Messages

1

Bug Reports / Re: [V1 - 79] Holding tabs flip when saved

« on: January 19, 2024, 22:29:02 pm »

Thanks, open and save is definitely the solution.

2

Bug Reports / [V1 - 79] Holding tabs flip when saved

« on: January 03, 2024, 21:26:56 pm »

I've encountered a small problem with Tabs. When I create a CB file. All is good while I'm working in the drawing. When I save it, close it, then reopen the file the holding tabs will be flipped 180 degrees. I've searched the forum and haven't found a repeat of this exact problem. I have tried a couple of fixes for other similar problems including changing tab size. I'm working on four files all similar in that they are small holes 2-3 inch diameters for speakers (tweeters) that are acting this way. Interesting is that if I change from inside to outside cuts the tabs will still flip in the wrong direction after reopening. This only happens after the file is reopened though. Also. if I only slightly touch and move the tab it will immediately flip too the correct direction. I'm uploading a file for anyone interested to look at. I'm also wondering if it isn't my original .DXF that is the problem. It's only the circles that are giving me this problem.

3

CamBam help (General usage) / Re: Change of Z along an elliptical path.

« on: February 07, 2023, 02:19:48 am »

Thanks Dave, Yes I've used the .hgt map function. Downloaded some .hgt's of the Moon and made some really nice cuttings of it. CB is an exceptionally nice program for doing that. In fact I have to say that I regard CB as the all around "Go Too" machinist program for me. Yes I have other CAM software but have used CB exclusively for years since I bought the license. I love the MOP control I have in my work with CB. My very first project with CB was an engrave of Pegasus from MC Escher. Did you know that there's only one line that, when repeated, makes up that entire tessellation. Then my second project was the Moon. It was a sock knocker offer. I have it lying around here somewhere. But getting back to control. This is very important to me. The examples I'm giving are simplistic. My end goal is much more detailed and complicated than any description I've given. But it hinges on being able to follow a line drawing and carry across several line segments of a poly to different desired depths along the way. I could do what I've been doing in my examples and edit the profiles in G-Code. That would be tedious at best. "So it goes" as Vonnegut would say.

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CamBam help (General usage) / Re: Change of Z along an elliptical path.

« on: February 06, 2023, 21:02:41 pm »

Yes I got that.

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CamBam help (General usage) / Re: Change of Z along an elliptical path.

« on: February 05, 2023, 22:51:18 pm »

I added the plugin this morning. It looks like a great add on. I am having one problem though. The plugin doesn't seem to be finding my tool library. When I try to select a tool the drop down is empty. Did I do something wrong?

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CamBam help (General usage) / Re: Change of Z along an elliptical path.

« on: February 05, 2023, 02:37:16 am »

Thanks for the reply Kelly. In a lot of cases surfaces would be a great answer to a problem like this. Not this one though. The way I'm seeing this is best described as a V-engrave. My desired result from this would be that I be able control my depth of cut along a path made up of several line segments that form a poly. By doing this I can V-cut perspective and depth into a 2D image I'm creating. For instance a building or waterfall or in the case of an ellipse the rings of Saturn. It would be like line drawing with a router. I want to simply follow a path that I can somewhat control where the emphasis gets placed.

I've uploaded several files here if anyone is interested. The screenshot shows the MOP settings I'm using to get the best results I've gotten. The "Ellipse 1.nc" is the code in it's raw form generated from CB and the "Ellipse 2.nc" is the code in it's edited form the way I'd like it to be generated. The difference in the way it's being done and the way I'd like it to be done is that the left side of the ellipse would be it's own profile1 and the right side would be it's own profile2 and not generating the center piece of code that I've edited out. When run it would cut as a single contiguous line, excluding a change of direction at depth. Both .nc codes can be run on Mach3 to show the difference in how they perform. The last file being a .cb just as a way to play with the drawing if you like. It's in inches.

7

CamBam help (General usage) / Re: Change of Z along an elliptical path.

« on: February 01, 2023, 20:01:44 pm »

I've been looking around and trying to search this out and I think I've found what I'm looking for. I'll be looking this over to see how well it match's my needs.

https://cambamcnc.com/forum/index.php?topic=3093.0

Also, As I've been thinking about this problem I'm realizing that the tool wouldn't need to be following an elliptical path but really any path. That is to say that if I were to make an octagon and create a polyline out of 4 of the sides and another polyline out of the remaining 4 sides. Then I'd want an MOP that allowed me to ramp down to the end of the polyline in profile1 then be able to ramp back up to the end of profile2 and so on.


UUGH! three hours later and not the answer.

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CamBam help (General usage) / Re: Change of Z along an elliptical path.

« on: January 31, 2023, 02:12:48 am »

They are not what I want but they are a good start. Here's why; when I set my lead in move I set it as spiral and give it no spiral angle. Doing that causes CamBam to calculate a ramp to depth that is equal to one full pass around the part. Then at full depth it continues on to make one more full pass at depth. That has worked fine for me so far it's perfect since I use a bottom cutting round over to make most of my profile cuts. Now I want to do something different. Now I want the ramp to stop and move on to the next polyline and perhaps ramp up. You can probably see my problem here. What the code that is generated does is for 1, starts at the wrong end of the cut no matter how I try to change that and 2, at depth the tool reverses and continues back along the path that had been cut. If I knew anything about programing I would edit the profile script and create one that just allows a ramp from a 2d file. After all it's already been done with the lead in and lead out move. I just need to get rid of the extra bit of work I don't need. I'm including an example of my edited g-code for download so that you can see for yourself what I'm after. You will also be able to see that I used the engrave profile. All of the Z axis were put in by me and my calculator. Hence edited.

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CamBam help (General usage) / Re: Change of Z along an elliptical path.

« on: January 30, 2023, 00:25:09 am »

Thanks for your input. It sounds like quite the work around though. Thinking further about this I realized that almost all of the profile cuts I make are begun with a ramp in to depth then from there are cut at depth, that equaling two passes around the part. Since I already know that CamBam has the smarts to do a ramp I simply want it to ramp down and be done with it and continue on with the next polyline which will be a ramp back up to Z=0.0 and so on and so forth. Still trying to figure this out. Your solution is a good one and thanks for that. This should be a lot simpler than it's turning out to be. Especially when half of the ability is already in existence.

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CamBam help (General usage) / Change of Z along an elliptical path.

« on: January 29, 2023, 20:46:38 pm »

What I'm trying to do is have a change in Z either a + or - . So what I'm trying to do is have a tool path that starts at point A and ends at point B and that path contain several arc segments (or line segments with or without arcs). Those lines and/or arcs will create the path being cut, of course. My Cad program created a 24 segment ellipse, so that's the example I'm using. In an example case I want the path to begin at A=0 and end at B=-0.125 and the end result be one ramp to depth. I have tried this using the engrave and v-carve plug-ins but both failed to give the result needed. Engrave just plain failed (it was never meant to work this way) and V-Carve lowered the tool only along the first line segment of the POLY. I did successfully (somewhat) calculate and edit the G-code to produce the results I was after but really want to automate this function BAM.

Edit: As I have been working on finding a solution to this I've realized that this post was improperly named. An ellipse is just the path that I was/am happen to be working with at this time. However, the result that I'm after could apply to any group of lines connected as a closed or unclosed polyline of any description.

11

Related Softwares / Re: pmdx 126 extended inputs plugin

« on: March 23, 2019, 20:05:00 pm »

Did you ever get this working?

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CamBam help (General usage) / Re: Copying and pasting between .cb files

« on: March 22, 2019, 19:30:08 pm »

No, I'm not using layers but it makes sense now that I think of it that layers would be treated in a way that didn't wreck the structure of other layers. Thanks for the tip.


And I'll be taking a look at those plugins. Thanks to you also.

13

CamBam help (General usage) / Copying and pasting between .cb files

« on: March 21, 2019, 19:30:32 pm »

A few weeks ago I received a fairly large ongoing batch of work. There are several permutations of the design based on one main design of which I am able to turn on and off each feature as necessary to create different GCode and change the part. When I originally received the art for this project it came as a .dxf and all went well but I knew I'd be getting other features to be added later. Manually adding the changes needed for the new features to the .dxf received. Using the original .dxf in order to get the proper spacing between features then copied and pasted only those new features to a new .dxf which I then opened in CAMBAM and created a polyline .cb file. Then took all of those features and copied those onto the original working .cb file. Fat, dumb and happy went on to tool path all the new changes. Generating tool paths revealed some really awful looking paths at which time realizing that by adding the features the way I did must corrupt the original .cb file. After much experimentation, I found a solution but am hoping it's not the only solution. I exported it as a .dxf, opened the .dxf and saved it again as a .cb file. Having done this the way I did I had to re-create the mop's which was a case of copy/paste from a saved backup file. It worked well but took several hours to add everything and reorganize the mop's in the order I want them to be (tool changes and cut ordering). My question is, is there a better way to do this (adding polylines to an existing working file) or is it just not supposed to be done?

14

How to's and tutorials / Re: Nesting Doc

« on: March 12, 2019, 19:05:57 pm »

I've just read the document and watched a very good video about nesting. I have a problem that may not have a solution but I'm hoping there is. I need to turn one of my parts ninety degrees in order to fit all parts on a sheet of 4x8 ply. Is there a way of doing this. I'd much rather use nesting than copy and paste.

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CamBam help (General usage) / Re: Machining Origin and tool offfset question

« on: September 22, 2015, 18:09:23 pm »

Creations, I don't think you're quite getting it. CamBam makes the code that defines the part you're controller software (mach3 Mill in my case) defines the table. You're cutter is part of the table so it's Mach3 that's determining the edge of the cutter.