Hi guys

I don't know if this is a question for the screen designers. I have recently changed an Italian industrial routers' controller to Mach together with a CSMIO IP-A controller. My main concern here is that the operators on the machine does not know g-code very well so I would like to try to keep the layout for their new screen similar to what the old one looked liked. Everything is straight forward except for one function. They have 2 cutting areas on the machine (far left and far right), by changing one DRO from 0,1 or 2, the machine changes from cutting on the left side only (dro = 0), right side only (dro = 1) or both sides for max production (dro = 2). The product being cut on the far left will be mirrored and then cut from the far right towards the middel of the machine.

I this was my own machine I wouldn't bother with this function as I will just use offsets or program with Cam, but these oaks don't. They will run one g-code for either one panel or two panels which are mirrored.

Is this possible by any chance?

Kind regards

Changing the Scale DRO for the left - right axis (X axis in my case) from +1.0000 to -1.0000 will mirror the GCode.

Tweakie.

I don't see how you can do that? If you're g-code is one part, then there's no way to use the same g-code for either one part or two parts.

I used to use a machine like this (Masterwood), and it worked similar but still different. The Master wood had both left and right zones, and they could both be standard or mirrored, so there were actually 4 zones. When running parts for both the left and right, it allowed you to load separate programs for both the left and right. You could load the right program while the left was running, and the left program while the right was running. We used a barcode scanner for loading programs quickly.
Even with the proper control on this machine, the mirroring still had to be set up properly in CAD/CAM. Mirrored parts had to be drawn with reversed toolpaths so that they were cut correctly when mirrored, and the CAM program would add the zone information to the barcode, so programs would be loaded in the correct zone.

I think you have two options here.
If you want to run both a left and right part, then they should  both be in one program, with the correct spacing for the width of the machine

The other option would be to add an M Code to the program to automatically mirror the part when loaded, although I'm not sure if this would work, as I've never tried it.

I think the best thing is to run parts on one side at a time. One side normally, and the other mirrored, by setting the X axis scale as Tweakie said.

Thanks for the replies

I might have an idea, I think I will create one button on the screen for an M code, I will then write a macro to recall say G56 as well as mirror x axis. I can then call the button say right pallet so when this button is active it will mirror the x axis and move to the offset given for the table on the right hand side. I will have to test it on the machine itself just to make sure, but now they can run the left side, hit the button and go cycle start and it will then in theory go to the right pallet and run the same cycle (g-code for mirrored x.

Will let you know if this works,

Regards

This may not be significant to a router, but a problem with running mirrored (via negative scale) programs on a mill is that although the cords are mirrored, the path direction is not, so what was conventional will become climb milling and vice-versa.

Something to consider.