[chris2112]

I tried it with .01. Maybe I should use .0001.

Thanks for this other tip. I'll try some different brews. I think some of the guys that draw some complex shapes for me are using a bunch of hacked together techniques. I'm learning a bit here and there.

Did you try the Arc Fitting method? Did that help?
It's usually not a problem of having arcs in your gcode, but have lots of small arc moves (lots of small line moves can also cause problems).

Good luck!

[chris2112]

.0001 made code with a bunch or acs. Of 1000 line, I had only 1 or so stutters. Maybe .00001 would be the final spec for the clean up.

The same file made with no arcs was still 1000 lines, and had no stutters. I didn't cut anything, just ran it above the table. I'll check which one cuts better.

I am using just default. I wonder is there is an advantage to using the Mach3 post processor?

Many thanks.

[10bulls]

.0001 made code with a bunch or acs. Of 1000 line, I had only 1 or so stutters. Maybe .00001 would be the final spec for the clean up.

I would go the other way ... increase the tolerance to 0.001, maybe even a little higher 0.01.

The arc fit tolerance is the maximum allowed error between a fitted arc and the source line segments.

The larger this tolerance is, you will get fewer arcs used and the shape should become smoother. The downside is there is a potential loss of accuracy (up to that tolerance distance).
But if you have a CAD drawing that has converted arcs to line segments there is already some inaccuracy introduced (the line segments can only approximate a curve).

The smaller the tolerance, the less likely it is to be able to fit arcs to your shape so you will end up with the original lines, or more smaller arcs.

I am using just default. I wonder is there is an advantage to using the Mach3 post processor?

The only real difference between the Mach3 and Default post is the Mach3 one adds non standard G90.1 and G91.1 codes to your g-code that tell Mach3 which Arc center mode your CamBam drawing is using... otherwise you need to make sure these are both set the same in the CamBam/Mach3 options.

[chris2112]

Thanks. .01 made the g-code will 100% arcs. It ran without stutters. This is all good. I have two new tricks in the tool bag. That will really help for certain programs.

I guess the story makes sense now. When I bough this gear used, it only had mach2 installed. I could not get arcs to work in mach3. When I was using lazycam, the guy making the drawing for me converted to line segments to trick it into making code without arcs. When I moved to mach3, that solved the arc issue, but a lot of the old drawings still had segments. Then on this new project, the sample I gave the guy had line segments that got duplicated. geez.

The mach3 upgrade was challenging. The file the K2 guys sent me had a weird backlash parameter set. That messed up so many parts. I make guitars. The custom stuff is tricky, but getting easier with each try.

Many thanks everyone!