NativeCAM is Features renamed

Hi Fern,

I still have some issues with both internal and external threading and I think I've figure out the issue.
It seems to me that the thread depth is not correct as its not taking into account if the thread is internal or external.
According to the drawings you pasted above, the height of internal thread H1=0.54127*p and the height of external thread h3=0.61344*p. The formula used for automatic in the threading.ngc file is:
#<depth> = [SIN[60] * #<pitch> * 2]
Due to this, when I'm cutting an external thread M16x2, the depth calculated with the formula above is 1.73205 which is too deep. If I calculate the depth as h3=> 0.61344 * 2 = 1.22688
If you agree with my correction can you update the threading routine? I think a dropdown that would allow me to specify if the thread is internal or external should be taken into consideration when deciding the depth of cut.
Also there are a few other comments I would like to add.
--When threading a bolt, the diameter of the bolt is the Major Diameter; the depth of cut * 2 = minor diameter. This is what I understand that the automatic should calculate. So the minor diameter should be 0.61344 * pitch * 2
--When threading a nut, the inside diameter of the nut is Minor Diameter, the depth of cut * 2 = major diameter. For a nut threading, I would like to specify the inside diameter of the nut, and the major diameter should be calculated automatically.
From my understanding, the major diameter for a nut should be 0.54127 * pitch * 2
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screw_thread#Minor_diameter

The way that this routine would be very intuitive and useful to me would be to have some inputs like:
Thread Type: External/Internal (this could replace thread peak 1 vs -1)
ToolNumber: - For other routines, it makes sense to have a tool specified as they can have depth of cuts, feeds per rev, etc. The feed for threading is given by pitch and the depth of cut is also specified as threading param.
RPM: This is the another relevant info that could be moved from Tool change into threading routine itself.
Spindle direction M3|M4

Hopefully I understood correctly what the problem was, please let me know what you think about this.
Thanks,
Vasi

Thanks for your comments. They will all be taken into consideration for the next update

Fern

Hi Fern,

I have encountered a nasty bug today that forced me to disable native cam for now.
My machine is with metric lead screws, set to metric. I tried to cut a 3/8" 24TPI thread, and once I've set the thread type to imperial, once I've set the TPI, the entired emc became unresponding. Restarting the PC fixed the issues until I restarted back linuxcnc, then nativecam caused it to freeze again.
Right now I've commented out the lines from the .ini file and now the linuxcnc can start but without nativecam.
I've searched for the folder where nativecam holds the current program so that I try to delete that thread that's causing issues but I could not find the folder.
Until you managed to fix the other bugs, it would help me if you could tell me how to unfreeze the native cam.

Thanks,
Vasi

Hi,

If you saved the project as current work that load automatically when starting ncam, it is
'ncam/catalogs/lathe/projects/current_work.xml' delete it
If not, try deleting 'ncam' subidrectory completely, the one in your inifile directory. It will be recreated automatically when you start lcnc with your inifile if you did not comment or delete the line 'GLADEVCP = -U --catalog....'

Fern

Hi Fern,

I have managed to get it working by deleting the current_work.xml
I am trying to customize nativecam, I have added a custom-menu.xml I see the changes I've made as being applied.
However I have not managed to access a custom .cfg file from the my-stuff folder.
What should be the path to these custom cfg files? I saw that the other cfg files are prefixed with /lathe but all the cfg's are in the lathe folder.

Thanks for your input!
Vasi

You can save your default value by right clicking and selecting 'Save values as default'. No need to write a file for this.

Fern

I was not trying to save any values. I was trying to make a custom-menu that uses one of my cfg files that's referring a modified version of threading.ngc.
I am trying to debug the threading so that I can cut correctly internal and external threads. As I said in a previous post, the formula is different for internal vs external.

Then edit threading.ngc and save in my-stuff sub-directory
Do the same with cfg files and edit your menu-custom to point to it
That''s all

Fern

Within the context that time would probably be better spent getting NativeCAM on the distro, if someone could point me in a direction, as I have about 7 hours of failed attempts in getting NativeCam going again. Last time, I was able to get it going, with Synaptic, but....

I had NativeCAM installed and working, but I've needed to recreate my CNC profile. When I got it going, again using....

... it appeared to work, but the work sent to Axis behaved oddly: I could not see the work anywhere in the 3D window, while I could with opening another g-code file. Well something must really be wrong.

I tried deinstalling and reinstalling NativeCAM, still.

I reinstalled LinuxCNC from the distro. Recreated my profiles. Edited out the NativeCAM entries so the .ini would be clean.

In my LinuxCNC configuration folder, I launched a terminal and did one of these:

I did one of these, and got one of these:

NativeCAM did come up while installing, but when I started Axis the NativeCAM tab is there but blank.

I've seen a statement that the Gtk warning should not be a dealbreaker, but the tab is blank.

I've seen seen something on page 14 if this thread that began:
II want you to do this :
...but either which correct NativeCAM folder is not specified, or perhaps an environment variable is not sourced, because it can't find it.

Any hints would be appreciated, as I really like NativeCAM. : )