Messages

721

Newfangled Solutions Mach3 Wizards / Re: Final touches

« on: May 14, 2008, 10:28:14 PM »

I thin it always assumes we are above the work, looking down.

722

Newfangled Solutions Mach3 Wizards / Re: Final touches

« on: May 09, 2008, 08:44:24 PM »

Such a wizard is possible, but in my view wizards are for standard, common jobs. If you try to do one for every shape it soon gets overwhelming. Try adding the shape to the shapes.tap file, that shouldnt be to hard to do. Or send me the specs for one common shape, Ill do the gcode and write it up here to show how its added to the shapes file

723

VB and the development of wizards / Re: Writing coordinates to a file

« on: May 09, 2008, 08:38:38 PM »

Any macro can be a VB function and it should run fine. It should not require a Cycle Start unless something in the macro causes a stop.

It is fine to run gcode form VB scripts, many wizards do that.

What is not allowed is for a VB macro to call another VB macro. I think that causes strange hang conditions.

724

VB and the development of wizards / Re: Probe macro

« on: May 09, 2008, 08:34:35 PM »

why not use the built in probe function, G31. Thats what it for.

Here is a probe in Z macro:

CurrentFeed = GetOemDRO(818) 'Get the current feedrate.
PlateThickness = 0.062 'plate thickness
ProbeFeed = 1.0 'probing feedrate


Code "G90 F" &ProbeFeed

If GetOemLed (825)=0 Then
'Code "G4 P5" Time to get to the z-plate
Code "G31Z-1 F" &ProbeFeed
While IsMoving()
Wend
Code "G4 P0.25"
ZProbePos = GetVar(2002)
Code "G0 Z" &ZProbePos
While IsMoving ()
Wend
Call SetDro (2, PlateThickness)
Code "G4 P0.5" 'Pause for Dro to update.
Code "G0 Z 0.1" 'Change the Z retract height here
Code "(Z axis is now zeroed)"
Code "F" &CurrentFeed
Else
Code "(Plate is grounded, check connection and try again)"
Exit Sub
End If 

725

Newfangled Solutions Mach3 Wizards / Re: V2.78

« on: May 08, 2008, 05:51:54 PM »

Thanks for the note.

I understand tormach supports a version that is somewhat behind the latest Mach. Art added that GetToolDesc so I could list the tool description, but I guess that change did not get to the tormach version. I dont know when/how tormach makes new versions, so I cannot guess when this function will get into their version.

I will remove that call, which makes the tool table a little hard to read since it shows only numbers, but thats the best I can do. I will add a version here later that I will call V2.79T that has that fix.

I thought I had found all the path issues, I will fix that in both the regular version and the T version.

It may take a day or two but I will get those fixes posted.

726

Newfangled Solutions Mach3 Wizards / Re: Multiple Circular Pockets?

« on: May 07, 2008, 07:03:07 PM »

If the depth of each pocket can be cut in one pass then it should work. Just specify each pocket, starting with the top one for the full depth and for a step down of the same size. If each pocket cannot be cut in one pass this wont work.

727

Newfangled Solutions Mach3 Wizards / Re: Final touches

« on: May 07, 2008, 07:00:32 PM »

The problem is I dont think there is a standard for how big the flat is. The way the shapes wizard works requires a piece of gcode for the exact shape, the wizard can scale and rotate it but cannot alter the basic geometry. If you have one standard shape send me the details, Ill see if I can add it to the list.

728

Newfangled Solutions Mach3 Wizards / Re: Multiple Circular Pockets?

« on: May 05, 2008, 08:14:03 PM »

First, it is a feature of all the Newfangled wizards that they let you build a cumulative program. You can run as many sub-wizards as many times as needed and they will all build in one file. When you finally exit from the wizard you will have one big file that does it all. Just remember, each time you run the wizards they build the same filename, so if you create a big file you want to re-use be sure to save it before you run the wizards again.

The multiple pockets will work, but each deeper pocket will assume the top of work is at z zero, so it will do a lot of 'air cutting' as it works its way down. There have been requests for setting the top of work at something other than zero, but Ive been afraid to do it because there are a lot of ways that could generate code that breaks tools and I hate doing that.

Depending on the depth of each pocket you might be able to fake it with setting the depth for each pocket to be made in one cut For something like the turners cube this could work, since each pocket is not deep.

729

Newfangled Solutions Mach3 Wizards / Re: Final touches

« on: May 05, 2008, 08:01:15 PM »

Glad you like the wizards.

The keyway wizard must be the only one without a climb or conventional button. However, in the code there is a note that it does climb milling for the finish pass. Im not sure this works, but Ill have a look at it. Try setting an amount for finish and see if it climbs the finish.

I dont know what you mean about rounding in the rectangle. If you are cutting outside a rectangle the path always makes an arc around the corner, but the rectangle left will have a sharp corner. For inside cuts the tool must leave a round corner.

The electrical shapes wizard uses a file shapes.tap that should be in Mach3/Gcode. If you look at that file you will see it has each of the shapes defined in a standard format. Each shape starts with a (#). If you got the gcode for whatever shape you want and added it to that file with a unique segment number then the wizard will call it up just fine. You wont have an icon on the menu page for your shape, but if you remember its number simply enter that number in the Segment ID box  and it will generate the code.

Ill see about fixing the wizard to read all the ids in the shapes.tap file and displaying a list, then it could be a general purpose shape file

730

VB and the development of wizards / Re: Writing coordinates to a file

« on: May 05, 2008, 07:43:45 PM »

File I/O is pretty basic in VB, to make a bad pun. Something like:

open "filename.txt" For Output as #1
Write #1 "some junk in the file"
Write #1 Xval, Yval
Close #1

There is a complete Basic manual on this site under the documents section.