[Rampage Dave]

I'm fairly new to the CNC world so im still learning alot. We have a 5-axis Routech Record 132 NTTVNPR and use AlphaCAM 8.0 to program with. When i output to the machine, the file converts to a .PGM from an .ARD. For a while i thought only .PGM files were the only files we could use to run our machine but playing around in Xilog Plus, i saw .XXL files aparently work with our machine too. Long story short, we've been looking into ArtCAM Pro but i would like to see if someone with Aspire could right me a practice .XXL file to see if that software works with our machine. If we could purchase Aspire over ArtCAM it would save us 10g's. and with todays economy, we need to save all the money we can. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

David Fincher

[CarveOne]

I'm fairly new to the CNC world so im still learning alot. We have a 5-axis Routech Record 132 NTTVNPR and use AlphaCAM 8.0 to program with. When i output to the machine, the file converts to a .PGM from an .ARD. For a while i thought only .PGM files were the only files we could use to run our machine but playing around in Xilog Plus, i saw .XXL files aparently work with our machine too. Long story short, we've been looking into ArtCAM Pro but i would like to see if someone with Aspire could right me a practice .XXL file to see if that software works with our machine. If we could purchase Aspire over ArtCAM it would save us 10g's. and with todays economy, we need to save all the money we can. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

David Fincher

Open a .pgm file with MS Notepad and see if it is just regular ascii text gcode instructions. Do the same with the .XXL file. If they are plain ascii text, you may be able to just rename the gcode file and change the filename extension. Some gcode files have line numbering in them, others don't. I believe that EMC2 will ignore line numbering, and Mach3 doesn't. Look at the header (setup) gcode lines at the beginning of the file to be sure that it is correct for your machine.

Run the renamed file in simulation or "cut air" to see how your machine reacts before committing it to cutting something.

I don't use ArtCAM or Aspire, so can't help with that question.

CarveOne

[ger21]

I have an Aspire post that outputs an .xxl for a Morbidelli.

PGM files are binary. You should be able to convert the PGM to an .xxl to see what type of file you need, and modify a post to create an .xxl that'll work for you. You then convert the .xxl to a .pgm for your machine.
There's a utility to convert from .xxl to .pgm and back again. In the Start menu, under SCM Group, it's called WinXiso.

[zamzak]

Converting from xxl (text) files to pgm is easy in Xilog.
Much greater problem is time to convert this (larger files) and also step limit in Xilog (in my Morbi is about 29.000 steps).

This type of machines is not quite suitable for 3D carving, because is made mostly for panel work.

[ger21]

Yes, I've found that our Morbidelli has a file size limit somewhere around 70,000 lines, but it takes a very long time to load a file that size.