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Author Topic: Lazycam Drill Patterns pitches  (Read 5501 times)

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Lazycam Drill Patterns pitches
« on: October 28, 2011, 07:45:01 AM »
Good Morning All,

Im having some difficulty with drill patterns on lazycam

I need to drill a series of holes into a aluminuim table that will be used as a vacuum table

The issue i have is when i export a DXF file from solidworks with hole circles removed and replaced with points, the laycam software reads it fine but the chains it creates are all over the place

I currently have to drag and move chains in order to create drill pattern pitches, currently dummy running this with only 8 holes to get speeds and movement right but the issue i have is that these tables we have are 2440 mm x 1220 mm and will require well over 4000 holes drilled

I was looknig into working out the order of two rows of holes that can be drilled and then create a sub routine to repeat the pattern of holes along the table

But i cant seem to find out how to do that easily or find a gcode to do this, im quite new to this as well so im kinda hitting the ground running on this so forgive me if i dont understand some terms
Re: Lazycam Drill Patterns pitches
« Reply #1 on: October 28, 2011, 09:59:20 AM »
I bet you get a lot of responses to this problem.

Do you need to drill holes with a drill or cut circular holes with an endmill.?  Rectangular hole array in Wizards (if you have access to them) will accomplish the drill holes very easily.

   
Bob @BobsShop

Offline RICH

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Re: Lazycam Drill Patterns pitches
« Reply #2 on: October 28, 2011, 07:35:16 PM »
Jim,
I don't think LC is the way to go about doing what you want to do. There is no setting to define a pattern in LC for drilling holes. By the time you get done fooling around moving the layers etc...... just a PITA.
RICH

Offline BR549

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Re: Lazycam Drill Patterns pitches
« Reply #3 on: October 28, 2011, 07:47:30 PM »
Do you have a drawing of the patterns you need. Easy enough to do IF you know what it is you are doing(;-)

(;-) TP

Offline BR549

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Re: Lazycam Drill Patterns pitches
« Reply #4 on: October 28, 2011, 07:55:18 PM »
But I just have to ask IF Lcam sees the holes and can drill them ALL whats the difference IF it wants to drill them in an odd pattern as long as they ALL get drilled.

Just a thought, (;-) TP
Re: Lazycam Drill Patterns pitches
« Reply #5 on: October 28, 2011, 08:15:47 PM »
Probably not James problem, but I had a similar issue (needing holes drilled in a certain sequence) when i was wanting to engine-jewel aka damascening a plate.   To get the desired effect the holes had to overlap the previous row and columns always in the same sequence.  When converted to g-code every dxf I drew ended up placing the holes in some random fashion (probably best position for optimum movement).  Wasn't a pretty picture.  I was able to solve the problem with a 2 column, 2 row dxf Using D2NC and D2s nesting function.  It was a fun project with great results.

All that being said, it doesn't address James' concern.  James, If you want I will give writing the code a shot.  Length and width of your plate.  How many rows, columns do you want?   What spacing between the rows and columns?  What size drill being used?

Bob@BobsShop

Offline BR549

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Re: Lazycam Drill Patterns pitches
« Reply #6 on: October 28, 2011, 08:26:18 PM »

Here is a simple 10x10 SUB pattern starting at X0Y0 .


G90
G00X0Y0Z.5
M98 P1 L10
M30
%
o1
M98P2 L1
G91
G0 Y1
G90
M99
%
o2
G91
G81 Z-.250  X0Y0 R.1 F10
X1    L9
G80
G90
G00 X0
M99
%

Let me know if you need help expanding it to what you need.

(;-)TP

Offline RICH

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Re: Lazycam Drill Patterns pitches
« Reply #7 on: October 28, 2011, 08:54:19 PM »
Jim,
Not 4000 holes but with fourty for a test note the results depending on what one does in LC.
It should not matter in the end, maybe a "little" more time to do it, but LC will try to minimise the moves.

A few command considerations in LC:
Setup>Optimise
Tools>Autoclean
Clean
Select then Clean
-how things were drawn and if there  options are  available when dxf'ing the file
-If one moves  chains after LC did the optimization

Maybe you want to fool with LC some and see what the affect is, but, if you want some specific pattern then you will need to look
for a different approach to generating the code.

What do you want for free? ;)
RICH
« Last Edit: October 28, 2011, 08:57:06 PM by RICH »
Re: Lazycam Drill Patterns pitches
« Reply #8 on: October 31, 2011, 07:28:59 AM »
Hi Guys

Thanks very much for the replies and sorry for not posting back sooner

I gave up on lazy cam in the end as said, just because organising the chains is complete nightmare and even when putting just two rows in and finding the g-code to sub routine was out of the question

And reason we needed them orderd is that even tho they all get do get drilled, the time it takes changes from about hour or so to something like 2 half hours to 3 hours when drilling the holes and we drill at least 20 to 30 tables for our jobs daily, so our lead time would be way out from our current time

Here is the image of the drawing by the way as to example what were trying to achieve

http://i1226.photobucket.com/albums/ee418/jamesBW/FOREXWHITECUTTINGBOARD2240X1220.jpg

Outside borders are the table edge, and first hole from datum is   X Axis - 20mm     Y Axis 20mm   hole pitch is 20mm

The table dimensions are as follows

X Axis = 2440 mm
Y Axis = 1220 mm

Might be quite intresting if you could code that bobshop i need to learn how to sub routine on this

Lazycam does read the drawing quite well but like i said the chains it automaticly generates arnt organised really, they jump from corner point to the middle of some other row. But like Rich says what do you want for free :D


I used the wizard for rectangle hole patterns as suggested by Bobshop but it was bloody confusing, but we got it going in the end. It works pretty good but like i said it was confusign and took us a while o work out. We managed to generate the pattern but it tried to fit something like 50 x 50 holes  in a 30mm box on the table which miffed us for awhile but we came to grips with it and got it right

We worked out a formula as well of how to work out the holes, so i can post it up if anyone finds it usefull
« Last Edit: October 31, 2011, 07:30:49 AM by JamesBW »
Re: Lazycam Drill Patterns pitches
« Reply #9 on: October 31, 2011, 07:45:38 AM »
BR549 that codes brilliant!!!

how exactly is it incrementing on the Y axis and working out the pitch ?

Im guessign the % is the sub routine command as well