[CNC-Dude]

Today is my last day with Sprutcam 7. Luckily, my employer realized the lack of CAM was going to hose down both of us and they agreed to help me acquire a new license. So I will now be using Sprutcam 9.

At some point in time I saw a video on differences between SC7 and 8. Now there is one from 8 and 9. Since there will never be a video detailing changes from 7 to 9, here are some questions perhaps the group membership can help me with:

1. I plan on porting my tool table from 7 to 9. Anything that I should be mindful? Hopefully, they are compatible.
2. I am under the impression there will be some setup required. Already watched the video on how to setup the machine and the 4th axis. Any other hidden checkbox or drop down menu which is a must but is so hidden it will make me bust my monitor a few hundred times? (If I recall, there was one in SC7 which drove a lot of people insane?)
3. I have watched the video on how now there is an arrow on drill operations which if not set properly will make me swear down ancient gods and extraterrestrial deities. Any other "minuscule" change which might put celestial beings in danger of my tongue?
4. Any other hiccup which you have experienced and want to share with this SC9 newbie?

Thanks for your input!

[SomeWhatLost]

cant answer any of your questions as I am still on sprut 7...
but quick question of my own, since you just did so... is there any "upgrade path" from 7 to 9 that does not involve paying full MSRP$$ for 9? (well, besides getting someone else to pay for it?)

[popspipes]

I was told bu Tormach you cant go from 7 to 9 without paying full price......

[danh818]

I've been from 7 to 8 and now 9. You should be able to just copy your tool library file into the SprutCam 9 directory. I would suggest downloading the 30 day trial from the Sprutcam website and give it a whirl.

[mountaindew]

Some Things i did going from 8 to 9 and for good results using sprut 8 or 9
Read the online manual a few times and I still re reread sections.
Keep an open mind, I was lucky and had 0.00 cam experience so no preconception on how it should work or how it did work in the past or how other products worked.
Navigation of the program can be difficult at first. Lots of use will help this and before you know it your moving around and getting results fast.
I made and keep a backups of all tool libraries and predefined operations like taping, thread milling ........
Also I rebuilt some of my templates from empty files. I wanted to see if there were bugs creating them and what the difference is when compared to sprut8 templates that I built. . I found few if any problems on complex 6 sided parts when I loaded old files or when I created it from scratch so I don't think its necessary. Still it is a new data structure in a new version and to get best results or if I have any problems at all with the compile or model this would be the first thing I would do to fix it. Also I created directories to separate all the files and g-code for sprut8 files and 9 files. In the year of use I have about 200 different parts designed , modeled with cam tool paths and compiled g-code. This results in over 800 files to manage already. I do all my parts multi sided other wise those would balloon into thousands of files to manage.
I would also recommend a good computer to run your cam software on. Sput works best with a fast computer with 8+ gigs of memory and decent n-1 generation gfx cards. Toss in a couple ssd drives for fast file movement and management. If your like me your going to need it to care for the thousands of files you will create over the years of use.
That's about it, The new version works very well imho and as I have noted many times worth the cost and mill is more or less a paper weight without it or some good cam bloatware.

Much to learn
md

[CNC-Dude]

OK, just got my key today, got it started and have to admit this is an UPGRADE! The changes are very nice and make life a little bit easier.

But just as suspected, there is an item which by pure luck I had seen on an old video which if not done, WHAMMO! Ancient gods doesn't stand a chance from the amount of black tongueness which ensues...

After downloading the latest Post Processor from Tormach (which I just guessed of doing as it is not documented on any Quick Start Guide which I have seen), I went to Utilities->SystemSetup->Machining and on the Drilling Cycle Format chose CYCLE (default is EXTCYCLE which doesn't work).

If you don't do this a bunch of operations won't be supported. You will see your machine skipping a bunch of operations which the simulation is happy to show as perfectly fine. Except it is NOT! If you check your GCode (which I hardly ever do because why should I when a "PERFECT" computer did what I can't even dream of comprehending) you will see a note to the operation not being supported.

How on Earth did I figured this out? Astral powers? Psychic endeavors? Universe alignment luck? Most likely a combination of all... As it turns out, there is a video on Sprutcam 8 which mentions this. Otherwise, I would have needed to refit my adamantium knuckles after punching all my monitors to no avail. You would imagine this had been fixed on SC9 or that perhaps it would be documented elsewhere. ERRR!! Now it is documented here and hopefully anybody feeling like racing in a motorcycle towards a gigantor ninja blade at neck height will find this before such tragedy takes place...

[MichaelHenry]

Thanks for the CYCLE tip, I hadn't heard that one. Maybe that's why my tapping cycles kept trying to retract at 3X the requested feed rate. That doesn't do the part or the tension-compression head any favors. Reportedly, it is also a bad idea to let SprutCAM upgrade itself.

Mike

[danh818]

When I notice the update systray icon for Sprut pop up, rather than just applying the update patch, I go to the SprutCam website, login and download the entire new build (offline installer). It hasn't failed me yet.

[mountaindew]

cnc-dude
Your going to find dozens if not hundreds of settings and choices that need to be set and evaluated. I review code for major errors or problems before going to the mill. Things like auxiliary operations required a great deal of experimenting before I could zero in on good g-code and the results I wanted from that operation and others like it for example. I use a program called one note and I copy and paste pictures and make notes for all the stuff I learn and figure out. Saves a ton of time if your trying to repeat it in a similar process and all the drama of swords and motorcycles will be reduced. There is so many ways to get results imho a huge notebook is only way to check settings and or understand how to set or do certain things "to much to remember". I have mentioned before I don't break tools or crash mill and I give sprut most of the credit. It takes time and effort to check as much as possible and some blocks of wood or plastic to verify some stuff. No way I could have zeroed in on all the settings and sizes for thread milling for example without testing on a number of blocks of wood or plastic.

Mike post clip of code!

This is typical g-code generated for 8-32 tap op
N360 (Hole1)
N370 S500 M3
N380 G1 Z-0.5 F19.7
N390 M4
N400 G4 P0.3
N410 G1 Z0.3 F15.4
N420 M3
N430 G4 P0.4
N440 G0 X0.821 Z0.4

I can post a clip of the settings screen if you want and or I think I have in another thred.

As for updates I don't allow any at this time. I prefer to stay at a stable file creation point and work around any problems "not many these days" Just my strategy and might not work best for others.
md


Foot note: the program and all its awesome functions and simulations are cool but bottom line its all show until you see what the post processor does and what code it generates for all those settings, some of witch generate no code at all no matter how they are set.

[CNC-Dude]

MD, I agree SC will contain trillions of configuration parameters. Rest assured I do not plan on learning them all. In fact I wonder if even the programmers know them all!

The thing is that 99% of the parts we each make tend to be similar in how they are fabricated. For example, in my case I have been able to make pretty much every single part with a combination of hole machining/drilling, hole machining/pocketing, 2D contour and pocketing operations. That's it! I hardly ever use waterline roughing or finishing, plane, drive, flat land, etc. Only once have I used rotary machining. Everything else on the 4th axis has been a combination of the earlier mentioned operations.

Like I said, all of us will have our own set of preferred operations and at the end what really matters is that we can fabricate our part with the level of quality it requires.

With that being said, there are a series of initial settings which need to be taken care of if these operations are to work as expected.

SC9 defaults to expecting a Post Processor which our Tormach Post Processor does not abide to well. Of course I can check my code all I want and ensure that it will work but the point is that dinky little detail, which is bound to cause all sorts of frustration is really not well documented. So when the code looks like it is not doing what I though was supposed to do, how do I fix it?

Tormach is a great company and I am very pleased with how they do things. But here is how I got my SC9 license:

1 CD, 1 key and 1 Invoice.

Would it be that hard to include a two or three page leaflet on how to configure SC9 for the first time? Pitfalls to watch out for? Settings which you may want to keep in mind as they could impact the work? Everything else I have bought from Tormach comes with such a leaflet, even when I could have downloaded it from the web. They know very well I won't download it which is most likely going to end up in a bunch of questions. With the leaflet in hand, however, most questions are answered before my ignorance strikes back.

The thing is that such leaflet does not exist for SC! I think is time a Startup Guide on Sprutcam is created.

[mountaindew]

Good point, a startup guide would help. I think tormach likes to focus on sprutcam classes that you pay for and attend.
I have asked a number of times who has attended these and how much they learned. I was thinking of a trip to tormach would be fun.
Anyway I enjoy using as many types of operations as I can. No big deal to pop tools in and out and hit alt-r to run . I think of them as paint brushes and each one has a little different result. lacking experience is awesome in this case because I can learn my own methods or technic to get results. What I mentioned about looking at code is very basic. I mostly look at commands, format and if the changes I made even changed the code generated. Some things don't apply or generate different g-code. As noted there is not a large amount of info out there so I have to experiment with it until I see the results I want. Auxiliary operations is one example. I had to spend time on looking at what code was generated for the settings in that custom operation. And these were simple ones, like pause program and prompt user to change fixture or rotate part and find xyz. At this point im glad I spent some time to learn some of this program "steep learning curve at first" and found its not 1/10 as complex as the CAD software I use and if I struggle at all these days its drawing what I want.

ps: I also got a return envelope for my old key when I made purchase and a note that if I didn't return key I will have to pay way more!
Hang in there, lots of awesome help around here, tormach and others.

md

[jimlake]

I am new to SprutCam, but I have used other CAM before. I am struggling with Sprut9. I watched the Sprut7 videos from Tormach, but when I use some of the techniques, they do not work. For example, when setting up hole machining, the video says you can double click on a hole in the model and the software will select all holes of that size. When I do that with Sprut9, the double click has no effect at all. Has anyone else managed to select a number of holes at the same time? If so, how? I am using the Tormach 2102 post processor.

[CNC-Dude]

Well, this is actually a feature that seems to work for me. I would not know which button enables/disables it, if any. But I imagine it may have to do with the selector buttons? Don't even know if that is their name, but you know, the ones which you select to enable/disable whether you want to grab lines, points, surfaces, etc. This is just a guess, though.

[danh818]

Be sure to double click one of the inside hole surfaces, and not the top edge.

[jimlake]

I believe that I see the problem now. It is very sensitive to where you hover the cursor. If I zoom in on the hole and search a bit the brown highlight does appear. Thanks.