[EQGuitars]

Hey guys! I've been using a Shopbot 24x48" 3-axis mill for a year and a half and I just switched over to madCAM 3X from Vectric VCarve Pro 8. This may be a newbie question, but is it possible to export toolpaths with the home position set to my model, rather than the X and Y axes in the Rhino environment?

I am a guitarmaker and I have been building my models with their centerline along the X-axis, which works well in the design process to aid with symmetry and alignment, but it also means that most of my bounding boxes and objects have a theoretical tool zero at X -12,Y -15. I would prefer not to have to manually move the models to the true 0,0 in the environment before creating the toolpath in case anything were to get misaligned during that process.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[Gregore]

So if I have this question correct you are creating your model at rhino 0 for X and then you want to locate off the corner edge of the stock to be cut , and you want to know how to get the machine to know that this is not 0,0,0 but actually rhino X-12 and Y-15?

If this is what you are asking then I would assume you can use G54 through G59 fixture off sets these modes allow you to set what ever number you want for the current position of the machine . Then you need to add that offset # code to the Gcode . Lots of info on google for Gcode fixture offsets and how to get the most use out of them. I do not own a shop bot but I assume the manual will mention how to do this .

I am a jeweler and tend to,do things differently from machinists and like to always work from the center
I would select model then type in "move" command into rhino, select the point on the model I want to be true 0,0,0 using snaps ( for you corner of bounding box) then select rhinos 0,0,0 This will place your bounding box corner at rhino 0 , then tool path a normal

Hope this all makes some sense

[EQGuitars]

Hi Gregore,

Thanks for the reply; that is very helpful and I'll look into the steps to modify the post-processor code. Do you know if I will have to change the post code for each offset that I would want to use, or if the edits will allow me to type my offset into the UI? I usually only use the one offset, but it would be nice to not have to go in a change the code if I am working on a different type of project.

[Gregore]

If you have say G58 for guitar bodies and let's say G57 for the necks and you have know locations for the jigs on the table then you place those numbers at the top of the Gcode this tells the controller to use the particular offset location ( this adding of the offset number takes 10 seconds or less and is done only once per Gcode) then if your stock is the same size each time you now just load stock , load file for neck or body and press go
Controller see the offset code and knows Where the part corner is, plus or minus the accuracy of your jigs

How ever if you change to post prossesor then you have to have a post prosessor for each type of part. This could lead to problems by forgetting to choose the correct one.

[Gregore]

Also

I like to keep g54 open for general work and use the higher numbers first for jigs that I use all the time and work my way towards G55

[Corvus]

EQGuitars are you using two piece bodies joined at the centreline?

If so then I'd recommend keeping Y0 at the centreline and X0 at the left edge of your workpiece. No need to move the bottom left corner of your Rhino model to 0,0.

That said, it is certainly very easy to move your the bottom left corner of your Rhino model to 0,0 using the Move command. I usually draw my guitar models with X0 as the centreline, then for MadCAM I'll copy everything to a "cutting" Rhino layer and position it as I please.