Re: First part!

--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@y..., Alan Marconett KM6VV <KM6VV@a...> wrote:

> Congrats Randy!

Thanks, Alan. I've got a big grin for sure.

> What's the G3 for? I saw your pix, yup, that's a heptagon. DARK
> plastic. Where's the macro? In VisaVersaCAD? What did you do for

tool

> offset?

I misspoke a little. My macro (it is in VersaCAD's CPL language and
my copy is ver. 5.4, circa 1988...) will handle G1, G2 and G3 (it
determines if the upcoming arc is CW or CCW). There weren't any arcs
in the heptagon G code at all. But I've tested it with paths with
arcs.

I did the tool offset myself. I ran a parallel line to the heptagon
at one tool radius, then one to that at .005 offset, and then a
series at .050 offset until I knew I was off the stock material.
Then I erased one side of each, and trimmed them together to make a
kind of spiral. Then I used my macro, and then hand-edited the
resulting G code to add the feedrate and initial and final tool
positioning.

After I ran that one, I got fancy and lopped off all the toolpaths at
the point where the tool cleared the stock size by .010. I drew in
new line segments joining the hanging ends of the remaining
toolpaths, rejoined them to one continuous path and applied my macro.
I edited the G code to make the hand-drawn moves G0's. That saved a
lot of time versus the original file, since I wasn't "cutting air".

Yesterday at lunchtime a machinist at work ran one of my solid models
(a railroad car roof--just the outer contour) through Mastercam and
split the output into two G files--a roughing pass with a .375"
endmill and a finishing pass with a .188" ballmill. I cut the part
in Delrin last night. By the time you read this I should have
uploaded a couple pics into my folder in the files area. This time
it's white material, so even with a lot of mangling of brightness,
contrast and gamma the pics don't show the detail all that well...

Best regards,

Randy