Ive used sheetcam a few times and all in all it does what I need. Ive also used a few other commercial CAD/CAM tools with relative sucess.
The one thing I cannot quite get my head around with sheetcam is how to set my tool zero for a part.
In this case I am milling a part from an aluminum plate that is 12.6" on the x Axis and 6" on the Y Axis. I need the the tool starting point to be exactly in the center of the X and Y Axis. So X=6.3" and Y=3.
I've tried chaning the settings in job options and in macine options, which appears to move the part to the correct location but the toolpath still appears to begin at X=0, Y=0.
There is no way for SheetCam to know where the tool will be at the start of cutting so it assumes the cutter is at 0,0 when displaying the tool paths. When you run the code on your machine the cutter will move from it's current position to the first start point. It won't move to 0,0 first.
I misunderstood what you were asking. All you have to do is move your part so it's center is over 0,0. The machine and work dimensions are only shown on the screen for your convenience. They don't affect the g-code. On my milling machine I usually just ignore them because my zero point varies depending on the job. If you want to change them you can can do so in options->job options and Options->machine.
The align function can be useful in this situation (Mode->align). Click on the point you want to be your origin. A box will appear with the current coordinates of that point. Enter the coordinates that you want and click OK. Your part will be re positioned to suit. You can then click on a second point to rotate the part. This is useful if you have a part that is difficult to line up on your machine. On the machine, measure the coordinates of two points then use the align tool on those points on your part in SheetCam to make sure your drawing and the actual part are both aligned.
