Handling large files

Hello,

So I've done a dry run of the two large files I have created with Fusion360 and it seems all right. It takes some time to open the file, and after each of the offset is set, but I've been able to run each file for about an hour before I decided to stop the simulation. I've been able to use the preview and backplot, no problem here.

I haven't had any of the error that @Grotius reported, could it be an inch to mm bug ?

Next step will be to find some suitable tools and test to determine the proper cutting parameters and milling strategies.

I have one question though : is there a safe way to restart machining from a given line of the .ngc file, in case the machine stops for any reason ? I'm looking at several hours of non-stop machining, and would rather avoid cutting the files in small segments, if possible.
[EDIT]
OK, I've found the description of the "Run From Selected Line" in the AXIS documentation, this should do the trick. 2 questions remain :
- How can I ensure that the required modal commands are executed before I "Run From Selected Line" ?
- How could I know for sure where to restart from ? Would there be a way to output the line number just processed, say for instance each 100 lines, so that I could look at the last block of code executed and restart from there ?
[/EDIT]

Below is a pic of Axis with the complete surface preview and the section being processed :




Thank you for your advices

OK, this sounds good.

> Almost forgot, it will not resume with the G64 Pn active, that has to be entered manually for run from here or set in the INI file

Are you referring to the ARC_BLEND parameters in the [TRAJ] section of the INI file ? I have copied the default values as shown below :
# (shown to explicit default values)
ARC_BLEND_ENABLE = 1
ARC_BLEND_FALLBACK_ENABLE = 0
ARC_BLEND_OPTIMIZATION_DEPTH = 50
ARC_BLEND_GAP_CYCLES = 4
ARC_BLEND_RAMP_FREQ = 100

There must be something else, as I don't see where the <Q- > value of the "G64 P- <Q- >" is set ?

I haven't had any of the error that @Grotius reported, could it be an inch to mm bug ?
Could be. I did not have your g-code intro...

Nice to see, the Gremlin is in full mode, while scanning the Mars surface.

If you need a restart at line, you need a line number. Save way is : keep your tool high.

Would there be a way to output the line number just processed
You could do this on several way's. One option is to output a text log file trough a hal component. This log file can contain every parameter or line you want. In fact you could do a real time texture rendering of what your machine has done already, updated every gcode line in a simple glut window. This to give you just an idea of the linux power !

@Grotius said : One option is to output a text log file trough a hal component.

Yes, I was thinking about this type of solution. Pushing the idea a bit, one could create a script that would load the required state commands, such as G64, read the last line number that was output and stored in a file, and launch the "restart from line" command.

Now I need to learn how to create a HAL component...

To log data, you don't need to write a component, you just need to get your head arounnd streamer and its mate halstreamer .

Its very useful for data analysis I found.

EDIT: Sorry sampler and halsampler

Hello @rodw,
Thank you for the pointer, but I think you might be talking about Sampler and HalSampler ?
I've looked at Streamer and HalStreamer, they seem to be concerned with streaming data into HAL rather than from HAL.

I'm looking at the MAN pages at the moment, did not realize before that this is such a goldmine of info

OK, so I've made some progress on this idea : I've been able to use sampler to read motion.program−line, but the output to a text file still needs some work : halsampler creates the file but it remains empty. I think I might need to close the file at some point, but I still need to figure out when and how to do it. Also, it seems that motion.program−line is actually the count of line processed from the beginning of the session, not from the start of the ngc file ? I still need to double-check to make sure.

On another note, I've experimented with the use of Start-from-line : it works, but in my case, if the spindle was stopped, it won't restart it. I guess this is normal, but this means that I really need some sort of script, maybe run from a button on the UI, to resume the execution of the G-Code with all required pre-commands, so that I won't forget anything important. So the sampler/halsampler might need to store more than just the line number, so that I can create a script that restores proper conditions before resuming the file processing.

More on this later, but I will be away from the machine for some days

halsampler creates the file but it remains empty.

Did you set the enable pin?