Steve the routine from the pocketing section is busted.  YOU HAVE to go to the leadin section and reverse the direction of cut for each layer you wish to change.

FORGET the directional question in the pocketing part just selct in/out or outin pick a CW?CCW(won't matter which)and let it create the geometry, then you need to go to leadins FOR THAT LAYER and reverse the direction of cut to suit your needs.

NO other way out that I am aware of at this time. AS the list of quirks is compiled maybe Brian can assign someone that task of fixing the quirks. MAYBE NOT (;-)

(;-) TP

HI ALL,
To change the cut direction in offsets or pockets , well i think both are buggy!
I'm happy you guys are exploring the pocketing some and finding what bugs exist as that really will cut my efort.

For an offset, i can get the direction to change, but.........a newbie may find it very frustrating, sometimes no problem...sometimes three tries.....just buggy! That climb mill "switch " dosn't always work!

In the mean time, attached  is a preview of some additions which will be in REV 1 of the manual.
The bug list in the preview will be cleaned up and indexed to an appropriate page in the manual.

RICH

YOU HAVE to go to the leadin section and reverse the direction of cut for each layer you wish to change.

FORGET the directional question in the pocketing part just selct in/out or outin pick a CW?CCW(won't matter which)and let it create the geometry, then you need to go to leadins FOR THAT LAYER and reverse the direction of cut to suit your needs.

This i have tried many many times. I can reverse the direction of an offset but no matter what i click on or change, I cant pocket in a climb mill direction and once the pocket is created, i cant reverse it using the leadin dialog.

Maybe i should just dump LC, do a reboot and then try re-installing. Mach3 cant open LC from the menu so maybe something is wrong with the install.

I am making progress!!

I did a total dump and reinstall of both mach and LC.

Now i can create and edit leadins for pockets. I created a pocket with in-out and CCW. The leadin was created and climb mill was checked. It cut in-out in CW rotation (conventional) so i went back and unchecked climb mill and it cut out-in and CCW (conventional).

Thinking CCW might be the tool rotation I created the same pocket in-out CW. The leadin was created and climb mill was checked. It cut in-out in CW rotation (conventional) so i went back and unchecked climb mill and it cut out-in and CCW (conventional).

I did nothing with left, right because the manual said they were null. Was that supposed to be right and left handed tool?

I'm getting close!!!  What can i check or uncheck now?

Any "RED" text in the manual just means it needs to checked out, finished or confirmed. There are only a few of them and it's really more of a flag to myself.
I am not sure how the programmer was thinking when he was writting the program. Not knowing that, i have been trying to find the logic. But that takes time.

So in the mean time, if the pathing is the way you want it, and the axis motion is correct in relation to the spindle rotation such that it is climb or convention millng, then just check the code / dry run in Mach to make sure
the code represents what was shown in LC.

There is a difference in sequence of delineating the offset between Pocket and Offset.
I just need to fool with it here and put the correct verbage in the manual.
Unless, somebody beats me to it,  then all i have to do is duplicate what is said.
RICH

Hi All,
Well i am still playing with the pocketing. Here is one that is interesting that you can try.

Just let LC create the pathing for the pocket irrelevant of options just as Terry mentioned.
Now zoom in and look at the direction indicator ......... Move where the rapid is by dragging
it to the right. This will make the pocket go CCW, but, not necessarily how you would think as the pathing
will change ( all CCW ) but not in a cut order you would think for the full pathing. There is more, but that will give you something to play with, and it's quick......

Here is my insane logic insight (  sure / who knows ! ) Just for the Spiral!
When an offset is implemented it looks for the NEXT move to define the direction, otherwise the interpretation is confused on which way to implement the comp. When you change the rapid location it breaks an entity into two parts, and it seems like LC then uses the that to define the next move, so you get CCW.  ( It seems that LC kind of tricks around in the implememtation of compensation ) The pocket pathing is defaulting to CW. You can also just click your way down between the spirals and along the "common" lead in / lead out line. Will play some more and found a few more quirks.

I am half tempted to just say spiral pocketing is busted to some degree, and just say, that your stuck with CW axis movement in the code, and only recommend you change the finish cut for climb milling. If a user needs to
screw around to long trying to make smoething work, well, it is just not worth the punishment.
I may add, HaHa HA, waite till they try some other CAM programs!

RICH

RICH good idea , SOme of the workaround just add to the confusion.  IF they know it is broken they they know to use what is working and let it be.

Most don;t want to be workaround manipulators they JUST want to cut parts.

AND if you display enough of LCAM's "evil" ways MAYBE someone will fix them in self defence. (;-)

There IS a method to the madness, (;-) TP

Terry,
After fooling with it another 4 hours, I totaly agree with your last reply.
( I'll  change the definitons to "blue text" and make reference to a the last tutorial to elaborate )

BTW: It would be interesting to see what the Wizards are providing in terms of generated Gcode.
Frankly, climb milling to clean out the pocket may not be that important at the hobbiest level. Finish cut, yes, but in the pocket, could be debated.

I need to move on, 
RICH