Greetings,

I'm a newcomer in CNC-land.

A few weeks back we bought ours a small Haase mill. It is a sturdy little thing. At first we used it with an ancient computer that came with it and with a software called CNCProfi. However the computer was really old, didn't even have USB so I was worried that it might burn out any day now. Instead of waiting for that to happen I tried transferring the software to a new PC. The problem was that the software was DOS based and modern OS' don't give DOS apps direct access to the paralel port. I tried installing DOS and Windows 98 but to no avail, constant error and after a few frustrating days I just thought screw it and decided to switch to Mach3. After a few daunting hours I managed to get the motors to move, oh what joy. Of course when you're a beginner one solved problem creates two more.

We are a signage company so we do most of our work in Adobe Illustrator and a bit in CorelDraw as well (but we're trying to kick the habit). The previous software we used (CNCProfi) had the CAM built in it seems, I would just import a PLT file and it would automatically convert that to g-code without even prompting me to do anything. When I tried to do that with Mach3 I realized that I would need another tool to convert the drawing to g-code.

At this point I bought BobCad as it seemed to be the best tool for my needs, using it however was completely overwhelming for me. After trying to get it setup for a few days I just gave up from it and found out that LazyCam exists. I've started experimenting with LazyCam yesterday and it's the easiest software so far.

I would however like to learn how to use BobCad in the future so if someone can guide me on how to just setup the Drawing to G-code conversion I would be very thankful.



Problems

Larger in Mach3 than in CAD


When I try to export something from CorelDraw or Illustrator and import it into LazyCam the file looks fine in LazyCam and shows the right dimensions. When I import the same file into Mach3 it should up 10 times bigger in the preview. Obviously since we're talking about 10x I automatically assumed that its a centimeter/milimiter thing. I've tried changing both the working units and the export units in both Illustrator and Corel but to no avail, it is always 10x bigger. In Mach3 the units are mm. My workaround so far has been to just scale this in LazyCam to 10% that way when I import it into Mach3 I get the desired dimensions but I'd rather not have to do that.

Square-y In DFX

Another problem that has forced me to use CorelDraw is that when I import a DXF file into LazyCam it becomes all square-y (please see the attachments for more details). The only workaround for this I've found so far is to export the drawing from CorelDraw in a PLT file (which Illustrator doesn't support) then the drawing looks as it should (please see attachement #2).


Any help with these would be greatly appreciated. I've already learned a lot from this forum and the tutorial videos and I must say Mach3 is a fantastic software. I was weary of using it because of the design (I know, I know, it's all about the functionality) but it turns out that it's a great piece of software.

I want to thank everyone in advance for their help.

There is a supported thread for BobCad and suggest you post any questions about it there.
I would think that BobCad has improved over time and would be better to use than LC.  
Only using  dxf's for  LC is covered in the manual.
Since you bought BobCad i would suggest you just take the time to learn how to use it.

RICH

in bobcad you can open a dxf file then add the cut you need to the line profiles.
then right click on Milling Tools(or turning) and click post and save. or just post.
it makes the ngc file and post it in the post manager.

Hey Rich, Kenneth

Thanks for the replies.

When I try to do that in BoBCaD I get "There are no operations to post" and I can't figure out how to add an operation.

Any advice ?

right click on Milling Stock(or Turning) and select an op.
i do milling so i select Mill 3 Axis. it'll go thru selecting your
options