NativeCAM is Features renamed

FernV wrote:

gmouer wrote: ...The workpiece never shows...

You have to uncheck Skip Block, the button with a '/'

Fern

I didn't notice that step in the getting started video, it worked exactly said though and my stock now appears.

I will be going into the shop shortly to reload the livecd onto the machine with master and cure those problems.

Thanks for all the help !
George

tommylight wrote: Well that is correct, in most plasma setups you do not need anything related to z axis, but i know for sure the configs i use do not care if there are Z related codes or not. Some configs do use Z axis, so it is not advisable to remove it completly. Having a button to include or remove Z axis related code would be best.

This option should be set in Preferences dialog. Not sure yet how this exclusion should be implemented how it would work. All videos I viewed use some way of finding the surface.

tommylight wrote: The configs that do use Z also use some type of G38.x move to find the material and set offsets for every cut so that would need to be added as a preamble that can be edited to suit the needs of different setups. This can be done together with adding M3/M5 to every cut.

The G38.x option should also be set once in the Preferences dialog

Do you think wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?Gmoccapy_Plasma should be my starting point ?

tommylight wrote: Another thing that can be added for plasma use is adding a G04 pause after the M3, that is a pierce delay, and needs to be adjustable in 0.1 second increments from 0 to 1 second ( even more if cutting thick material ).

I think adding this delay should be in 'Cutting Params'
Anything else should be configured ?

I am planning a video but I still need more feedback to help make it really usable.
I think of demo configs using gmoccappy.gmoccapy_plasma and by_interface.mesa.plasma-5i20.

Regards
Fern

I couldn't have said it better.
my set up has stand alone THC controller, the process is as following.
-At M3 the THC start the material detect process
-unless the material is detected it go back to the piercing high
-start the arc,
-wait for the piercing time,
-send the arc ok signal LinuxCNC
-LinuxCNC start moving

in the other hand if the THC is implemented in LinuxCNC
most of the times all this process is made in a sub-routine
in both cases, all this code can be inserted as pre-amble and post-amble.

thanks to all for your help

Hello again Fern,

I have been watching your videos this morning and find them a great help, thanks much.

In watching the videos, I have a question. For example, if cutting a circle pocket at a depth of one inch, it appears to cut to the full depth in one pass. Is there a way to specify multiple passes, say for example .1 inch depth per pass? Milling deep features would get very aggressive doing the operations in one depth pass on thick stock.

Thanks,
George

gmouer wrote: ...if cutting a circle pocket at a depth of one inch, it appears to cut to the full depth in one pass. Is there a way to specify multiple passes...

In Tool Change set Milling penetration -> Step down (default is -0.125in or -3.0mm)
Do not forget in Workpiece, Milling params -> Clear through (default is -0.05in or -1.25mm) if you want a task to Milling -> Cut down to -> Through to have the cutter go lower than the bottom of your Workpiece . If you cut to Bottom, the cutter will go down exactly to the bottom of your workpiece.

When cutting a pocket, you usually set to either : User defined, Half, One quarter or Three quarter

Fern

PS, do not forget to check Skip Block before milling. This is a safety feature as mentioned in the ncam.ngc file

Thanks once again Fern !
I have reloaded the livecd on my bridgeport and updated file which brought me to 2.7.8 for linuxcnc.
All is going smooth, I will be installing NativeCAM shortly but don't expect any problems now.

I can't tell you how much I look forward to using NativeCAM on my mill and really appreciate your work !

George