Hi Guys, first the apology if I have posted in the wrong place, never seen a community so large or so many forums, and apologies for the thread length.
Now the problem:
I am an engineer (conventional) and fairly computer literate. I needed to cut out repetitive small non-intricate parts from plastic sheet and it was getting tedious by hand/bandsaw/template router/linisher etc. I got hold of a good condition Pacer cadet as I needed an industrial strength/stability machine and it was the only one that would fit in the wshop. Its a Pacer 600 and runs XMC-E on an antiquated (but amazingly quick) W95 machine that has no networking and only a floppy and CD drive.
It came complete but no documentation and I am a complete newbie to the black art of cnc. After a short but very steep learning curve, and replacing the bearings on the z stepper motor, I am cutting my parts OK but now I can see the potential I want to do MORE!! Now the problems start!
On the software side I am having to draw components on my other computer using Autosketch (a great cut-down Autocad) and export the file as DXF and burn to disk. Walk back to the workshop and open the file, import it into a program called CASWIN/CASMATE as a DXF which converts it to a .SVC file, then export it as a Pacer .PCR file then open the Pacer software and import the (currently) 2D file, add all the tool/material info, process, queue, run and then save as a Pacer .VMC file....... PHEW what a ridiculously long winded way!! Surely there must be a quicker way to get a .dwg or a .dxf file into Pacer?
Using a milling cutter I want to cut half depth slots, add some text and then rout the part out. I am managing it by having three individual files each containing the paths and running them consecutively but I KNOW this is not the way to go! What should I be doing?
I also need to be able to accurately determine where the tool starts so that I can use pre-cut (exact) blanks of material in the knowledge that registration will be repeatable. Is there a way of doing this?
Tried some text with area fill and for some reason it chose only to fill certain characters while leaving others as outline. For the 'A' character it actually left the outline but area filled the small triangle in the middle! How do I get it do single line text engraving like I get from my panel label producer (he still uses an old Taylor Hobson pantograph)?
The help files failed dismally and although Pacer (well, AXYZ) were helpful on more mechanical advice (unlike some I have read about here) the only suggestion to user problems was to pay £500 per day to have tuition. I asked about upgrading the software to run on my XP machines but that was extortionate.
This puts me on a knife edge if this old W95 machine ever goes pop and I would probably want to just keep the mechanics and motors and get a modern set of driver electronics and new software to drive. Does current software provide the design, processing and driving capability in one??
Any good intro/newbie books around??
Any help, suggestions, advice greatly appreciated.
Sorry this is a long thread but might as well get it all out in one ;-)
Thanks
Tim