Questions and problems with Sheetcam
Posted: Sat Apr 26, 2014 10:21 pm
Hi Les,
I see that you have been very busy and I hate to bother, but I’m running into some issues that are starting to get under my skin and cause some crashes. This is for a milling machine, so not related to plasma or laser type posts.
First problem, when I post a program, it’s a crap shoot as to wether SC will insert a rapid Z move to R level at the beginning of each tool, sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t. Not a huge issue as without it just feeds at the last G01 feedrate all the way down.
Second, when the program calls for a Z depth on the tool, say I’m milling around a contour at Z-.500 (working in inches by the way), the program has a G01 Z-.5 F20 on one line, then followed by XY moves to contour, the problem is it repeats the Z depth on almost every line. This is a big issue, if I decide I only want to go .400 deep, I have to go thru and maybe change 30-50 lines of code, and if I miss just one instance of the Z-.500…. I get a crash… just wiped out a set of expensive hard jaws on my vise yesterday. So… given the Z depth is modal, and there is no need to repeat it line after line unless it changes, can this be edited in the post? Do not post a Z value until it changes?
Third, it also posts a lot of null values, especially I’s and J’s in my G02/03 lines, I was used to if I, J, or K were zero value, you didn’t input them…. this doesn’t effect anything, just something that creates more to look through in the program.
Fourth, I had asked you to help me with using canned drilling cycles and while it kind of works now, it always defaults to G83, peck drilling. Can we define that if the total Z depth and the peck amount are equal it uses G81, spot drilling (or alternately have a check box in SC that lets us define which G-code canned cycle we want)? Then that would leave out the Q value, which is the peck amount, I also found I don’t need a D value. When a canned cycle is called, it also has to have the XY position of the first hole in that line, or it won’t drill, which is what is happening now. Also, if you are drilling just one hole, I use G98 G83 X0 Y0 Z-.5 R.1 Q.25 F10 that has the drill retract to the initial level after the hole. If it is a series of holes, then you need the first line to be G99 G83…... and then you need G98 X_ Y_ on the last line. Also, after the canned cycle has been used, the next line after the last hole has to be G80 to cancel the canned cycle.
I know most folks don’t use canned cycles and just let SC pump out miles of code in place of canned cycles, but there are too many times I find a peck of .35 needs to be changed to .25, if it’s in a canned cycle, it’s one value to change in the code at the machine. If it’s posted “long hand” so to speak, it’s go into the house, pull up SC, modify the parameter for peck amount, re-post, send back to the shop computer, load to machine…. and as luck always has it, it’s a program I had to heavily modify… which means I have to do it all over again.
This kind of falls under niggling, but my comments (tool # such and such, description of the tool) come out quite a few lines above where they should be, could those be put right above the T_ _ call?
I’ll try to attach a program, unedited and then after I have cleaned it up, also the job file.
------------------------------------
Yahoo Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sheetcam/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sheetcam/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
sheetcam-digest@yahoogroups.com
sheetcam-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
sheetcam-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo Groups is subject to:
https://info.yahoo.com/legal/us/yahoo/utos/terms/
Brian Lamb
blamb11@cox.net
Weimaraner Rescue of Arizona
www.vswc.weimaraner.com click on "rescue dogs"
I see that you have been very busy and I hate to bother, but I’m running into some issues that are starting to get under my skin and cause some crashes. This is for a milling machine, so not related to plasma or laser type posts.
First problem, when I post a program, it’s a crap shoot as to wether SC will insert a rapid Z move to R level at the beginning of each tool, sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t. Not a huge issue as without it just feeds at the last G01 feedrate all the way down.
Second, when the program calls for a Z depth on the tool, say I’m milling around a contour at Z-.500 (working in inches by the way), the program has a G01 Z-.5 F20 on one line, then followed by XY moves to contour, the problem is it repeats the Z depth on almost every line. This is a big issue, if I decide I only want to go .400 deep, I have to go thru and maybe change 30-50 lines of code, and if I miss just one instance of the Z-.500…. I get a crash… just wiped out a set of expensive hard jaws on my vise yesterday. So… given the Z depth is modal, and there is no need to repeat it line after line unless it changes, can this be edited in the post? Do not post a Z value until it changes?
Third, it also posts a lot of null values, especially I’s and J’s in my G02/03 lines, I was used to if I, J, or K were zero value, you didn’t input them…. this doesn’t effect anything, just something that creates more to look through in the program.
Fourth, I had asked you to help me with using canned drilling cycles and while it kind of works now, it always defaults to G83, peck drilling. Can we define that if the total Z depth and the peck amount are equal it uses G81, spot drilling (or alternately have a check box in SC that lets us define which G-code canned cycle we want)? Then that would leave out the Q value, which is the peck amount, I also found I don’t need a D value. When a canned cycle is called, it also has to have the XY position of the first hole in that line, or it won’t drill, which is what is happening now. Also, if you are drilling just one hole, I use G98 G83 X0 Y0 Z-.5 R.1 Q.25 F10 that has the drill retract to the initial level after the hole. If it is a series of holes, then you need the first line to be G99 G83…... and then you need G98 X_ Y_ on the last line. Also, after the canned cycle has been used, the next line after the last hole has to be G80 to cancel the canned cycle.
I know most folks don’t use canned cycles and just let SC pump out miles of code in place of canned cycles, but there are too many times I find a peck of .35 needs to be changed to .25, if it’s in a canned cycle, it’s one value to change in the code at the machine. If it’s posted “long hand” so to speak, it’s go into the house, pull up SC, modify the parameter for peck amount, re-post, send back to the shop computer, load to machine…. and as luck always has it, it’s a program I had to heavily modify… which means I have to do it all over again.
This kind of falls under niggling, but my comments (tool # such and such, description of the tool) come out quite a few lines above where they should be, could those be put right above the T_ _ call?
I’ll try to attach a program, unedited and then after I have cleaned it up, also the job file.
------------------------------------
Yahoo Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sheetcam/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sheetcam/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
sheetcam-digest@yahoogroups.com
sheetcam-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
sheetcam-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo Groups is subject to:
https://info.yahoo.com/legal/us/yahoo/utos/terms/
Brian Lamb
blamb11@cox.net
Weimaraner Rescue of Arizona
www.vswc.weimaraner.com click on "rescue dogs"