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Messages - billo

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1
CamBam help (General usage) / Horizontal 3D incomplete
« on: September 05, 2023, 13:38:02 pm »
I'm using Horizontal Roughing to pocket an area in a 3D slab. I'm showing a simple part here to demonstrate the problem (my parts are more complex than this).

Horizontal (and Vertical) do not pocket the entire area. (Although Waterline Rough works well for this part, it does not work well for my more complex parts.)

I've used a large bit and Horizontal Finish to better visualize the problem, Rough does exactly the same thing.

The toolpath is leaving 45mm of material, 40mm of which should have been cut (if my calculations are correct).

Is there some setting I'm missing?

Thanks,
Bill

The .cb is attached


2
Update: My solution was to export individual files from Rhino (using a script), and then import each of them into CamBam (using a script).

Works perfectly, although it took a while to perfect the scripts.

Bill

3
CamBam help (General usage) / Re: "Open poly skipped" on Surface
« on: August 30, 2023, 18:05:26 pm »
@Dave

I believe we have a workaround for the first 8 of our remaining pieces.

First, I should explain that we need 'overhangs', which require that we mill BOTH sides of our pieces. We use a method of registration holes with dowel pins on the pieces and in the spoilboard to "flip" pieces over and mill from the 'bottom' after milling from the 'top'.

We're not sure where the "folds" are coming from. The models look fine in Rhino. Someday we'll try exporting to STEP files instead of STL, but we're on a tight deadline now and need something working tomorrow.

I increased the .stl export resolution (in Rhino) from .01 to .001. The pieces still have folded edges according to FreeCad and they still generate warnings in CamBam. However, it seems to be easier to find a magic number for Depth Increment that avoids the warnings (because the triangle are smaller?).

I tried Depth Increments from 1.50, 1.51, ... to 2.12; 2.12 worked!

I'll update when I try switching to STEP files (I remember rejecting STEP previously because STEP not support LAYER properties, but LAYER is not required for this particular project).

Thanks for your help,
Bill

4
CamBam help (General usage) / Re: "Open poly skipped" on Surface
« on: August 29, 2023, 23:26:49 pm »
Dave,

Found it. FreeCad. Thanks for the tip. Digging in now.

Bill

5
CamBam help (General usage) / Re: "Open poly skipped" on Surface
« on: August 29, 2023, 15:55:24 pm »
Dave,

Can I ask where that analysis box came from? Were you exporting from CamBam? (I don't see that when I export).

6
CamBam help (General usage) / Re: "Open poly skipped" on Surface
« on: August 29, 2023, 15:41:47 pm »
David, I did have "Offset Backtrack Check" set to True already. I changed "Spline to Polyline Tolerance" to 0.01 (from my original 0.001): That eliminated the Warning on this part but not on any of the other similar parts in my collection.

Dave, I'm following up with the Rhino modeler on the folded edges. That sounds like a productive lead.

Thanks again,
Bill


7
CamBam help (General usage) / Re: "Open poly skipped" on Surface
« on: August 28, 2023, 20:56:21 pm »
I tinkered with Depth Increment a little. I found that an increment of 1.07, instead of 1, results in no warning messages.

Which would be a "solution" except that I have 12 similar pieces, and I haven't found a similar magic increment for any of those yet.

8
CamBam help (General usage) / Re: "Open poly skipped" on Surface
« on: August 28, 2023, 20:24:43 pm »
I'm fairly new to this, but it seems like there should not be anything here that is units-specific, including the .stl. Your toolpath looks like I would expect (for a 14-inch diameter bit on a 58-inch deep part)!!.

Can you think of anything that might be units-specific (which might give a clue to something else amiss)?

I had pasted my standard-mm 'default' style onto my MOP so my .cb file did not have any dependency on my styles. If you paste your standard-in style on top of my MOP, do you see any changes in MOP properties that might be meaningful?

Thanks for your help,
Bill

9
CamBam help (General usage) / Re: "Open poly skipped" on Surface
« on: August 28, 2023, 19:33:06 pm »
I guess it does look 2D at a quick glance, but it has a sloped sides. It is definitely 3D.

The .cb is attached.

10
CamBam help (General usage) / "Open poly skipped" on Surface
« on: August 28, 2023, 14:32:49 pm »
I'm getting multiple "Open poly skipped (offset=nn)" warnings on a surface imported from .stl.

In the attached CB file, the toolpath at the corresponding depth appears to be skipped entirely. I have other examples where the toolpath is just wrong and cuts into the surface of the shape.

The .stl was originally exported from Rhino (from a closed polysurface). I've run the file through an analyzer (FormWare) and into various viewers. And re-imported into Rhino and done edge analysis there. I don't see any problems anywhere except in CamBam.

I would love to get suggestions as to how to analyze/fix this file for CamBam.

Thanks,
Bill


11
CamBam help (General usage) / Re: Unusual 3D waterline toolpath
« on: May 25, 2023, 22:49:41 pm »
This forum has been a wonderful resource for me. Thanks to all who participate.

p.s. The Camotics "arc warnings" are because I had set my PP number format to 0.0# (which is plenty precise for us and makes the gcode easier to read).  I added another digit with 0.0## and Camotics is now happy.

Bill

12
CamBam help (General usage) / Re: Unusual 3D waterline toolpath
« on: May 25, 2023, 16:55:41 pm »
Thank you very much Dave.

Your effort made me realize the problem must be in my Standard style.

There I found I had a non-default value for "Arc Fit Tolerance". Setting that back to the default of 0 fixed all of my problems.

(Although still working on the minor warnings in Camotics.)

Pics show the low-triangle and high-triangle simulations.

Bill

13
CamBam help (General usage) / Re: Unusual 3D waterline toolpath
« on: May 24, 2023, 22:20:43 pm »
To detach from the style: I copied from the Style to clipboard, then "paste format" onto my toolpath. That seemed to capture most of the appropriate properties from the style to the document.

I exported a new .3ds from Rhino with minimal triangles. This version has only 60 triangles. That is now in the .cb.

Waterline still produces a funky toolpath.

14
CamBam help (General usage) / Re: Unusual 3D waterline toolpath
« on: May 24, 2023, 21:25:47 pm »
My toolpaths make extensive use of styles. I've searched and I do not see a way to detach a toolpath from it's style and bring all of those style properties forward into the document.

That would seem to be the only way to make my .cb useful. Or, would it be useful anyway?

Bill

15
CamBam help (General usage) / Re: Unusual 3D waterline toolpath
« on: May 24, 2023, 18:24:22 pm »
I tried various boundary shapes (detected edge with offsets) as you suggested. I didn't see much difference. The paths are still not concentric in seemingly random ways.

I thought my rough cut was good. However, even though the paths are concentric, they are shifted towards one side of the symmetric 3D object.

I applied a horizontal-method finish pass to the rough (which has a 2mm clearance), and the rough shows through the finish.

Given our different results it seems like it must be due to the characteristics of my particular .stl?

Attached are the nice-looking rough toolpath (but notice how the start/end points are not symmetric with the slope around the island), and the Camotic of rough and finish (with the rough peeking through).

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