RE: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Re: found a problem... Supertech mill

You'd think it would work...

It's not trying to convert metric to imperial is it? Metric CAD with
Imperial screws on the mill? The small number is from some sort of rounding
error?

A bit wierd that it doesn't understand it's own file. You could change all
of the numbers to scientific notation, eg

line -3,0.15,3,0.15
line 3,0.1,-3,0.1
becomes
line -3.0e-000,1.5e-001,3.0e-000,1.5e-001
line 3.0e-001,1.0e-001,-3.0e-001,1.0e-001

In theory, a program that understands scientific notation should treat the
two chunks as the same.

If that works, then it's probably the tiny number causing grief. That's a
bit hard to fix. You could load it into Excel and use the ROUND() function,
it specifies how many digits after the decimal, so =ROUND(1.259e-006,4)
returns 0 (actually =ROUND(0.00000126,4)). =ROUND(0.00000126,6) gives you
0.000001

Still a pain.

Tony

> What vexes me, is that it was the SuperCAM software that
> generated this CAM file...and at Dennis Bohlke's suggestion
> it is running under DOS 6.21 with no other files on the hard
> drive...maybe the scientific notation ISN'T the reason it
> spontaneously aborts the cut, and etc.
>
> --- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@yahoogroups.com, "Tony Smith" <ajsmith@...>
> wrote:
> >
> > Excel can clean that up for you. Save it with an extension of CSV
> (comma
> > separated values), and open with Excel.
> >
> > It'll pick up the 1.259e-006 as a number, but set its format to
> scientific.
> > It'll still look the same, but when you click on it you'll see it's
> really
> > stored as 0.00000126. Highlight the columns, and do
> 'Format, Cells,
> > General'. This will clear the scientific formatting.
> >
> > If the column isn't wide enough to fit the number in, Excel will
> display it
> > in sci notation, '1E-06' or even just '0' if the column is really
> skinny.
> > Just make it wider, Excel handles 10 decimal places like this, or
> you can
> > fiddle with the formatting to get 30 decimals places. Is your mill
> that
> > accurate? :)
> >
> > Click 'Save', hit 'Yes' if it complains about saving in a different
> format
> > (csv / xls), and you're done. Now if you look at the file, it'll
> have
> > 'fixed' the numbers.
> >
> > Tip, when you click 'Format, Column, Width', the number it asks you
> for is
> > for how many characters do you want to display. '0.00000126' has
> 10, so
> > entering that will set the column to the precise size.
> >
> > Tony
> >
> >
> > > I ran into a similar problem with some engraving code
> (which has 5
> > > decimal place numbers) which was then run through a java program
> > > that flips it around. The java program insisted on
> rewriting it in
> > > exponential notation.
> > > EMC2 wouldn't run the program, so I just did a global change.
> > > It was only one letter that had a problem, so there were
> only about
> > > 5 instances.
> > >
> > > On 8/25/07, Stephen Wille Padnos <spadnos@...> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > Lurch wrote:
> > > >
> > > > >still fighting with my supertech mill. the .CAM file it
> > > creates, has
> > > > >some odd code in it...I understand every line of the file
> > > except one.
> > > > >Here's an excerpt:
> > > > >
> > > > >line -3,0.15,3,0.15
> > > > >line 3,0.1,-3,0.1
> > > > >line -3,0.05,3,0.05
> > > > >line 3,1.259e-006,-3,1.259e-006
> > > > >line -3,-0.05,3,-0.05
> > > > >line 3,-0.1,-3,-0.1
> > > > >line -3,-0.15,3,-0.15
> > > > >line 3,-0.2,-3,-0.2
> > > > >
> > > > >when it gets to the line with the "e-006" part, it indexes the
> > > > >spindkle to the retract height, resets the x-axis to
> > > whatever value
> > > > >it would have been at the end of that cut, and carries
> > > on...with the
> > > > >x-axis now out of calibration by whatever amount is the
> difference
> > > > >between where it was at when it happened and where it
> > > would have been
> > > > >at the end of the cut.
> > > > >
> > > > >I don't even know what "e-006" IS...but at least now I know
> what's
> > > > >happening. I'm going to manually edit the file to remove those
> > > > >glitches and do a 'dry run' with no tool and see whre it
> finishes
> > > > >up...
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > It's printing out very small nubers as exponential. 1e-06
> > > is 10 ^ -6,
> > > > or 0.000001. 1.259e-06 is 0.000001259 Why it's doing that,
> > > I have no
> > > > idea :)
> > > >
> > > > >Lurch
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > - Steve
>