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Stupid question of the week.

Discussion in 'SketchUcam Help' started by rcav8r, Jan 11, 2009.

  1. rcav8r

    rcav8r Moderator Staff Member

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    I am finally cutting foam. I tried to run some of my CNC files, but man are they a mess. In Mach3 there are red dotted lines going every which way. Not a single blue line.
    When I look at others' CNC files (the Table for example) there are nice blue lines to show the cuts, and red dotted lines to show the journey...

    I think I am doing this right, but obviously not.
    In SU:
    In drawing place items where I want. (not a group, and not a component)
    add thePhlatcode items (in-side cut, out-side cut, etc)
    Then triple click a part, then right click to make group. Do in order I want the parts cut.
    Generate G-code.

    So what am I doing wrong?

    THANKS in advance.
     
    rcav8r, Jan 11, 2009
    #1
  2. meistertek

    meistertek Member

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    rcav8r.

    I had the same issue,check Marks video on PhlatScripT here and it will help:
    http://www.motionbox.com/videos/a79fdcb11713e32e
    Found in PhlatScripT Sticky http://www.phlatforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=65&t=68

    Here are the steps I remember outlined in this sticky after all you part lines or surfaces are where you want them:
    First use the "Weld" plugin to make sure geometry group is closed. The Weld plugin by Rick Wilson can be downloaded from his website at: http://www.smustard.com/script/Weld
    Next go though items in the PhlatScripT toolbar from left to right as needed, Parameters, Inside Cut, Outside Cut, Tab Tool and the next optional 3 icons if needed, stop short and do not click the GCode icon.
    Then run "Make Group" on each section in the order you want they are cut in...
    Now finally you can click the GCode icon and the CNC code will be generated in the order you grouped the items in, and the "weld" of each item will prevent all the crazy lines from being generated from each little segment.

    The video by Mark covers all these steps above and helped me understand how to do generate clean CNC code for Mach3.

    Oh ya, one other thing,in Mach3 I never see blue lines just red solid and red dashed, but my code runs just fine, Mark mentions this in his video, he says the blue lines will be fixed in a future release of PhlatScripT.

    Hope this helps!
     
    meistertek, Jan 11, 2009
    #2
  3. rcav8r

    rcav8r Moderator Staff Member

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    Yep, watched the videos and took notes before starting. Just browsed the video again. I think I see the problem, not sure how to correct it. The part I am trying to make is copied from another drawing, and pasted in a new one. When I tried the weld, it still didn't pick all the lines. Little tiny ones were not "used", so they were missed when I trippled clicked and grouped. Weird as I was able to extrude the part which told me (so I thought) it was a face.
    Anyway I took some parts I drew in AutoCAD, and converted to G-code, and all was well. Just my luck the first one I try had some weird artifact that caused me greef.

    THANKS
     
    rcav8r, Jan 12, 2009
    #3
  4. meistertek

    meistertek Member

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    I have had some problems with the lines going all over the place also. I do my drawing in another cad program and export dxf to import in SketchUp. like you I had been assuming that if SketchUp made a surface to be selected for tool paths it would always work, but it's not the case sometimes and bang I get the weird lines all over the place in Mach3. Sometimes I can pin point one face that is giving the problem and re-draw that geometry in SketchUp and try again and everything works fine, which is weird!

    Damn Artifacts!

    Maybe there is a way that a SketchUp drawing or model can be checked to artifacts? It would be cool to run an artifact check and have it pinpoint the problem area so it could be fixed quickly.
     
    meistertek, Jan 12, 2009
    #4
  5. firetrappe

    firetrappe Member

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    firetrappe, Jan 12, 2009
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  6. rcav8r

    rcav8r Moderator Staff Member

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    Thanks for the straylines plug in link. I'll be sure to try that one out tonight when I get home.
     
    rcav8r, Jan 12, 2009
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