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I've got a 5 axis laser and I teach it with the pendant. But, sometimes it would be nice to see the paths visually and be able to edit them. As such, I wonder if MadCAM can also import gcode from...

How many kidneys must one sell to be able to purchase even one license of that?!? If it's anything like any other robot software I've seen it'll be at least 15000 dollars.

Robots tend to have servos which drive gear reducers and such. There really aren't ballscrews. Things are hooked up through driveshafts and gearboxes then directly to the joint. You essentially could...

maketp is software. It's a console mode windows program (I'm pretty sure i've tried to run it in just dos and it will not.) that compiles .LS files into the binary .TP format for FANUC robots.
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Now you see that the answer to the question "what happens if you let 1,000,000 monkeys loose with a keyboard" is: "They write surfcam"

I used to get a lot of strange errors too but then I turned...

When you post a path in SurfCAM it is first output as a .INC file and then post processed into the real toolpath. If you look at the directory where posted paths are you should see both files for...

Hmm... It seems as if the measured data should proceed in the same manor as the original tool path. This could make the problem easier. They should essentially be the exact same path just two...

We machine reasonably good sized automotive dies. So, the time spent calculating paths is somewhat of a consideration. However, I'd say that the actual path generation pales in comparison to the time...

LKenney:

I see your point. The fact is, if it takes twice as long to calculate but runs twice as quickly then it's worth it. However...

In this case, they advertised a 5 speed stick and...

That was just the surfcam.exe process. But it would have included every thread, including auto saving. It seems to indicate that something isn't letting surfcam get multiple threads going very...

It sounds like, for whatever reason, SurfCAM isn't really getting multithreading at all. I don't know why... Hopefully they figure it out soon. It would be great if toolpaths suddenly started running...

I tried this out on my laptop which is a CORE2 Duo running Vista 32bit. It also does not multithread hardly at all. It appears as if the display code is a different thread from the toolpath code and...

As discussed in another thread here, the multithreading in SC4 is either a joke or doesn't work properly in Vista x64. I see a CPU utilization of about 53% when using the new paths in surfcam on a...

I did some checking on this.

I have Vista x64 with an AMD Athlon 64x2 5000+ processor.

I loaded up the bottle sample file and ran both 3d offset and pencil (the new HSM ones.) My CPU load was...

Yes, we just recently got V4 and I like it a lot so far. The new HSM paths are quite nice and calculate quickly. 3D offset machining is actually usable now.

I really like the new pencil paths....

Sadly, I do not have any information on the binary .TP format. I only know how to construct the ASCII version (.LS) which MakeTP can turn into TP files.


You can purchase the Fanuc software...

Would it not be better to go by tolerance instead of # of samples? It's difficult to determine how many samples are needed to get down to an acceptable tolerance.

Have you ever looked at the contents of an IGES file? It couldn't be more poorly laid out and hard to read if it had been a binary format. If I were you I'd try for a more easily understood format....

Yes, what you described sounds like how I would do it:

You define a plane for a given Z Level. Then you intersect every triangle in the model with the plane. Most triangles will not intersect....

Well, since they didn't post any source code you're probably stuck there... But you could modify one of the open source programs from this thread (I wrote one of them.) My program was a quick VB...

Well, as an update, I got the new brushes in and installed them. This fixed my problem and the machine is back in working order.

For what it's worth, I think the pulse coder setup on the Z axis...

Here is the thing... I have BOTH tachometers AND a pulse coder (at least on this axis. The X and Y axes might have resolvers or something... The configuration is different...)

It's as so:

On...

The tach is replaceable. It's screwed into the servo with two little screws and then the armature is bolted to the end of the servo shaft. I'll look around for the brushes.

Yeah, I get a tach fault even with it installed because it is not operational. It is a FANUC control.

Is there any way to find the brushes that a fanuc tach might use? I'm pretty sure that my...

I have Fanuc 30M servos being run by boards with A20B-0009-0320 boards. Recently the tach went out on our Z axis. However, the servo has a fanuc Pulse Coder installed on it. Why should I even use the...

Not really... The program I wrote goes from GCode directly to TP. It's exactly what the wintpe program allows you to do with .APT files but mine uses GCode files and also supports arcs. Think of my...

Aah... I see... I was thinking that you were trying to do 2d cutting of shapes but I understand what you want to do now.

I've used DelCam Powermill and it's a fairly decent package. Of course, I...

Well... I use SurfCAM. That might just be a tad pricey though for sheetmetal cutting. BobCAD is cheap as dirt and it shows. But you can probably talk their bloodsucking leech sales people into...

Yes. In fact, I attached the program to a previous post in this thread. I do not remember if it had the EXE's or just the source code. If there were no EXE's then I could post a version that has them.

Oh, I think I see what you mean. I didn't have any experience with using R moves. All I've ever used was IJK moves. But, it seems like the general idea is as so:

Starting at:
X0Y1

Then the arc...