Messages

3821

General Mach Discussion / Re: Cutting inside or outside the line??

« on: January 26, 2011, 05:50:57 AM »

I'm beginning to think I need to purchase a g-code generating software as I'm just not having any luck figuring out the old version of Lazy cam.

Never used the old version of LC so don't know how that behaves, what works and what does not. Cutter compensation was upgraded in Mach to follow programing per Peter Smid's  explainations in his book and i would suggest to anyone interested in learning to do Gcode they buy the book.

You can learn a lot by looking at the code generated from a program and quickly do a comparison ie. cutting along the line, to the left or right, maybe more importantly
how to apply more complex things like different lead ins / outs and the rules  associated with them and the G41 & G42 commands. As soon as the profile gets more complex a program is worth it's weight in time saved.

You may want to try using the wizards to generate the code for your square....... and look at the code differences.  
Graham posted an excellant example of using compensation ....do a search.

Some suggestions to consider,
RICH

3822

General Mach Discussion / Re: 4th axis - GCode degrees vs distance

« on: January 25, 2011, 05:24:08 PM »

From the code i have seem it generates it breaks the arc into line segments as you so state.
For some things that may be fine, but maybe not for some forms of engraving. When you manually engrave something around a cylinder and are chasing
your cutting small straight lines , just a matter of how small they are. Not true if your hand engraving and using an engraving ball.
Must admit that i have not used Wrapper to any great extent so can't really find fault with it nor tried enough parameters to judge results against non linear moves.

My hand engraving days are long gone and only have fond memories when Remington Arms was developing their machine to try to duplicate hand engraving.
I was more interested in learning and watching the pro's work away in the custom shop.

RICH

3823

LazyTurn / Re: Toolpath between Z limits

« on: January 25, 2011, 05:02:22 PM »

LT imports the file fine here also. I like to have at look at the posted files for other reasons.
RICH

3824

General Mach Discussion / Re: 4th axis - GCode degrees vs distance

« on: January 25, 2011, 12:04:54 PM »

Vogavt,

Example One:

Spend $20 and buy a program called Wrapper as it will do all the converting for you and save you from mistakes.

Example Two:

Yes, the rotary is set up as Angular, then the code is sort of like:

G*********  ( DRILL HOLE  / CANNNED CYCLE)
G0 A90 ( ROTATES THE A AXIS 90 DEGREES )
Repeat above if in Incremental mode



Have a look in the Tool Box as there is a canned drill cycle for the lathe which can generate all the code.
There is a read me file in the file explaining how to install and use.

Example Three:

In another thread there was a suggestion, but, I would recommend going back to using the lathe with a conventional motor
using an index. See Threading on the Lathe in Members Docs.

You need a seperate profiles for rotary  when using it as Rotary  or linear or for that matter slaving it.

RICH

3825

General Mach Discussion / Re: how to record points?

« 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

3826

General Mach Discussion / Re: how to record points?

« 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

3827

General Mach Discussion / Re: how to record points?

« 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

3828

LazyTurn / Re: Toolpath between Z limits

« on: January 25, 2011, 05:59:13 AM »

Dan,
DXF versions other than 12 have worked but D2nc (which i know nothning about ) must be doing something when saving the file.

RICH

3829

LazyCam (Beta) / MOVED: Toolpath between Z limits

« on: January 24, 2011, 07:19:04 PM »

This topic has been moved to LazyTurn.

http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php?topic=17261.0

3830

LazyTurn / Re: Toolpath between Z limits

« on: January 24, 2011, 07:11:52 PM »

Dan,
You can't select a part of the profile to machine. You can however provide a drawing of  the section and do it that way.
Yes the high end CAM programs do what you are asking.

I didn't didn't try a Z offset, as you have, but it will do a rough cut as shown in the attached pic.

What program did you create the DXF with?
I had problems with it in 3 versions of Autocad, opened in Microstation but was labeled as a 3D drawing, had to convert........etc.
Was it saved as version 12 dxf?

RICH