where to I buy my plugin license? (only joking not rushing you, a good beer or whiskey takes time to brew and mature… and that looks nice)
you’ve already sold 1 plugin, just let us know when to pull the trigger plus if you want any testing done (setup in linuxcnc 2.8.2 / master (2.9 dev) with a denford orac and 40 position multifix tool post.
obviously keen for it to run on Linux / Debian bullseye as I think I’m probably going to ditch windows altogether even on my laptop’s as I’m getting used to Linux the more I dabble plus I have less stuff that is windows dependant any more
Don’t throw Windows out just yet. I’m hoping the first alpha will be available in about a month. It will be Windows only until it has had a fair amount of testing, so expect at least 3 months for Linux version.
I’m still working hard on it. I’m fighting the tool path generation a bit. I’m not as experienced with turning tool paths as milling/plasma. There are a surprising number of subtle issues that only show up in testing. I’ve probably completely rewritten the tool path generation code half a dozen times or more.
I’m still hoping to be able to release something this month.
Finally I have something ready for testing. It’s a long way from complete but some of the basic functionality is there.
Install this custom version of SheetCam https://www.sheetcam.com/Download/SheetCam%20TNG%20turn%20setup%20V7.1.22.exe
You will need to install your license on this version. You can have multiple copies of SheetCam licensed as long as they are on the same computer.
Select the ‘Turning’ machine tpe in the setup wizard (or in Options->machine). You can’t have both milling/plasma and turning enabled at the same time.
I have attached a sample job which uses all of the currently available operations. The first time you simulate, click on the ‘setup’ button in simulation and at the machine type to lathe. The other sim machine types will mostly work but you won’t have collision detection. Note that this simulation allows you to rewind the simulation by moving the FRO slider to negative feed rates.
Turning currently only uses straight line moves so most Milling/routing posts will work with turning. As arcs are made up of lots of line moves, the code can get big. I am working on this but at the moment getting everything working takes priority.
If you want to use your own drawings, draw only one side of the outline. SheetCam will automatically reflect it across the Z axis. Any geometry in your drawing below X0 is ignored.
This is very beta code. If you are brave enough to run turning tool paths on a real machine, make sure you stay near the estop button! knob.job (12.8 KB)
I’ll try and give it a try over the weekend on something simple. I’m a bit mystified on the arcs from lines thing though (unless I’m misinterpreting). Is that because of the complexity of nose radius compensation?
Running the simulation for the sample “knob” program and there’s something gone wrong. The tool doesn’t appear to be taking cuts out from stock and the tool is “cutting” (like cutting) from the centerish point of the stock upwards. Looks like something to do with the post processing - which I haven’t configured.
The maths involved in offsetting arcs and calculating arc intersections gets really ugly and prone to errors. It is far simpler and more reliable to break the arcs into a series of line segments and work with those. That also allows me to use fixed point calculations which work around the annoying edge case rounding issues you get with floating point numbers. SheetCam’s milling/routing code uses floating point and even after 15+ years working on it, it is still possible to catch the code out with certain very specific geometry.
Most CAM packages break up arcs like this. For example in Fusion you see an ‘accuracy’ option in a lot of operations. Among other things it controls how many line segments arcs are broken into. They then rebuild the arcs when it is time to post process. I have not yet had the time to write that part of the code. Currently the accuracy is fixed at 1 micron (0.00004") which is plenty for all but the most high end specialist machines.
I can’t replicate your issue here. Could you load the job then create a support file (Help->create a support file) and send it to me.
I found the problem. Go to Options->machine and set the machine type to lathe. As you are in milling/routing mode the axes are in the wrong place. It took me a while to figure out what it was doing!
Yes Les, that was it - one checkbox (duh). But, WOW… I’m seriously gobsmacked at the work you’ve put into this. I’ve only run the sim so far, but it’s obvious this is a major project. Hats off mate!
Okay, now I have to make some swarf with this tool.
Les, so am I correct in gathering there’s currently no boring/internal work option yet? Apologies if this is yet another thing I failed to read in the thread [blush].
I like the way the turning tools are configured. It’s quite different to what I’m used to (selecting or drawing the complete tool & insert), but it looks reasonably practical for my purposes.
I’m working on boring and face contouring. After that comes drilling and threading. I’d also like to add an option to tool definition where you can simply enter the standard tool tip and holder codes and SheetCam does the rest.
To define the stock go to Options->job options->material.
The problem is, when I try and define the stock that way, it’s configured for a flat sheet ie. asks for sheet thickness not stock diameter? Yes the machine is definitely configured for turning now.
Thickness, rapid clearance and height of the bottom of the material are not used by turning. I’ll hide them for the next release. The size and origin options should allow you to define the diameter and length, as well as the origin position.
Please let me know if I can be of help in any way.
