Hey guys,

Can someone please enlighten me on what I might be doing wrong.  I'm using mach 3 with Vectric aspire.  It's been a couple months since my last cut and suddenly it has a mind of it's own.  I touch off the surface of the material with Z and Zero it out.  I'm not using any tool offsets and I did verify that it is turned off.  When I start the run, Z is plunges down MUCH further than it should be.  It should be going down to my Safe Z (0.2) and going on into the program from there. 

Anyone got any ideas?

Thanks.

does vectric call a toolchange at the start of the code, and set an offset. ?

Hi.  Thanks for trying to help. I verified an it's using Tool #1.  Actually everything I run is tool 1.  If there is multiple tool uses (end mill, vbit, ballnose), in my job, I break them up into multiple jobs.  1 job for each tool.

is the z axis going the right way, + up and - down

can you put the first dozen or so lines of code up. When Hood gets on here he'll look at your xml, so it might be worth posting that.

Hi, Yes absolutely.  I will post a few lines of the gcode and the g540.xml file.  Yes, the Z does go in the right direction.  Just goes too far.

Thanks.

Do you have a tool length in the tooltable? You're code uses a G43 length offset, so that could be doing it.

HI Ger,  Thanks for attempting to help out.  I'm out in the garage look at the screen right now.  Tool 1 & ALL the rest of the tools are ZEROES across the board.  How can I turn that G43 off?

EDIT:  Are you saying the gcode has the g43 or the xml?

I see this line:    N140G00G43Z0.8000H1

I have no idea what is telling it to put in a G43 though.     

I just edited the vectric mach 3 .PP post processor and took the G43 out of the header.

Gonna go try it now.

Does anyone have a newer vectric .pp file.  Mine is dated 12/15/09

Back in business!!!!  Taking that G43 out of the vectric mach3 post processor header did it.   I actually edited the .pp file to prevent G43 from getting put in ever again.