[Robin Hewitt]

Cut my first part with the free G-Simple software and my new z axis today. For a first attempt it isn't at all bad.

I'm sure G-Simple has been reviewed to death on here but it seems only fair to say thanks and that I am most pleased

My aluminum pulley box came out .06mm (0.0025") overlength. I pressed that bearing in and it doesn't want to turn, but hey, it went in and tight is much easier to fix than loose.

Slight chatter from the finishing cut in the pocket which cut down hill. No chatter on the outside, which cut uphill, but it didn't remove all the previous cut marks. OTOH the front came out almost mirror so it is possible, I just neeed to tweak the parameters a bit.

But these faults are mine, what about the software?

It seems totally unfair to criticise free software, but if it was all singing and dancing he'd be asking $ hundreds for it. Let's be grateful for the few shortfalls that mean the price is definely right

G-Simple does part of the shape at a time. On this part it cut the outline, made several horizontal passes to clear the rest, then repeated the same going progresively deeper to depth. Then it started on the pocket, there is little, if any, optimisation. OTOH the code worked flawlessly so I wasn't bothered when the wife called me to eat dinner, I just left it running, nil problemo.

When you import a dxf it doesn't seem to notice elevations and thicknesses. You define a rectangular starting block then raise bulges and maybe sink pockets into them. When I wanted to use the same dxf entities in two pockets/bulges I found I had to copy them off to one side so I could pull then back in to use again. This is not a complaint, merely an observation.

Top tip: If you want to try G-Simple read the manual then look at at the worked examples on their web site before you do anything else. It's the examples that make it simple

[massajamesb]

That looks extremely nice. Very impressive!

[Chipmunk]

I agree with your comments, it works very well. Your end results look awesome.

I just got my outfit up and running, Taig unit with Probotics 400 oz steppers. So far I have been cutting air using the tutorials to find my way around the program.

I need to get some practice under my belt before I set up a few projects that I have lined up.

[Robin Hewitt]

I haven't used it for years, but I did like the algorythm... Cut horizontal lines, go around any outlines you meet once, jump over if you meeet them again.

I then wrote my own version that reads in a .dxf including line and arc thicknesses so I can glean a complete 2.5D

Then I added a selection of .txt files that defined the cut strategy, something like this...

Rapid 10.0
Feed 2.0
Plunge 0.8
doc 2.0
hor 0.1
clear 2.0
Tool 3.0
cut all
Tool 3.0
doc 3.0
hor 0.0
finish all

Then I added "find a milling machine and talk it directly" which is fun because I can display the non-cutting parts of the .dxf and use them for tool alignment.

The toolpath algorhytm is so simple I can regenerate the entire cut in real time directly from the two input files. I change either input file and get a new tool path without asking it to do anything.

I can even shrink it down and do other stuff on Win7 so long as I don't run out of memory.

It isn't clever but it is still simple