Im wondering if anyone has an answer to my problem.

I take a jpg or whatever, vectorize it and save it as a wmf, I then open it in lazy cam; create a gcode, and then run it in Mach 3.

However lets say I cut a simple circle, from the start point of cutting to the end point of cutting there is not a complete circle. There is still about 1/8th of an inch of material not cut to complete the 360 degres of the circle?

What am I doing wrong or missiing in lazy cam.

Thanks much for any help.

what size cutter are you using ? , are you taking into account the size of the cutter in your gcode offsets etc

Dave

If you  have the cutter offsets "ON" then Mach creats a "barrier" round the tool, equivelent to the diameter of the tool. If you are cutting a circle, this is apparent, becasue the tool is on the inside, (or the outside) of the circle, so the path the tool decribes is not the diameter you asked for, but is the radius minus (or plus on the outside) the tool diameter.

However, it is clear, on a circle, that this barrier must ne all the way round the tool, since at some time or another, all the tool comes into contact with the work.

When the circle is complete - say you have asked it to go all round from X0 to X0, then it does, buts stops short of X0 by the tool diameter when it arrives.

You can either describe the circle by putting the radius described by the tool centre (and doing away with the tool diameter offset), or adding a further line to make the tool go over the X0 line by adding in an amount equal to just over the tool diameter.

ARE you sure the circle was complete in the drawing you gave to Lcam? IF the circle does not complete then Lcam will not do a complete circle code wise. 

I have ran many circles in Lcam and the ONLY time I saw this was if in the drawing the circle did not close. THen Lcam cut an arc.

(;-) TP