[hecirp]

The solid is a tear drop shaped fairing. BobCad21 generates toolpath which is correct.
BUT the Gcode generated has multiple lines having only a number and no other code. Mach3 will not accept those lines. When those lines are edited out, Mach 3 will mill the solid correctly, BUT only does one side (90 degrees) of the teardrop and stops.

Any idea what those lines are with number but no code (ie N250 6742)?
And why only one side of the solid is machined?

Any help would be appreciated,

Harvey Price

[tobyaxis]

The solid is a tear drop shaped fairing. BobCad21 generates toolpath which is correct.
BUT the Gcode generated has multiple lines having only a number and no other code. Mach3 will not accept those lines. When those lines are edited out, Mach 3 will mill the solid correctly, BUT only does one side (90 degrees) of the teardrop and stops.

Any idea what those lines are with number but no code (ie N250 6742)?
And why only one side of the solid is machined?

Any help would be appreciated,

Harvey Price

Harvey,

Can you post your G-Code file here???

[hecirp]

Hi Toby,

Thanks for your answer. The piece is a cable fairing to be used on a large radio control model airplane. It is a half of a tear drop shape.

I have hopefully attached the BCC code (before the strange numbers removed) and the code after they were removed with editing. You can see the shape in mach3. This is a test file with a large end mill and big step downs to demo the problem, but it has happened with small ball mill and small step downs also. (about 20 times!).

Thanks in advance for taking time to help,

Harvey Price

[GeneK]

Harvey, I have ver. 20 and 22. I loaded the unmodified version in to Ver. 20 and back plotted to the CAD side and watched the position of the pointer for each step. The lines where there is a line number followed by a simple number, it seems to be that it should be the Y axis step. On the few lines I tried, adding 'Y' in front of the simple number moved the path over and began to fill the blank space in the tool path.
I'm not sure what this means but it just is dropping some characters occasionally.
Since I have never experienced this I'm not sure where to go from here, in Ver 20 under change there is a re-organize command that clean up loose end and things wrong with the geometry that can throw off the tool path.

GeneK

[tobyaxis]

Hmmmmmmm...... Honestly I have never seen this happen before. I did a back plot on the fixed file as you can see below.

The only reason I can think of for the software only machining 90 degrees of your solid might be a boundary issue or a solid model issue. It seems to be skipping a whole section of the solid profile for some strange reason.

Can you Post your solid model here zipped???

[GeneK]

Toby, If you look at the top view of his tool path the Y axis increment gets messed up when it goes from neg to pos and the next few Y axis moves are of the form line number <space> number, with out the 'Y' and the proper decimal. So Mach 3 thinks it is all the line number and errors out for too large a line number. I entered the 'Y 0. in front of the number and the pattern began to move on as it should instead of cutting several conour on top of each other. I did not try to correct the whole file. I think the lines with ony the line number are related to the above error.
He said the code was from version 21, I have 20 and 22 and only tried it in 20.

GeneK

[HuFlungDung]

What happens if you turn off 'coordinates modal' in your post setup, if it has provision for that?

[HMB3000]

try going to Bobcad website and first do a repair. Also delete the post and re-load from site. The software my be corrupted

[moldmker]

Harvey,

You clearly state this is V21.

On the CAM side, under Setup>Coordinates, are your Decimal Digits set to 4 places and Field Width set to 0?

Under Setup>Conversion, is there anything being filtered out?

When you generated the Planar path, what was set in the Tolerance box?

In the Tool Depth Setting box, what was set in the Max Arc Interp. Error box?
Do you get the same error when not using the Automatic Roughing?

Have you altered any of your scripts?

Are you running up against any memory issues, RAM or hard drive space?

I'm not sure any of the above could actually produce your results. But I've run into unusual output before that was caused by mistyping a number in one of the Setup boxes.

Keep us posted.

moldmker

[The One]

Along with what moldmker suggested, I would suggest going to File -> Environment. Click on General and change the General Accuracy and Chain Gap to 0.0001 for inch and 0.001 for mm.

Regards

[hecirp]

Hi All,

Thanks every one for your replies. I just put in a 15 hour day at work and have another one tomorrow, so I will get busy tomorrow evening and try to zip the solid and send as suggested, and go back and make all the changes as suggested. I am using BCC 21, and don't have access to 22.

Since I posted, I exported the solid from BCC as a .igs file to a friend's Cobalt software, and exported from there as a .stl file to MeshCam (which doesn't support .igs). MeshCam generated Gcode which simulates correctly in Mach3. But it is sure the long way to get there.

I am eager to get back to this Wed, 23rd. I will have to learn to zip the solid file first since I haven't done that before.

Thank you all for your interest and support. All I can say is WOW!

Harvey Price

[tobyaxis]

Hi All,

Thanks every one for your replies. I just put in a 15 hour day at work and have another one tomorrow, so I will get busy tomorrow evening and try to zip the solid and send as suggested, and go back and make all the changes as suggested. I am using BCC 21, and don't have access to 22.

Since I posted, I exported the solid from BCC as a .igs file to a friend's Cobalt software, and exported from there as a .stl file to MeshCam (which doesn't support .igs). MeshCam generated Gcode which simulates correctly in Mach3. But it is sure the long way to get there.

I am eager to get back to this Wed, 23rd. I will have to learn to zip the solid file first since I haven't done that before.

Thank you all for your interest and support. All I can say is WOW!

Harvey Price

You can get free File Zip here. Download and install.

FilZip

[hecirp]

Hi Toby,

Got FilZip so will attempt to attach the zipped solid BCC file.

Thanks,

Harvey

[hecirp]

Hi All,

Here are the answers to all the things I was asked to check:
Cam side, Setup>Coordinates, Decimal digits are set to 4 places, and Field width set to 0.

Setup>conversion Y0 or G0 > Convert to G. Box was checked, Only @I @c

In Planar path, Tolerance was .0005, InTool Depth setting, the Max Arc Error was set at .0004. I also used Clean and Organize, >no success.

I got the same error with Automatic Roughing turned off.

I have not altered any scripts. And no memory, RAM, or hard drive issues.

I tried the suggestion of File>Environment>General and changed General Accuracy and Chain Gap to .0001 inch. That did not solve the problem.

I re installed BCC and re downloaded the mach3 post. No Joy.

Thanks again to all for your interest and help,

Harvey Price

[moldmker]

...
Setup>conversion Y0 or G0 > Convert to G. Box was checked, Only @I @c
...

Harvey,

Try checking the box to turn conversion off and then generate your code.
That should get you closer.

Good luck,
moldmker

[hecirp]

Hi Moldmkr,

Problem solved, your last suggestion was the answer. I deleted the conversion "Y0 G0 convert to G" and left both of those boxes blank. And found out that the check box for "Only @l, @c" had to be left checked.

I have attached the same test file, generated with the above settings, and it simulates perfectly.

I am awed by the generosity of all who gave their time and expertise in solving this, and more grateful than I can express. Thank you all,

Harvey Price