You would probably be better off asking this question on the CamBam forum. http://www.cambam.co.uk/forum/

It sounds like you just need to learn the basics of the work flow.

Thanx for the reply, will ask on the cambam forum, however, I still think that there might be another issue, as I experience the same in Lazycam and even before i started using Cambam.

LGF,
Just some thoughts on the basics for you to understand:

1. The drawing represents the part you wish to machine in CAD. It can be 2d or 3d. The 3d has all the information about the part.
   Width, length, height for every feature.The 2d does not, ie; a plan view has no height info.
    Machining considerations are taken into account even at the drawing stages.
2. The CAD output will be used by CAM and the output must be appropriate for the CAM software that will be used.
     All CAM software is similar but vary in capability, but, in general no software is "smart" enough to know how you want to machine
     the piece, which includes but is not limited to, where the piece is located, what tooling will be used,the machining steps that
     will be done, etc.
3. Matters not what CAM you use you will need to define the machining in some way to the software. Once that is done,
    the software will produce the code to machine it to a controlling software, ie MACH. The code must be of the proper format
    that the controller understands, so a specific proccesor is used.

 The above understood, you need to create a correct drawing to represent the part in CAD, save / export that info for use by  CAM  adding additional info as required to machine it and have the CAM generate the code in the proper format to MACH.

So simplisticaly it requires an understanding of CAD, CAM, and machining practices.

One must read / study the manuals.
There is a manual for LazyCam in members Doc's, there is a manual and videos for Cambam on their site.    

Have fun,

RICH  

Rich

Thanx for the reply, appreciate it alot.

I understand all that you've said, no doubt about that. I draw the 3d part with the exact specs in autocad, then save it as the only format that seems to work which is the last of the dxf's something like Autocad 12RT/LT.dxf (not sure now, but it is the last format in AC 2012) anyhow, I also experimented with exporting the file as dwf etc etc.

I used to open the mentioned dxf files in Lazycam, did the cleaning, optimisation, reseting of origins, setting the depth, setting the tool info, sending all to all the layers, posted th G-code to Mach etc etc. The manual on Lazycam (perhaps I got hte wrong one, did not give me much info, the two vids on Newfangled, stopped 3/4 of the way so the info there, well wasn't complete) having said that, lazycam seemed to (still does) throw away portions of the part, sometimes its an arc and sometimes its straight lines, if the entire pic does get cut, well then it does one (1) run at the start cut depth, depth and then the G-code is done.

As for Cambam, wathced their vids, followed those instructions, got one (1) part to cut the way it was supposed to, did the rest of the parts exactly the same from beginning to end, meaning design in cad, generating toolpaths, producing G-code and loading into Mach (with Mach set as post processor and other times just default post processor selected) and had similar issues, exactly the same to be honest in mach's machining phase).

I read somewhere here, thath mach stuffs around when there are more than two installations on one HD, thus I was contemplating wiping the disk, reinstall windows xp, then mach and lazycam and cambam and see if that would resolve the matter. WHY? Well not each of the issues, portions of the parts ommitted and incorrect depth (ammount of passes/g-code lines) are constant, even if and when I do exactly the same with each of the phases from design, to coding to machining. no consistency in the occurance of the issues.

atcually, i am considering taking a break from trying to resolve these isuues, to just focus on someting else, like mowing the lawn

LGF,
The manual for LazyCam in members Doc's has everything that  I know about LC and in the back you will find a known problems list. Note that  devlopment of it was never finished thus it can do some quirky things. It does not do 3D.

Have a look at the Lazyturn Manual if you want to know more about DXF files.

Cambam has a Tutorial for doing a 3D profile.

Remember that Mach is just a Controller and will implement the Gcode as provided.

RICH
 

Rich

Thanx again for your patience with me. Please be assured that I understand the functions of the different parts of soft and hardware very comprehensively, what I am struggling with is the troubleshooting of missing info (G-code) after I have gone through the required software.

i.e. I have sorted the issue where some parts of the drawings have been ommited in Mach after a CamBam process, now however even thou I am getting the full part, the G-code stops at a certain part and thus only cuts a portion of the depth. No the Mach I have is licensed, so nolimitations on the number of lines (g-code), what happens is this:

I get the feedrate,
The X, Y and Z positioning,
Tool change request,
Z depth setting, say start depth is 0.25mm,
X and Y then goes through their movement (code)
Z then plunges to the incremental depth, say another 0.25mm
and continues with the X and Y code,
At 4.5mm depth I get an 1/8 of the part (lines) cut and then the movement stops, HOWEVER,
the X and Y code still continues for pages and pages of lines down on the g-code screen, the Z code is just missing......

Again, it seems my issues are software orientated and it is not with Mach, it is with the CAM software. I thought of issues with the CAD part as well, but I cannot seem to find any info that would require me to set offsets in Autocad when I design something (that in any case doesn't make sense to me as the design is as far as I am concerned, just the exact measurements of something i want to produce) the cam software (or Mach could) is supposed to handle the offsets. I have however sorted this using CamBam, no need to draw something subtracting the diameter of the mill-bit, I draw it as is and get it cut as is, issues is the missing code.

PS I have not yet installed a fresh copy of Mach, or Cambam or XP for that matter. Will do that first as I am sure that I understand the required software and in specific the inputs that I have to make, the end product however remains faulty with ommitted lines of code.

Thanx again for all the help.