Messages

301

General Mach Discussion / Re: Question for Dolphin CAD/CAM users

« on: March 26, 2013, 11:18:36 AM »

Just to set the record straight in case somebody else finds this thread later, the problem was actually cured by ticking the "Import Available Geometry" box during the file import process in DCAM.  Duhhh.

I'm still getting these 2 errors during the import process but after clicking the OK button on each a couple times the file opens and looks great.  Robert is (at least partially) my father's brother.

302

General Mach Discussion / Re: Question for Dolphin CAD/CAM users

« on: March 25, 2013, 03:22:17 PM »

OK, had a thrash with it during lunch at work and I seem to have gotten over that little hump.  I'm not certain but it looks like the hangup was the fact that I hadn't drawn a closed object or that there was something wrong with the quarter elliptical curve I had drawn.  Anyhoo, my new .dxf test files now go straight into DCAM and display correctly...as long as I remember to open DCAD & leave it running in the background first.

Now onwards to defining tools and climbing the other little humps needed before getting into the more mountainous terrain of Mach3 post processing.

303

General Mach Discussion / Re: Question for Dolphin CAD/CAM users

« on: March 24, 2013, 02:44:39 PM »

OK thanks, will do later.  Gotta cut some metal and then go for my old folks' walk with SWMBO.

304

General Mach Discussion / Re: Question for Dolphin CAD/CAM users

« on: March 24, 2013, 02:18:20 PM »

Thanks hood, it's definitely a simple drawing and that's exactly how I'm doing it but there's some little kink I'm missing somewhere.  I'll find it when I get some more time.

305

General Mach Discussion / Re: Question for Dolphin CAD/CAM users

« on: March 24, 2013, 01:55:05 PM »

Thanks Alex, That helped but now I'm getting the "Class not registered" & other errors that turn up ad nauseum in web searches.  I'm sure there's some some basic thing I'm not getting my head around; I never have been good at learning new software.  I'll get it working eventually.

I've wasted far too much of my day off putzing around and am heading out to the shop to make some chips. 

306

General Mach Discussion / Question for Dolphin CAD/CAM users

« on: March 24, 2013, 11:03:03 AM »

Just got Partmaster v10 lathe (Thanks Hood!) and for the life of me can't get my TurboCAD .dxf's to load into DCAM consistently.  It worked a time or 2 but now I get a page with tiny little gibberish at what looks like random spots.  If I zoom in on one I get a part of the drawing with "Light_6" and "Light_4" next to it.  That sounds like 3D stuff but it was drawn in 2D.  I've tried all 3 available .dxf file save options (R2000, R14 & R12) in TCAD with same results.  Sound familiar to anyone?

307

General Mach Discussion / Re: Panasonic servo drive help

« on: March 19, 2013, 08:40:50 PM »

overall shot of the whole project & messy basement.

No fair covering up the stuff you don't want the world to see before taking pics!

I really like the old (Magnavox?) TV console you have your electronic stuff in.  They don't make 'em like that anymore.  Reminds me of the one I had back in the 70's.  When the TV got too expensive to fix, I gutted it and put an aquarium in it's place with a back light.  Better'n watching nothing at all!

308

Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines) / Re: Aussie AL54B lathe

« on: March 18, 2013, 04:33:12 PM »

Nice lathe Joe!  You're gonna love it when you get all the bugs worked out.  Hopefully you'll have better luck than me.  Seems like the list of things to do on mine gets longer instead of shorter.  The more things I learn and get working, the more I need to do!

You probably already know this but it'll be a lot more rigid with that compound removed.  Just make a solid steel block of the proper height to mount a QCTP directly onto the carriage.  We don't need no compounds anymore.

309

General Mach Discussion / Re: Panasonic servo drive help

« on: March 17, 2013, 09:16:53 AM »

You seem to be very knowledgeable & willing to help a newbie like me, a wealth of information for someone hoping to learn this stuff.

You ain't seen nuthin yet!.

The .xml file is in the Mach3 folder in your c: drive.  Look for the one you named when you set up Mach.

310

General Mach Discussion / Re: How to do a conditional pause in a Mach tool change

« on: March 16, 2013, 07:06:35 AM »

Great thinking Paul!  Please post your code when you get it working as I need to do something similar pretty soon.  Programming gives me the willies.