Cutter radius compensation, was "Re: G code Examples / Cutviewer"

Doug,

Interesting, so cutview does have access to a tool table.....

I bet it still isn't perfect in showing the path. The reason I say
that is because being able to know EXACTLY what a machine tool is
going to do in a particular situation while it's activating a G41 or
G42 is beyond anyone's ability to understand. All the machines I've
worked on did it slightly differently and in certain situations it
was totally unpredictable what strange motions the machine's
algorithm would generate as it turned CRC on or off. Besides the
strange motions in offsetting the cutter, I've had some situations
where the control was just plain unable to activate comp because of
the contour following the comp comand, then you're forced to manually
program to cutter's centerline which is a pain.

thanks,

Doug

--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@egroups.com, Doug Fortune <pentam@h...> wrote:
> dougrasmussen@c... wrote:
>
> > I don't know what cutview is, but it must be just what it's name
> > implies.....a program to view the cutter path, right?
> >
> > If so, it would have to ignore cutter compensation commands
because
> > they couldn't be shown unless the program had access to data
> > regarding the particular tool's diameter (for an end mill) or tool
> > nose radius (for a lathe tool).
>
> I've been playing with the program. When you load a new program
> it comes up with a beautiful graphical tool definition page with all
> the standard types (endmill, ballnose endmill, bullnose, etc) where
> you can specify any radiuses, taper angles & lengths, etc. It then
> encodes that info into a text comment in the NC program so it
> doesn't have to ask you a second time.
>
> I'd guess after that, it probably does do cutter compensation.
>
> Doug Fortune