i use sheetcam and mach3 the is there a way to convert in sheetcam from to point to point on curves to arc to give a smoother line. i use sketchup as the cad program. Also i have been told that in sheetcam you can slow the cutting on corners, basicaly how do you do this?
Regards Richard
If you use the development version of SheetCam you may get better results on your curves.
Slowing down on corners can be done with a special post processor. The feed rate changes can cause some odd effects in Mach. You may want to try corner looping instead. See ‘loop sharp corners’ in the main page of your plasma cut operation.
Hello
i allready use the development version of sheetcam, i dont have a problem with the sharp corners they seem perfect its the long curves that seem to suffer
I’ve noticed this also. I’ll get very gagged and rough motion on some curves, almost as if Mach3 is in exact stop mode, yet other curves will be fine.
I had an issue the other day where I made a part in Rhino with some slots. I imported the drawing into SC, created the toolpath, then duplicated the part 3 more times. The original cut fine. Nice smooth motion through the entire cut on the slots. The duplicates had rough motion with a slight hesitation at each segment start and end point.
I had always figured it was a Mach issue, but who knows. The end result is still good, even with the motion issue.
i have checked the issue on the mach3 forum all that comes back is check your backlash. i have and the machine is solid as a rock so i don’t believe this is the problem and make sure the cam program is set at arc and not point to point if i new how to do this i would check it!
Could you give me a sample drawing to look at. I’ll see if I can find some settings to smooth things out.
The most recent was a sample cut I did on a customers machine that we installed a few days ago. I cut a Ford logo for him. All of the curves and arcs cut smooth except on small curved segment. In this segment, which was about 2" long, Mach acted as if it were in exact stop mode. That file is on the customers machine about 500 miles away. I’ll see if I can get a hold of it.
One thing that helps is turning down acceleration. We typically run acceleration in Mach pretty high, but have started turning it down. We keep it high enough to prevent corner rounding, but low enough to smooth things out a little.
Les…
Here are some files. The jpeg shows a highlighted area. This is where the cut was jagged and rough as if Mach were in exact stop mode. The rest of it was smooth. I can probably edit the DXF and remove some control points to smooth it out, but that doesn’t explain why other areas of the file with similar point densities cut smooth.
The original DXF exceeds 256K so it won’t upload. I’ll email it.
My import settings are attached.