Vector / Ace Converter etc.

> I've been doing some playing, had a hard time getting Doug yeager's

ACE converter to render Gcodes, until I found that one must make EVERYTHING
in the Vector drawing on Layer 0, then edit out the LAYER blocks in the DXF
file.

There may be some anomalies related to clockwise/ counter cw, but haven't had
time
to experiment. So far, I like Vector CAD better than auto/turbo/intelli-cad;
there are
things I prefer about visio, but I've been using that for years. I'm having
some
trouble adapting to Vector's propensity to put things where IT wants, rather
than
where I want them, but that may come with time.

Your 486 should be just fine for ACE. Note that it's now GPL'd, and as one of
the people who bought it before Doug turned it over to the public domain, I'd
like
to see the community (OUR community, right here) do some development on the
code. I suspect there are many variations in DXF implementation - that's a good

place to start, perhaps....

I'm still rather partial to CNCPro for executing gcodes.... Doug has
implemented
PC speed measurement to make sure that the pc can keep up with all of the
look-ahead stuff that's in CNCPro - a 386 just won't hack it, and the 486
will impose max speeds on your steppers, according to the same speed management
stuff. I'm stuck at about 3 or so IPM with a 50 meg 486, which is ok for
cutting,
but not for G00s... I'm building up a P100 for the task...

Win 3.1 on DR-DOS? which version of the latter? I thought that was the
issue that gave DR the $$ to form Lineo? (I regretfully gave up DRDOS
because I just *had to* make Win3.1 (3.11?) work....

Have fun / mark

> Date: Wed, 4 Jul 2001 22:52:17 -0400
> From: "Carol & Jerry Jankura" <jerry.jankura@...>
> Subject: RE: Re: Routine Chat Times
>
> Guys:
>
> I bit on the $15.00 VectorCAD CD and am learning on how to use it to make
> some drawings. In the near future, I'll be ordering the goodies to put CNC
> on my Sherline mill. I've pretty much decided on Sherline's motors (because
> they're double ended) and conversion kit and Camtronics 2Amp tri driver
> board. So, I think that the hardware's pretty well specified. Next, I'll
> need a G-Code generator and G-Code interpreter.
>
> For the G-Code generator, can you comment on the differences between the
> free ACEconverter from Yeager and the CAM part of the package from Vector?
> Assuming that my initial work will be 2D, what would I be missing if I used
> VectorCAD to generate DXF files and ACEconverter to convert them into G-Code
> vs buying the added license for VectorCAM? While we're at it, I've seen some
> mention of BobCad on the list. How would you compare the G-Code generated by
> VectorCAM to the G-Code generated by BobCad? What about prices? What kinds
> of things should I be concerned with when I evaluate G-Code generators?
>
> For the G-Code interpreter, I've got an old Zenith notebook. It's a
> 486DX2-50 (Has built-in math co-processor, uses double speed clock in CPU
> compared to bus) with a printer port. I'm thinking of either TurboCNC or
> EZ-CNC. One's a DOS program and the other's for Windows. The notebook has 16
> Mbytes of memory (Generous at the time I purchased it, paltry now) and can
> run either DOS (several versions - MS, DR, Concurrent DOS) or Windows 3.1 on
> top of either MS or DR DOS. The screen is a generous 640 x 480 pixels and
> offers color. The advantages of the Zenith notebook are two: First, I have
> it in hand and second, it is a notebook and will more easily fit into the
> space that I have for my metalworking shop. I don't think you can expand the
> Zenith past 16 Mbytes even if you could find the memory for it. One
> advantage to TurboCNC is that it comes with source code and I've got some
> experience writing Pascal code. I also managed to get a copy of Turbo-Pascal
> Version 7.0, which is the version used to write TurboCNC. What are the
> things I should be concerned with when I evaluate the G-Code interpreters?
>
> Any and all comments would be appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
>
> -- Jerry Jankura
> Strongsville, Ohio
> So many toys, so little time