Messages

1881

G-Code, CAD, and CAM discussions / Re: cad/cam choices when Gcode is all that's desired

« on: June 16, 2015, 05:25:29 PM »

Photo V-Carve is very limited, as it mainly only does one thing. Carving photos using a V Carve technique. It also can do Lithophanes.

While ArtCAM Express can do a LOT more than Photo V-Carve, I do not believe that it can do photos like Photo V-Carve can.

1882

General Mach Discussion / Re: G0 Feedrate is not on maximum

« on: June 16, 2015, 03:34:32 PM »

Is your rapid override set lower than 100%?

1883

General Mach Discussion / Re: Autocad 2000 and DXF export

« on: June 16, 2015, 09:17:56 AM »

Always save as v12 .dxf from AutoCAD. If you're not getting anything, then you're doing something wrong. Make sure you're saving from modelspace, and that you don't have any blocks.
If you're trying to export text,, it won't work unless you explode it, which requires the Express Tools add on.

1884

Finished Screens / Re: Mach3 2010 Screenset - Now available

« on: June 15, 2015, 05:37:07 PM »

Actually, I think there are some bugs in the offsets. I've only had one other person notice it in 4 years.
Send me an email, and I'll send you some updated macro's.


To use the ATC, just use your ATC M6Start macro instead of the 2010 M6 Start macro, and it should work fine.

Since you don't need the Initial Auto Zero macro, you can just create your own M881 macro and use it for tool setting. Since the button calls the M881 macro, you don't need to change anything in the screen at all.

1885

General Mach Discussion / Re: Path Generation not working

« on: June 14, 2015, 06:12:33 PM »

Make a backup copy of your working .xml file, and next time you see anything strange, overwrite the .xml with the known good backup.
Mach3 .xml files are known to become corrupt every know and then.

1886

FAQs / Re: Stopping and re-starting a g-code in mach3

« on: June 14, 2015, 06:11:18 PM »

Do not press Stop to stop the machine. It will lose position.

To stop without losing position, you need to use Feedhold, then wait until the machine stops, then hit stop.

Also, turning off a stepper powered machine and then turning it back on will usually result in a loss of position of a few microsteps. This may be close enough, though.

If you don't have home switches, and a repeatable home position, then the best thing might be just to use feedhold, and turn off the spindle. Then turn the spindle back on and use Cycle Start the next day to resume. But you'd need to leave everything powered up.

If you have home switches, then you can stop the machine (feedhold first) and then turn it off. Make sure you write down the XYZ offsets to make sure they are the same the next day.
The next day, you turn on the machine, home it, make sure the offsets are correct, and use run from here to resume.

1887

VB and the development of wizards / Re: Saving & Recalling Specific DROs to file

« on: June 12, 2015, 08:13:08 AM »

If you create user DRO's in the screen, they'll already be saved when you close and restart Mach3.

1888

Finished Screens / Re: Mach3 2010 Screenset - Now available

« on: June 12, 2015, 08:12:05 AM »

Are you using a parallel port, or motion controller?
What version of Mach3?

Several people have recently had issues with 3.043.066.

1889

Finished Screens / Re: Mach3 2010 Screenset - Now available

« on: June 11, 2015, 10:36:35 PM »

My guess would be noise triggering the probe input before the second probe. Watch the tool tip very carefully and make sure it's actually touching the plate twice.

1890

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach4 seems to lose connection to darwin

« on: June 11, 2015, 08:43:56 AM »

http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,27194.0.html