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Tabs not being generated in gcode

Discussion in 'SketchUcam Help' started by Jim Shelton, Sep 6, 2014.

  1. Jim Shelton

    Jim Shelton New Member

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    New user to Sketchucam.

    I think I have everything working, Struggled for 5 hours because my phlatbone tool diameter was too small.

    I now have it generating Outside, Inside and plunge cuts, but the tabs are not being generated in the gcode. I have seen them before, but can not get them to show up in this project.

    Project file is Sketchup 2014, with Sketchcam 1.1e beta

    Thanks,

    Jim
     

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  2. swarfer

    swarfer Moderator Staff Member

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    You added the tabs after grouping the outside cuts. you need to add them BEFORE grouping.
     
  3. Jim Shelton

    Jim Shelton New Member

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    Thanks, I exploded everything and that worked.

    I still do not understand what it means to "group outside cuts". Each object was a group, I never group the cuts.

    I have tried to find a description on how this works, I have watched the tutorials but they are too simple. If you can point me in the right direction I would appreciate it. Sketchucam looks like the best solution I have found so far that I want to use in my tool chain for our makerspace. PaxSpace.

    Thanks again for the quick reply.

    Jim
     
  4. swarfer

    swarfer Moderator Staff Member

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    you had each object 'with its cut lines' grouped. grouping affects the order of cuts, but you cannot add tabs to the outside cuts AFTER the grouping. you must do all the cuts you need (on ungrouped objects), then do the grouping on the object and all its cut lines together.
    Do not create 'components', Sketchucam will not generate gcode from them.
    You cannot make cut lines cross each other, unless you mess around with layered grouping (I did an article on this a few weeks ago, making holes with counter bores)

    Have you read all the help too? I know not every little thing is described but it is a good start and if you are not told you can do something, odds are you cannot do it (-: However, these forums contain a massive amount of information, you just have to track it down with the search function.

    So, read the help, watch the videos, search the forums, then try out your ideas and view the results in a Gcode simulator. The supplied viewer is quite simple but it works, if you need something more, try OpenSCAM which does a full material removal simulation.

    Always check Gcode in a previewer before feeding it to a machine ! :)
     

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