Hole Spotting

OK, see if there is something useful here
www.google.com/search?q=linuxcnc+Hole+Sp...ox-b-lm&hs=BQhV&sa=X

dlv wrote:

Code:

tuxcnc I'll check out dxf2gcode.  I can export a DXF and post process that.  You're not wrong, Fusion is a beast.  But I'm really quite comfortable on the design side and for the most part I like working with it.  That said since I'm learning the CAM side I am definitely open to trying some alternatives especially if they're open source.

 

I'm not against Fusion if the user paid for commercial version.
I'm against the "free" versions (student, hobby, etc.), because someday thats may become won't start without any warning.
However Fusion is large program with thousands functions, so the good question is it worth learn this for simply projects...
I suggested Librecad plus dxf2gcode not because this is Fusion replacement (is not), but because it is very simple and enought for simple projects.
In Librecad you easy can place small circle at the center of big circle, and in dxf2gcode yo can learn the edition of postprocesor  in one hour, because it is plain text human readable.
For example this is fragment of my laser postprocessor: My laser has no Z axis, so no lines for Z moves, but the feed of Z move is simply translated to laser power (F -> S).
I don't know how is in Fusion (I'm not curious about it), but I think this is more complex. In some CAM you can nothing without programming knowlege...

 

FWIW the "pierce only" feature is the answer for me in my workflow.  This along with selecting the holes to be center pierced into a separate Fusion 2D cut profile with the path parameters set to center offset, 90 deg lead in, lead in = 1/2 the circle diameter worked perfectly.  Since size doesn't matter (pun intended) I just used 6mm circles with 3mm lead in.  No gcode editing or other steps needed.

Thank you Tommy for prompting me to RTFM.   I was a dolt and didn't even realize that the "Normal Cut" button in the GUI toggles "Pierce Only"!  I was stuck on trying to use the M3 $2 S1 code but this works just fine.

I did also create a material.cfg entry for "Hole Spotting" and put my center piercing settings in there; 0.120" pierce height, 20A (as low as my machine will go) and 0.1s Pierce Delay (as short as it will go).  I'll add more as needed for thicker materials.

Cheers!
 

I think from memory, in sheetcam, you do a drill operation and that inserts the spotting code. (assuming its in the post processor) Perhaps you can do the same in f360.