but all they have is the terrible Torchmate CAM/CAD package for running posts. No one wants to learn it, and we’ve been getting away with importing our DXF’s directly into the CNC motion controller (VMC), but that’s going to be inadequate very shortly.
I brought my personal laptop in with Sheetcam on it to show them how much better it would be if bought a licence and got that going, but I can’t for the life of me figure out a post that will work with this thing.
First off, it uses M64 and M65 to turn the torch on and off, and has a totally independent height controller module (so no z-axis).
Tried all the Torchmate posts, just to see if any of them would work after I fixed the torch on/off settings to match the Torchmate 4800. Then I tried importing one of the example jobfiles that came with the machine, back into SheetCAM. It seemed to treat arcs as straight lines.
Here’s one of the job posts that creates a square with circular hole:
Here’s the Appendix from the manual for the machine controller (Virtual Machine Designer). Appendix A (pages 80-92) describes the dialect of G-code the Torchmate 4800 uses. Not sure why they felt like they needed to reinvent the wheel for something that seems like it’s been pretty figured out already.
Thanks for the help coming up with the post for the Torchmate 4800. It was running great at first, but I seem to have run into a problem with corners, especially when there’s a tight radii.
When I used your post in sheetcam to come up with a file for the attached DXF, the corners seemed to make the entire machine stutter and I lost steps like crazy, especially on the X-axis with the slaved stepper motor. If I slowed the machine way down (from 220 IPM to 100) it would come out just okay, but would sometimes still lose steps.
When I imported the DXF directly into the VMD machine controller, it worked great and there were no problems with loosing steps. I checked for squareness and out-of-level to make sure it wasn’t a mechanical issue.
And here’s the g-code generated by the included DXF importer:
'-----------------------------+
’ Lincoln Global.
’ MVT - DXF to G&M
'-----------------------------+
G70
G90
G01 F200.000000
M65
M06 T1
Hmm, that’s odd. I can’t see any really significant differences. Their code is different as it uses G41 kerf width compensation but that should not make a difference. It also cuts in the opposite direction but again that shouldn’t matter.
Just a thought - try manually deleting the F260.0 from the end of each line apart from the very first one.
It seemed to help a little, but I think it may have just been my imagination.
I think I’m going to have to just keep the speeds below 200 ipm even though it advertises 500 ipm.
I’m suspicious that the issue is the high feed rate combined with a short arc in between two linear moves. When I ran the rosetta program described in an earlier post at 500 ipm, it had no problems at all. That program had radial moves, but they were long, and not part of a radiused corner. I think what I might try in the future is to remove radiused corners less than .25" when I have to go over 200 ipm.
The Torchmate on the other hand has been a disappointment. Losing position has been an issue that will not go away unless I keep the speed below 120 ipm. Even then, I’ve had problems.
Sorry to resurrect such an old thread, but any chance of getting this post processor reposted? I’m setting up a plasma table with torchmate Accumove 2 control (which uses pretty much the same Gcode as the AM3). It seems that the post attachment may have been removed since this thread is so old.
There are several Torchmate flavor post processors in our TNG Sheetcam Development version install folder. Install the product and use it free without license until you’re satisfied you like it. Limiting terms apply to gcode file size, 180 line limit in free use mode.
