[Holmes_ca]

Hello, I am a new member, I have been reading the threads and trying to follow suggestions made on this subject but cant seem to get good results,

I am useing autocad 2000,
I draw a simple rectangle with polyline, click on export, open stl folder, save as stl in drop down window, then save, I then select object by drawing from right bottom corner and travel to top left corner, I then right click inside the drawing and get a message telling me no solids selected, when I go back into my files the file is missing, so I am unable to load the stl drawing into MeshCam to produce G-code,

I am useing Mach2cnc to control my mill

can someone explain what I am doing wrong,

Look forward to your comments,..........

...........................Edmund................

[wjbzone]

A stl file expects you to select a solid to export. A polyline will not do. Using Meshcam is great for 3d contours if you have a solid or bitmap.

For just a polyline, try using one of the free downloads in this forum. Ger21 has a gcode export program or gcodeout is on my website.

Bill

[Holmes_ca]

Thank you Bill,
My first question is, will not autocad 14 or 2000 do a solid drawing?,

And secondly, can you direct me to the free downloads, I have searched but am unable to find,

.................Edmund...................

[wjbzone]

Edmund,
Autocad 14 and 2000 will do solids drawings. You can build a solid using a box, sphere, cylinder or cone. You can extrude or revolve a closed polyline. You can add and subtract solids. You can obtain the intersection of two solids. There a lot of tools. You cannot do a variable fillet.

My gcodeout.fas program runs in Autocad 2000. It's in the "Autocad download" section on my website: wjbzone.com.

Here is the direct link:
http://www.intergate.com/~wjb1/wjbzo...d/gcodeout.zip

Bill

[Holmes_ca]

Thank you Bill,
So sorry to be a nuicance, but I am a complete beginner with computers and files, I am at a loss as to how I download your program, I have it stored in a zipped folder on desktop, when I open it up I have three boxes gcodeout fas, gcodeout, and gcodeoutpost, when I open first two it appears in notepad, how do I load it into autocad 2000, sorry about all this, but because of my ignorance and past experience my computer gets all messed up with files in the wrong folders ect ect,

[wjbzone]

No problem Edmund, hope I can help.

To run the gcodeout.fas program,

1. Start Autocad and open the drawing file you to convert to gcode. (or draw it and save)
2. From the Autocad command line type "appload". Navigate to gcodeout.fas and click the load button.
3. Once gcodeout is loaded into the current drawing session, type gcodeout from the command line.
4. Follow the prompts on the command line.
(Note use the Autocad text window to read all the instructions - F2 key)

If you have any problems let me know.
Bill

[Holmes_ca]

Hello Bill, if I had a knife I think I would slit my throat, I have played with this thing for hours, last night till 2 in the morning, trouble is I dont understand what I am doing, I did a cone in 2000 and managed to get a g-code in notepad, but when I saved as, I lost the g-code and got a diferent bunch of numbers and nothing like a g-code program, so this morning I tried to load into mach2, this odd code loaded but no picture of drawing, I tried to load into meshcam, and cutview, I have files all over the place I have gcodeout in meshcam folder everything is a complete mess, I'm going in to watch the tele,

[Holmes_ca]

Bill, I did reply to your email look forward to talking with you, since then I have drawn a new drawing in 2000 useing polyline, I had a problem finding gcodeout in my files so in the end I dragged gcodeout.fas from notepad into the appload window and loaded, now I have the g-code in Mach2 and running, did a sample with styrofoam, did a multipass for 3 passes, it went good but the Z axis did not retract at end of run, and when I did a go back to home the Z stayed in down position and I had a nasty, good job matl was styrofoam, I guess I need to do some editing, also cutter was on center so I guess I need some offset as well, should have done a layer with offset and then developed the gcodeout, (I think?),

But it does make me feel I have acomplished something today.

[wjbzone]

Edmund,
I got your reply, I'll get back to you today. Glad to hear your making progress. My gcodeout is limited in what it can do. It will not do tool radius G41,G42 offsets, so another layer with polyline for the tool center is what I do. (I use turbocam - it does not handle tool radius offsets)

One more suggestion. If you want the offsets, you might try Tahlcam. The demo version is limited to 1000 lines of gcode, but it is a good program. I can help there too.
Bill.

[Wilkerson]

Draw your model in 3D Soild in AutoCAD and use the STLOUT command

[Holmes_ca]

My problem is I have to learn how to produce a 3D solid in autocad, (I have 2000)

[Holmes_ca]

Hello Gerry, and Hello Bill, I am now directing all autocad questions to this forum only, once again I would like to thank both of you for the assistance you have given me, at this time I am concentrating on the tutorial websites you sent me, and I will contact you if assistance is needed, thank you for the opportunity of contacting you,

[Holmes_ca]

Hello Gerry, Bill,
Well its started already, I am following the tutorial by Ellen Finkelstein, titled introduction to 3D Objects, from website www.caddigest.com, I completed the single drum and it turned out good in meshcam and cutviewer, now I have continued on to the double drum (smaller drum on top of large drum ) this is a completely new drawing,the drawing looks good, now!, when I Export into meshcam and open the picture it is not a double drum, it is the original single drum,
Can you suggest what is going on, I have tried changing the drawing title three times and each time its the same,

[ger21]

I can't figure out how you even got the single drum into MeshCAM, because that tutorial is not using 3D solids, which is the only thing AutoCAD can export as an .stl . Adding Thickness does not make a circle a solid. It's actually faking 3D.


Here's 2 ways to do it, easy way first.

1) First, go to View > 3D Views, and choose SW Isometric.

2) From Draw menu, choose Solids > Cylinder. Type 3,3,0 and hit enter. Type 2 for the radius and hit enter. Type 1 for the height and hit enter. You should have a cylinder.

3)Repeat the cylinder command, and type 3,3,1 and hit enter. Type 1 for the radius and hit enter. Type 1 for the height and hit enter. You should now have your 2 cylinders.

Now there is a problem. AutoCAD will only export 1 object as an .stl, and you have 2. (This could have been your problem above. After you export your model, hit F2, to bring up the text window.Check the bottom for any error messages regarding your export. F2 again to close)

4) OK, now we have to join 2 objects together. Very simple; Modify > Solids Editing > Union. Select the two cylinders, and they become one. Export and load into MeshCAM. One thing you may notice in MeshCAM is that the cylinders are very faceted. This is controlled in AutoCAD by the FACETRES variable. You can set it from 0 to 10, but by default it is 0.5. I always set it to 10. Type facetres, and enter 10 and hit enter, and try exporting again. See the difference? (You can also set FACETRES under Tools > Options > on the display tab, It's called Rendered Object Smoothness.)

OK, now the hard way.

1) Choose Draw > Circle,Center Radius. Enter 3,3 for the center, 1 for the radius.

2) Repeat the circle command. Again enter 3,3 for the center, but make the radius 2. You should now have 2 circles.

3)From the Draw menu, choose Solids > Extrude. Select the small circle. Enter 2 for the height. Enter 0 (or just hit enter) for the taper angle. (or enter a taper angle and make a tapered cylinder if you like) You should now have a cylinder, or cone shaped cylinder.

4)Extrude again, but select the large circle. Enter 1 for the height,and 0 for the taper . You now have 2 cylinders.

5) Use the Union command as above and join the 2 cylinders. Export to MeshCAM.

[Holmes_ca]

Hello Gerry, well!, I followed your instructions on joining two objects together (the simple way)and loading into meshcam and cutviewer, everything looked good, so I did a start in cutviewer and was successful with the top (smaller) drum but when it continued to the larger drum it produced four flat sections at 0deg 90deg 180deg and 270deg, now I did notice that when I extruded the larger drum by 1.000in in autocad the two circles were joined with four verticle lines, could that have something to do with the four flats produced in cutviewer?, hope you understand my reasoning,

[ger21]

When you load the model into MeshCAM, are the cylinders round? If so, then you did it correctly. Did you check the effects of the FACETRES variable I mentioned. Just always set it to 10 before you export.

Anyway, if it was round in MeshCAM, then the problem would be your toolpath settings in MeshCAM, as Cutviewer is only showing you what MeshCAM is creating.

I think I know what the problem may be. In MeshCAM, under the CAM menu, Set Max Depth is set to only mill the top half of your object by default. You have to move the slider to the bottom to machine the whole model. Try that and see if it works.

The 4 vertical lines you see in Autocad are just a simple approximation of the cylinder to speed up the display. You can change this by either typing isolines, and setting the value higher, or under Tools > Options, under the Display tab, change the value for Contour Lines per surface.

[Holmes_ca]

Hello Jerry, I have tried a half dozen drawings in different ways, and I am inclined to think the problem is with Meshcam, every finished drawing in cutviewer winds up looking like the centre of a Maltees cross

I do notice that when I open cam and define stock, then click normal, the dims for block size = X=4.000 and Y= 3.985. and when I measure block size in cutviewer the flats measure 4.000 across which is the finished size of the circle, so that to me indicates that the radius of the maltees cross form is undersize, ie: tool offset is not taking place on the radius part,

perhaps it might be a good idea to contact Robert at MeshCam?, what do you think?,

[ger21]

Could you post both the model and gcode here for me to look at? And, Did you set the depth like I said under Set Max Depth? It sure seems like that is the culprit. How about a screen shot from Cutviewer? I need a little more info to see what's going on.

I'm 99.999% sure it's not MeshCAM, as I use it almost every day (and have been beta testing it since day one) and I've never seen the problem you're describing.

[ger21]

In Meshcam, are you seeing the toolpaths (green lines) going all the way down to the bottom of the part?

And what version of MeshCAM are you using? Robert posted a new one last night.

[Holmes_ca]

I am useing the original meshcam (I think?), the one where Robert was saying get it now before I open up to general public and increase the price, and yes I did set the max depth, all of the recent models and gcodes I used were of a single drum with 2in radius and 1in high,
I will see if I am clever enough to post the model and gcode too you