Messages

1

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: Weird problem if I regen the toolpath

« on: March 14, 2010, 11:17:51 PM »

Now it gets even stranger, I've determined that I can regen to my hearts content and I can still see the entire toolpath IF I do not hit the Reset button to turn on the motors to jog the table.  After I hit Reset to jog the table to the material zero point then regen I get only a partial toolpath.  I get that even if I don't jog the table but just hit the Reset button.  Even weirder still is if I start up Mach3 and press Reset before loading the code and regen after loading the code but before moving the table or hitting Reset again I get the abridged toolpath.   

WTF 

Other than turn off the motors does the Reset toggle anything else??  It sure looks like it is flipping a setting somewhere which never gets reset until I exit and restart Mach3.



Bill

2

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: Weird problem if I regen the toolpath

« on: March 14, 2010, 03:13:53 PM »

Not a demo, version 2.63.

The bit about the blue and red lines helps, at least I wont be worrying about that.

I tried and older version,  version 1.83.027, which appeared to load and display the toolpath porperly but I could get it configured properly, it kept indicating an error and would enable the motors, but toolpath regen seemed to work.  I figure it's either a bug in the newer old version or a config parameter I'm not setting properly.

Any ideas?

This is for a hobby mill I built which if I don't get running right in a few hours will have to be put aside so we can manually start cutting the derby cars, not a prospect I'm looking forward to. 

Bill

3

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Weird problem if I regen the toolpath

« on: March 14, 2010, 01:12:17 AM »

Newbie alert!!!!

I'm using Solidworks to make the model, Gibbscam to generate the gcode and Mach3 to run the mill.

When I generate gcode for a surface cut and export it to Mach3 as a Fanuk OKK mill through PostHASTE and load it into Mach3 I can see the entire toolpath but if I regen the toolpath I only see the small portion of the top layers and a toolpath going out into nowhere.  Since I'm kinda new at this I figured I try the code anyway, maybe I was missing something in the way Mach3 displays the toolpath I thought to myself, but alas after trundling along for a bit the mill stops.  I think it is stopping on a soft limit.  

Now here comes the weird part, if I have everything set up in advance, meaning I have the mill zeroed at the origin before I load the code, I can see the entire toolpath and cut it, at least it seems to be cutting I can't be sure it's going to cut the entire thing since it won't be done for a bit yet.  

One more thing, if I regen the toolpath and then close the code and reopen it I get the abridged version and I can only get it back if I exit the program and then start it again.  Like I said weird....

Any ideas what I should be looking for.


Bill

P.S.  Looks like I spoke too soon, it got a bit further and I  can still see the entire toolpath but it stopped and seems to finished.

One thing I noticed is that the toolpath is in red and blue, being a newbie I thought this might be normal but does that mean Mach3 thinks there is a problem with the toolpath and wont run it???


Sorry if this is a bit rambling, I'm trying to get this working and it's almost 1:30 in the morning, I really need some sleep