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General Mach Discussion / Want to run multiple toolpaths in succession

« on: August 30, 2008, 07:28:27 PM »

I own an engraving business where we make signs for the country/gift shop industry.  We run multiple phrases on 1x4 boards.  We use Mach3 to run our EZ-Router, and I generate my toolpaths from VCarve.  So if I want to engrave the phrase, "Welcome to the Cabin" on a 3 ft 1x4, I choose that toolpath, put the board in, hit start, and it engraves it in about 3 minutes.  Then I have to go change the board and pick the next phrase.  That leaves me with having to change the board every 3-5 minutes, which gets old.  Since we run a very large volume of these signs, and we have a LOT of different phrases, I would like to have some sort of an add-on for my Mach3 controller.  What I would like to be able to do is load the machine with 3 1x4s (we only use 1x4s), pick the three toolpaths (phrases) I want on each board, hit start, and walk away and do other shop stuff for 15 minutes. 

So say a customer wants a 3 ft "Welcome to the Cabin", a 3 ft "Welcome to the Lake" and a 3 ft "Life's Better at the Beach".  So I want to be able to load the three boards on the table, pick the three different toolpaths out, hit start, and the machine will engrave each of the phrases on each of the boards.  Does anyone know of a program add on I can get for that?  Can anyone program something like that for me?

Bill
www.engraversoflight.com