[PaulRowntree]

This is nice Jack!
I just made a simple circular pocket, dragged it and it seemed to jump half-way back. When I generated a toolpath, the path in the circle was at the dragged-to spot, but the circular outline was at the jumped to point. I didn't check the gcode to see which was real.

Cheers!

[Jack000]

ah, yes I have seen this before. It's just a delay in the rendering, if you do a zoom or a pan it will update to the new position. I will be fixing this issue in the next release.

thanks for the report! :]

[Jack000]

hi guys

I've just finished implementing a new feature: true shape nesting! As usual, please report any bugs if you see them.

check it out at the same url: www.carveit.ca/partkam

I'm not sure how the efficiency compares to commercial products, but the results look pretty good to me :rainfro:

I've attached a demo file if you want to try it out.

here's some instructions:

[Khalid]

Amazing
Thanks for sharing..This is first programmer who put his software at its extreme at CNCZONE..

[SBC Cycle]

Amazing is a good word. One of the most impressive free CAD/CAM attempts I have seen in a long while. Great work!

[Jack000]

hold the applause, I've got more cool stuff in the works : ]

just gotta finish drilling and tabs, then the essentials will be all there.

[Khalid]

hold the applause, I've got more cool stuff in the works : ]

just gotta finish drilling and tabs, then the essentials will be all there.

Wow.. Your programming skills are amazing.. but i would like to make the GUI in Visual Basic etc... Just see my very simple program on embroidery machine Gcode Generator.. the program is very simple and the person like me can program it..
www.my-woodcarving.blogspot.com
However, I am really impress by your programming skills.. Wish you make it 3D and in 3D you involve the latest tool path as the VOLUMILL are using

[Jack000]

wow that embroidery program looks amazing. If I only had a sewing cnc :rainfro:

I'm not planning to do 3d in the immediate future - I would have to port the whole thing to an offline program. I'll probably wind up doing it at some point, but not for a while.

[Culturedropout]

Hey. Anything new on PartKAM these days? I've been trying to use it for a project I'm working on, and I keep getting the "The Adobe Flash Plugin has crashed" message after it sits there thinking for a while. I've got some islands nested inside of several closed paths, trying to do some 2.5D "relief" type stuff. There's a raised border, then a milled pocket with a bunch of islands in it. The "pocket" operation works fine, and correctly identifies the raised border and the islands, but when I tell it to generate the tool path, it goes off into the weeds and eventually gives me that "crashed" message. Any updates or ideas would be very much appreciated. Still going to release this as open-source? I share a workshop with an excellent programmer (ahem)Chris Radek(ahem) who I might be able to persuade to work on it a bit if we had the code... XD

[Jack000]

can you save the problematic file (as svg) and upload it here? I haven't seen it crash before.. even if an error occurs it should give you an opportunity to cancel out. Also, does this happen when you click "calculate toolpaths" or "export gcode"?

I should have a better idea of what's wrong after seeing the file. Could you also post your browser and flash version? Flash 9 is sometimes incompatible with flash 10.

I am planning to make it open source, maybe some time in october - I'm working on another secret project that uses the partkam app, and I'd like to release both at the same time. :]

anyways, it's good to see that people actually use this thing :rainfro:

[Culturedropout]

I've attached a screen shot of PartKAM running the part. It actually gets to 100% and then sits there for quiet a while before the Flash plugin crashes. I can hit "cance(l)" and it will stop, but it doesn't produce any output then. I'm really not at liberty to give away the source file to the general public, so I'll see if I can e-mail it to you directly, if that's okay. Thanks!

-Bill

[Jack000]

here's a development "branch" that I've created with the fix: www.carveit.ca/partkam/development.swf

I've noticed that it runs faster if you download the swf and run it standalone instead of in your browser.

let me know how it works for you!

[Culturedropout]

That seems to have done the trick. Thanks so much! :cheers: I downloaded it, but I have to open it in FireFox, because I don't think there's a way to directly execute Flash code under Linux, but it still works fine. This is going to be of tremendous use to me, I'm sure!

A couple of questions:

Is there any way to save defaults for various operations (e.g. depth per pass, tool size, etc.) in a file so you don't have to enter them every time?

I don't know if I'm doing something wrong, or if these are bugs (or maybe incompatibilities between versions of Flash?) but "Undo" never seems to do anything. I'm forever accidentally grabbing part of a path and dragging it out of shape when I'm trying to move it. If I click "undo" nothing happens.

Also, deleting toolpaths doesn't seem to work consistently. Sometimes, if I just hover the mouse over a path's name in the list and wait until it highlights with the blue background, I can hit "Delete" and it goes away, but most of the time nothing happens. I can't really "select" the path, because if I click on it, I get the parameter window for that path. (Maybe you could put a "Delete this toolpath" button at the bottom of that window?)

This is a really, really useful tool for those of us who can't shell out hundreds or thousands of dollars for commercial CAM software. I'm anxious to see what your new "secret project" is... :-)

[Jack000]

hmm... undo should with deletes, path-moves, and point-moves. Try deleting something and then undo, does it come back? Also, I haven't implemented ctrl-z, you have to go to the menu and click "undo". If that doesn't work it'll be very strange indeed.. I may have to experiment with the different flash versions.

to avoid dragging a point, just select everything (paths will turn red) - click and drag with the select tool to select multiple paths. Selected paths can't be dragged out of shape.

to delete a toolpath, just select it and press delete. To select it just click and drag with the select tool. A selected toolpath that has not been calculated will turn blue, and a calculated toolpath will simply be bolded.

as for saving defaults, I think that will be implemented when my other project is done. Flash doesn't allow you to access local files, so making defaults persist across multiple sessions is difficult. I'm making a server-side component so you can create an account and save your defaults and such on the server.

[Culturedropout]

I've been using the development version, and suddenly it's decided it doesn't want to save g-code. Not sure what's going on or when it changed, but I'm pretty sure I was able to a few days ago, and now I can create a toolpath and calculate it, but when I click "export gcode" I just get a blank stare. Sometimes it comes up and prompts me for a filename, but 99% of the time it just sits there with the menu selection highlighted and doesn't do anything. I can go click on other menu options after that, so it's not completely hung; it just seems to be ignoring the save button. Help!?!?

[Jack000]

does this happen reliably with certain toolpaths, or is it random? I uploaded a new development version (you may have to refresh the page) - there's no fundamental difference in how it works, but let me know if anything changes.

[Willliiee]

Hi Jack and major kudos on the CAM Program here!!! :rainfro: I hope this is a simple question: Is there a method of reversing the tool path direction on a profile operation??? the toolpath generated on my project cuts to the left of the vector, and i always like to "climb cut", or be on the right side of the vector when profiling.

Thanks much, Bill

[Jack000]

that shouldn't be too hard to add, just need to reverse the direction of the curve. I'm working on another project right now but I should be able to fit it into the next release.

Also, I think it's about time I released the source code. Anyone have any tips on how to do it? Do I just put a LGPL header on top of each file and call it a day?

[rowbare]

You might want to set up a Source Forge or GIT project

[ynneb]

Great work Jack, Ive only just noticed this. I truely hope it all goes to plan.
I am contemplating to start a series of videos on youtube titled "CNC on a shoe string budget. I will have a play with PartKam and hopefully include it in the videos.

Does the top link you posted contain the latest release, and is it always updated, or is that to an earlier release?

Benny