[JohnToner]

How to implement G41 or G42 in PP. It seems not to be supported. It doesn't want any part of cutter radius compensation. This is very useful when manually coding. Never gave me trouble on Fanuc machines or even with Mach3.

[wtopace]

I was actually trying to do this last week with PathPilot for thread milling (without success). I was able to get lots of error messages regarding arc radius sizing (or something similar), but I was not able to get it to actually run. I tested code generated from Sprutcam and Fusion360 both. Fusion 360 was a modified post I put together to implement G41/G42 (it was commented out, I guess for good reason). It may also be that I needed a smaller cutter because of arc-in distance.

Side note: I did email Tormach support regarding this and received back: "I have never used it personally but I know customers have used it successfully so I know it is implemented into PathPilot." from Jacob S.

Let me know if you are able to get anywhere!

[JohnToner]

I'll mess with it today and let you know if I have any success. I really like some aspects of PP. No Windows, isolation via the Mesa card, etc. I've considered Mach4 but I believe it's still just a Windows app and also I have no idea how to configure it.

[MichaelHenry]

I'll mess with it today and let you know if I have any success. I really like some aspects of PP. No Windows, isolation via the Mesa card, etc. I've considered Mach4 but I believe it's still just a Windows app and also I have no idea how to configure it.

According to some of the threads in the Mach forums, Mach 4 still has some major problems.

[JohnToner]

Well, I was able to run the job in Mach3. It was a straight forward, simple program to do some peck drilling, cut three pockets and a slot. No 3D stuff. Used G41, G83, and G98/99 for four subprograms. I would have preferred to run in PP but without G41 I was a dead duck. Mach3 did give me the usual "Please Wait, Generating Path" delay since I still haven't figured how to kill it. I reported the Path Pilot G41/42 and Mach3 "Please Wait, Generating Path" problems to Tormach. I'll let you all know their solution.

At one point I was so frustrated with "Please Wait, Generating Path" that in a moment of desperation, I loaded ArtSoft's Mach3, having read that all I would have to do to make it work was to replace ArtSoft's XML file with Tormach's. I couldn't get it to move more than the X axis so I gave up and reloaded the Tormach version. I was hoping that that annoying "Please Wait, Generating Path" would be gone after the reload, but it was still present.

[PCW_MESA]

Have you looked at linuxcnc's gcode reference for g41 and g42?
assuming Pathpilot has not changed these, the linuxcnc gcode refernce will
show proper usage and error conditions for these codes

[JohnToner]

I'll check it out, the PP manual doesn't give any details. I really like PP but also want to be able to use at least the basic commands.

[Philbobb]

I loaded ArtSoft's Mach3, having read that all I would have to do to make it work was to replace ArtSoft's XML file with Tormach's. I couldn't get it to move more than the X axis so I gave up and reloaded the Tormach version. I was hoping that that annoying "Please Wait, Generating Path" would be gone after the reload, but it was still present.

Install the newer version of Mach on the PC, then copy the new .exe file to the Tormach Mach directory. Backup the Tormach .exe first. That's the way I remember getting it to work.

[JohnToner]

Thanks, Phil. I'll give it a shot Wednesday. I already ran the job so I'm safe if things go south. Also, I have Tormach's Mach3 disk, the Mach3 restore disk. and the license disk. So, I should be ok regardless of any problems I might create.

[MichaelHenry]

The Tormach manual for my Slant Pro lathe (0515A) calls out descriptions of G41, G42, G41.1, and G42.1 commands. I've no clue if they do anything as I'm still setting up the lathe.

[JohnToner]

Awesome Support! I sent an email to Tormach regarding my difficulty with G41/42 in PP and a problem in Mach3 with a "Please Wait, Generating Path" message that would pause execution after each instruction. Brennan for Tormach replied prompt;y, asked for details which I provided and he immediately replied with the solutions.

For G41/42 in PP, the solution is to put the tool radius, not the diameter, in the tool table. I didn't see provision for tool wear in the PP tool table, but this could easily be handled by the value of the radius.

For that annoying message that rendered it impractical to run a program of more than a few lines, I was told to re-load my license. That worked like a charm. Thank you Brennan from Tormach.

[wtopace]

Awesome Support! I sent an email to Tormach regarding my difficulty with G41/42 in PP and a problem in Mach3 with a "Please Wait, Generating Path" message that would pause execution after each instruction. Brennan for Tormach replied prompt;y, asked for details which I provided and he immediately replied with the solutions.

For G41/42 in PP, the solution is to put the tool radius, not the diameter, in the tool table. I didn't see provision for tool wear in the PP tool table, but this could easily be handled by the value of the radius.

For that annoying message that rendered it impractical to run a program of more than a few lines, I was told to re-load my license. That worked like a charm. Thank you Brennan from Tormach.

Awesome, I'll give the tool radius a try. That explains why I was receiving a gouge error... although it's strange I didn't get the same response from Tormach when I asked the question.