that LazyCam simply can't handle in any sensible way. As an example, a design that should
have only four contour paths (i.e. 4 chains) turns out to have over 250 chains. It has been impossible to completely fix this by
altering the tolerance before reading the DXF file or even by manually altering the ordering and direction of each chain. Chains
oftentimes have segments that are in conflicting directions. This causes a huge number of unnecessary rapids. Applying any
pocketing with islands to this pattern produces junk tool paths.
5. I have seen where four symmetrically placed milled holes (one per quadrant) produces valid pocketing paths for the two
holes on the right (quadrants 1 and 4) and nonsense for the holes on the left (quadrants 2 and 3).
JPEG images showing the most severe of these problems:
SevenLayers.jpg All 7 layers shown with rapids turned off (they would otherwise obscure the contours). Note
that the 5 innermost contours work fine, with one chain per contour and when pocketing with
islands. Only the second from outermost contour has problems.
Layer01Rapids.jpg Only the outermost 2 contours are shown and the rapids are shown.
Layer01Clean.jpg Only the outermost 2 contours are shown and a single "Clean" operation has been performed.
LazyCam can not handle this correctly since it can never reduce the number of extraneous rapids
below what you see. Repeated applications of "Clean" only makes it worse than this. Attempting
to perform pocketing with islands between the 2 contours produces junk. Likewise, attempting to
pocket the innermost contour produces junk tool paths.
Layer01Optimize.jpg Only the outermost 2 contours are shown and a single "Clean" operation followed by an "optimise"
have been performed. Note the strong diagonalization of the extraneous rapids. Adjacent entities
are not being chained together.
I tried attaching the named files but I get a Can't Find File / Invalid Path error message. Apparently the
attachment Browse function doesn't provide sufficient path information to include the attachments.
How do I get past this?