[samdjo]

How often do you guys have to edit gcode after it comes out of the CAM? Every once in a while or pretty often? Is it pretty straightforward or is it pretty painful to get working? Are there tools that make it less painful?

[joeavaerage]

Hi,
I regularly edit certain Gcode files, as the CAM program that generated it did not include an 'S' word (PCB-Gcode, a ULP of EAGLE PCB program), that requires four keystrokes per file, and three files per job, ie 12 keystrokes.....
no trouble. I use a Lua script (scripting language of Mach4) to edit a drill file generated by PCB-Gcode to get Mach4 compliant Gcode.

Both of these circumstances are very easy and can well be handled manually or automated with a script.

More advanced tool path editing requires Gcode be edited by hand, and depending on what alteration you want to make that can be tedious and/or error prone.

I use Fusion Basic, but I also buy a Machining Extensions subscription. Machining Extensions gives me simultaneous four and five axis, collision avoidance but also tool path editing, which is effectively
a visual edit of a tool path and that gets reflected in the Gcode. I seldom use it....but it is there. Typically tool path editing is available but only in the top tier PRO releases of PRO CAM.

Machining Extensions for instance cost me $2400NZD/year, and that is over and above Fusion Basic which cost $780NZD/year, so you certainly pay dearly for tool path editing.

Craig

[metalmayhem]

if a cam is setup properly then editing shouldn't be necessary but it also depends on the situation . The parts i run now are singles so the cam spits out code and I run it . The last shop I worked at I designed new products then programmed for multiple part fixturing . I used to chop the operations in my program in order to add a bunch of g52 shifts and subroutines . It would require a lot of hand editing but the bulk of the code was reliant on the cam

[joeavaerage]

Hi,
I agree, if you have a tool path thats not quite what you want then ideally you'd go back into CAM and fix it. Editing Gcode by hand is likely to cause a crash.

The attached is a pic of the Tool Path Editing functions that accompany Fusion Machining Extensions. They include Trim ( a toolpath), Delete Passes (eliminating air cuts for example),
Leads and Links (allows you to place one or more Leads or Links to best suit the part), Replace Tool (allows you to use a short stick out tool without having to recalculate the entire toolpath),
Changing Entry Positions.

I sometimes use it, particularly if the are a lot of air-cuts in a tool path, or maybe there is some small feature on the part that you wish to exclude from something like a facing tool path.
I do use it sometimes, but I mainly use Machining Extensions for four and five axis....tool path editing is just a bonus.

Craig

[routalot]

If I need to edit the code,I either use Wordpad on a Windows machine or Mousepad on a linux machine.As long as you understand what needs to go where,it isn't difficult.My most recent case was where the post processor was trying to return to machine coordinates at the end of a sequence and return to an absolute zero that would have been outside the machine envelope.It was faster to cut those lines and return the machine manually than to move the job and re-compute.