Messages

1121

LazyTurn / Re: LazyTurn

« on: February 07, 2009, 10:15:24 AM »

Hi Guys:

 Lets me explain whats going on with the phot that was shown in that letter above.
The selection for visual diags was checked, and the # of passes was set to seom number less than the passes normally generated by the material swept volume calculator.

  As you can see in the drawing the stock has been chewed down each pass till the maxPassNumber was seen, calc'ing stoipped at that point. The photo, shown again here, shows a few things. The greenline is the amount of offset from the part used in the profile goungin checks, ( just a diagnostic for me.), the black line on top is the actual stock outline at that point, White dots indicate endpoints of the material stock outline to that point. The large red shape, is the swept tool volume of the last pass done. It is the shape of the tool , swept by the amount of that pass , and subtracted from the stock volume, it was successfull on that line as shown by the fact the tool shape is properly subtracted fromthe material.

  When you do a toolpath, if the end material is wrong, you will be able to find a particular pass where the shape of the tool is NOT subtracted properly, this can happen from a wrong insode/outside assumption at some point. If you do get a failed stock, try narrowing in on What pass it failed on. Try 100, if it fails, try 50, if that passes try 75, etc.. eventually youll find a point where the subtraction fails, that image is the interesting one to me.

  In the rough command dialog, the Max Depth number is not one your allowed to change, its simply a limitation, based on the tool, of how deep you can cut. Its read-only. A tool can only be used to cut to its inscribed circle depth, and the end max depth is the inscribed circle, but compensated by diamter or radius mode selection.

  This is actually a very good shot and shows success up to that point, If the user had selected a pass one number higher, then the photo woudl show the next line being subtracted..etc..

 Just thought Id explain the straneg images..

Art

1122

LazyTurn / Re: LazyTurn

« on: February 06, 2009, 01:27:00 PM »

khalid:

 Thx, its a bugger but I am learing quite a bit, so that coupled with the number of people who want easy profiles makes it worth continuing..

Art

1123

LazyTurn / Re: LazyTurn

« on: February 06, 2009, 12:45:04 PM »

Hi Guys:

  I know Ive been quiet, but Ive been working hard on the complex algorithms involved with determining the amount of leftover material after a cut.
After thousands of lines of deleted code, this version is the alpha of the material removal calculator. It doesnt yet take gouging into account for the stock,
but does figure out what youve removed. It was a bitch to get running accurately, Im more bald than when I started..

  There is undoubtedly bugs here, but Ive already caught 99% of them. There is a new diagnostic that you can use to help me track down a calc bug, youll see
it in the PassDepth dialog, if you check the "Intersect Diags" checkbox, youll then be asked how many passes to do, the resultant display will show me ( if you take a snapshot) how
the calc is doing up to a set pass number. See if you can find the pass just before it screws up the solid of the stock and send me the drawing, the tool numbers and the the pass data
so I can recreate it.

  This is a semi-major change from previous versions in how things are done. The tool max depth is the size of your inscribed circle, this may change but it stabilizes the important
operation of the material calculator.

 Anyway, see how you mak out, this is still very early, but I think you'll see why I needed material removed and how it will tie into finish calculations and volume on tip constraints.

 

Thanks,
Good luck,
Art

1124

Mach SDK plugin questions and answers. / Re: Plugin development in VS2005, VS2008

« on: February 05, 2009, 08:12:41 PM »

thx Ed:

 Ill order that book, time I had an upgrade anyway.

Art

1125

Mach SDK plugin questions and answers. / Re: Plugin development in VS2005, VS2008

« on: February 05, 2009, 10:52:01 AM »

Ed:

  Wow. That is easy..

 I gotta admit though, I hate the thought of learnign the new syntax.. Im a dinosaur in many ways.. LOL

 Nice dialog syntax though, looks pretty easy to control..  Very nice work.

Art
 

1126

Mach SDK plugin questions and answers. / Re: Plugin development in VS2005, VS2008

« on: February 05, 2009, 10:22:52 AM »

Ed:

   Thats amazing. Great work. Im not a .net programmer so I probably wont take advantage of that part, but it sounds liek youve nailed down
the pointer issues involved. Way to go!.  Who knows, if plugins are easily attached and a proper skeleton is available, great plugins may result.
There really is an endless supply of idea's out there for plugins, so its an exciting possibility, Ill be watching this one with interest and Ill try it out
on my VS2008 as well.

Art

1127

Competitions / Re: Win a free Mach MAD Plug In

« on: January 29, 2009, 08:23:59 AM »

Hi:

  Scott gets the prize for being the most dedicated of plugin students out there. Its very hard to jump in and write one and he did so with little assistance from anyone, and with not much background in such work. Kudo's to the effort and the plugin that resulted.

Art

1128

LazyTurn / Re: LazyTurn

« on: January 21, 2009, 11:57:24 AM »

Hi Hank:

  Thx for the kudo's. Ive probably spent too much time making small loading changes and tightening things rather than moving forward, seems a very slow development. The trouble is the complexity, I find I have to stop and think, delete tons of code due to stupid assumptions, and then think again.
  There is such a variety of issues that can bite you that its really making me think. To keep such a thing Lazy, to make it easy enough to keep support low is a real challenge. The finish pass is truly a bitch in terms of logic. I think I know how I want to do it, but the intermediate steps are proving to be real difficult. Ive cleaned the current code, reformatted it into classes that each take care of sub items, and now Im ready to proceed I think, but expect it to be a bit slow with some stumbles along the way. While I know that with small passes you probably dont need a finish pass, at least in wood, your right that metal will require a good final pass, perhaps several.
   Its kinda ironic that if LTurn could do a finsih pass it probably now supasses LCam in terms of Turn work, but will take allot more work just to do what seems simple, a final pass. Youll soon see some movement there I hope as I will eventually stumble onto a method that Im happy with to compute the removed material. Ive deleted at least 50 algorithms so far, each one teaching me soemthing about the problem, and I think Im coming to an epithany about how to make it simple yet allow it to do fairly complex turning profiles.. we'll see.

  Glad to see so many having fun with the program as it builds, Im glad I added the post output early, even if its fairly simple in its output. ITs kinda nice to develop this way as the feedback is invaluable in keeping it lean and mean. Kinda like Mach2 in the old days.

Art

1129

LazyTurn / Re: LazyTurn

« on: January 20, 2009, 11:46:15 PM »

Hi:

 The new green line that follows the profile is the offset profile used in calc's. Youll notice if the tip radius is increased, the profiles offset is as well.

The line at the top will be gone next version, it was a calibration line I was using.

Thx
Art

1130

LazyTurn / Re: LazyTurn

« on: January 20, 2009, 06:06:43 PM »

Hi:

  That error is  a MAch3 error. For some reason your havng trouble with macro's at the moment. Is this a recent Mach3 version? If not, upgrade..

Art