While i greatly appreciate the very valid effort by Rich.I still find it very hard to make some sense
out of this program.My efforts are up to now primarily directed to turning and have tried to follow
LazyCam manual for turning rev0 by Rich.For those who have downloaded this manual in chapter
Turning Tools and parameters Rich gives us a simple DXF and very rightly urges us to play around
with parameters in Tool selection.
If you change the back angle to 1 deg and create profile you get a turning pattern which looks Ok
If you change the back angle to 30 deg and create profile you get the same pattern
There are various examples of back angle settings which give the same pattern.
Having paid for this program i think i will persevere a little longer
What i really cannot understand is why the originators of this program havent at least given us a CLEAR
definition of what the various parameters and settings mean.
What is Back angle
What is Width(Grroving tool only)
and many others
No excuse of a Beta version here.
Even Rich who well ahead than i am in DECIFERING this utility is assuming things as he goes along
Please help us in understanding this program and start using it.That way we can share our experiences and maybe
come up with ideas to IMPROVE IT.
 

I think this is a great post but I will definitely bet unless someone tells someone over at the yahoo Mach forum, this will fall on deaf ears. For some reason they don't pay attention to much here so if I were you, I would post this question over there.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mach1mach2cnc/

I'll be interested to see the outcome as I'm going to be getting into turning as well. I'm also betting that they won't do much for LCam Turn as that's why they've started "Lazy Turn" (separate forum here)

Good luck-
Dave

spnar,
Glad you took the time to look and try what was written. I continue to "explore" Lazycam for turning to put it into some perspective from "hacking" away at it.  Even I have a tolerance level for having fun and it currently has come to an end.
It's BETA, but..........................will give you my honest appraisal of it. The following may sound wishy washy but here it goes.

HOW TO USE IT FOR TURNING:
1.Import DXF file drawn in a fashion which incorporates some things mentioned in the manual.
2.Clean and convert, use a few combinations of the tools and paramaters. I always create a point tool as that
   gives me a basis for "possible"  expected results.
3. Create profiles. If it creates a usable gcode, maybe not perfect, but usable with minor editing, consider life good,
    edit as required and get on with cutting.
    If it dosen't, don't waste your time. Do it a different way via wizards or what ever.

 I have found it will do wonderfull magic on some more complex profiles and then just fall flat on it's face on something simple. When it works, it works, when it doesn't, FI!

WHATS WRONG WITH USING IT:
 1.There is no definition of just how usable it is. Because we do not know how far the development went or where it 
     stopped relative to parameters, tool definition, and manipulation of profile, well, your at a complete loss and frankly I
     would say you are waisting your time trying to figure it out.

2. NO BASIC "RULES" HAVE BEEN GIVEN. If a preliminary list was provided saying something like the following for example
    only:
    1. A base line must be provided which defines stock size ...........
    2. You can't duplicate items one right after the other........
    3. You must only have a single chain for a profile to work.........

Just some simple stuff so a purchaser doesn't spend hours trying to hack it.

3. No list of known bugs / no definition of what should or shouldn't work.

It is interesting to add that frankly i don't think there are that manny people actively using a CNC'd lathe.
If there were, attention to a product would be different and the post's would be numerous. In a different light i also think that there is great momentum on horizon for the lathe. To loose out while opertunity exist's may be a bad strategy. The turn portion has been out for 5 or 6 months now, it either goes forward or will wither and die. With that said, should LazyTurn becomes  a reality, and you get it for supporting LazCam, then a bargin will be yours .

In the last two weeks i tried few different turning programs. Do you know that none of them could not just import
a simple file and genreate the code. They didn't come with instructions either and they were not beta. I have been fooling with  Dolphin, yes it works, price to to match, but to get some "simple" stuff to work you had to invoke the tools and do it in a disciplined way. So simple may not be simple.

WISH  YOU LOL,
RICH






l

So Dolphin was the best, so far, Rich? Can you name some of the others you've tried? I'm GCode challenged so writing my own at this point is impossible.......

Thanks,
Dave

budman68,
I really don't know what the best is. Only been fooling with the CNC lathe for about 5 months now off and on.
I did like Dolphin and have a demo on the pc at work. It turns into a punkin in a few more days! Big companay name sometimes gets you a little extra to play with from sales.There is a hobbiest version for the lathe $400 and the other one was around $1400 or so and up for the 3 d stuff. I only fooled with the lathe part, and during 5 lunch periods was able to create code for 6 parts for my model from dxf files I had. That from only viewing a 15 minute tutorial but it to bombed on profiling out a few simple parts and had to use individual steps to create the code.

Same old story which i have found over the past 4 years or so. There realy isn't that much out there. I have a license
for DeskCnc lathe but that program isn't a perfect magic wand either and dosen't  support some of the turn gcode. A lot of the stuff out there are nothing more than code editors or verifiers.
 
Don't discount the wizards since you can do a lot with them if you want to piece meal them together for a part.
Should LazyTurn ever materialize, per Art's description of it, it realy will fill a real nice void.

RICH

BTW there is dxf to g code lathe program out there for $29.99 in beta  form. You draw the profile, then put each of the cut lines in,
dxf out,  it geneartes the g code. Bet  you can do the coding manualy by hand quicker.....but then the price is realy great!

Hi Guys:

  ( Thx to Hood for letting me know this thread was running.

  The Turn section of Lazycam is hard to use, LazyCam itself can be a bear, but its a project that was in progress
when I left. Its not something Brians continuing as yet, its on a back burner at best. While Im retired its my plan to update
both. LazyTurn is the first thing that has to be done , and at that point Turn will be removed totally from LazyCam, and LazyTurns
import mechanics will be put into LazyCam.

  LazyTurn is a complete rewrite in most area's. Code has been tightened, imports made more fully compatible, and the process
of doing the toolpaths is still in progress. Turning is HARD, very HARD. When you search for a turn cam program and find most
of them lacking or very expensive..thats why.
   
    LazyCam is long overdue, and it will be awhile yet before it gets touched, but LazyTurn continues. Slowly because of timing.
I dont code much in Summer, and Im the sole coder for it. Winter is my coding time as there isnt much else to do up here in the
winter of Canda if your not into ski'ing or snowmobiling. ( I hate cold).

   Im close to a completing roughing profile, but had to do a rewite last couple months as I had neglected to take a few gouging items into account... like
the last pass through the stocks effect on the next pass.

  LazyCam DOES have variables unexplained. The reason is that the licensed code I originally used for turning was undocumented, and very hard
to get to work. ( lesson learned, Im writing my own code for all those turning sections in LazyTurn, which is why its so slow going..only if
youve attempting writing such code can you fully experience the pain. Originally LCam was my attempt at getting enough cam product to
as many people as possible at as low a cost as possible. Hence all the licensed code in it. The DXF import was licensed and didnt do as Id hoped as well,
but recent fixes to it from the authors have made it much more usefull, though still not perfect imo.

  In short, I learned many lessons from Lazycam, first, you cant do it by licensing modules from others and tying it all together, many code
problems existed and Ive learned allot about how to handle many things we originally couldnt deal with. So .. if I can finish up LTurn to
get it to the output stage this winter, then LCAm will start to see some changes to remove Turn, and convert the UI to somethign much more easily
handled,and LTurns import code will be ported over. Ill likely use my own pocketing routines as well, the ones I licensed for it seem way to sensitive
to tolerances and screw up in strange ways.

 Really hard to explain to the user exactly why, as the licensed code is huge and undoced so even as the coder I cant explain some of its pecadillos..

 It remains simply a cheap alternative to more expensive cam programs, and then only if you try it and can control it.

 ( Just thought Id kick in and let you know some of the why's here..)

Art

I see an ART viewing the topic. Could you shed a little light for us lonely turners?
RICH

Thanks for the info ART. Wish you well.

Hmm.......Hood stills see's my typing.... nice guy he is.......!

Hi Rich:

  You know, when I started LTurn, about a year ago, I did it because as I told many others I could see an
imminent explosion of Lathes coming online from China in CNC form. I still expect this to happen, and the
yahoo group and support activity on lathes inthe last 4 months seems to be showing it.

  I know more than most how bad it is to get Turning CAM out there. I did much the same research as you.
I saw and ran the 29.00 program .. man thats rough to do all thos lines and such.. when I think about it
though thats LTurn in a nutshell, only it does all that line work internally, as well as calculing solid object to do collision
test with to set the toolpath proper without gouging. You wouldnt believ how difficult all that is. Im kinda shocked
at how hard its turning out to be. On the face of it it looks like simple trig functions, but can they ever bite you.

 So far Ive figured out how to do roughing quite well and soon Ill have it complete to the stage of doign a very nice
rough toolpath with any described tool, and more automatic than Id have believed possible, BUT then , even though Ive
been carefull to design it so Im left with a database of left over material, I have to figure out as easy a way for a finish
toolpath to be done using that database. Its important a lathe doesnt spend all day cutting in air, so the end design
has to be such that it has built in efficiency. So while roughing is almost ready for prime time testing, finishing will be awhile
after that. My plan rigth now is to finish the last two funstions I need to do the rough path, then add GCode output
to that and release it as a test. Dont know how usefull it is without finish passes, but it does seem to do a hell of a nice roughing
strategy. so far ..

 Anyway, as I say, Winter is my coding time, summer is too shortup here so I know Ive been slow but on the other hand its a retirement
project, so the end result will likely be better for it..

just FYI , thx for all the help and comments I see you adding to the forum.

Art
 

Art,
I just was surfing the net today and yes the China lathe with code is out there.
When you put the roughing out just throw out a few paragraphs on some basic rules or intent.
That will be enough to keep folks from not trying it or getting frustrated and saying it dosn't work.
Thanks, RICH

How usefull without finishing passes?
I would think that a lot of people would be able to test out other functions of the program and find bugs
shortening the time span. Until you get that diversified bunch of people trying things in their owne unique way ..
you may never know.

 

Ok so it seems that we are on our own with Lazy Cam.
Art
We have a similar problem weather wise you hate the cold and i hate the heat.
You should come over here July and August and you will get your batteries charged
up for a couple of years.
Back to LcAM all i am asking for is a definition of the parameters. I am new here so
maybe i am wrong but if you are the man who wrote the code then i am sure you know
exactly what you want us to input in those dialog boxes.
Could you please shed some light.
Or should we just drop it and wait for Lturn
Rich
Yes it dose work with some dxf imports but very strangely enough it wont work with
very similar drawings.
I check my profiles with a drawing which shows the tool i will be using and move the tool
around so that i am sure i have the right clearances and radii .Still most profiles will not reach
a stage where i get code.
My only way out is as you said using wizards and connecting code.

To ALL
I still believe that $75 is dirt cheap for this program if only we could get it to work

SPNAR