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OpenBuilds CAM Software

Discussion in 'CAM' started by Mark Carew, Oct 8, 2018.

  1. Peter Van Der Walt

    Peter Van Der Walt OpenBuilds Team
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    Yes, the github issue will carry the notification when its fixed, will be a couple days
     
  2. David the swarfer

    David the swarfer OpenBuilds Team
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    GRBL will not feed as low as 5 mm/min, about 50mm/min is the limit. and yes, all feedrates are in mm/minute NOT per second.
     
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  3. pedrofernandez

    pedrofernandez Journeyman
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    Hello how to dial this error on my new machine? Steps per mm?

    Machine: Sphinx 55
    Current Steps per mm default 199.100
    Controller: Black Box
    Cam: Openbuilds Cam
    Motion Control: Openbuilds Machine Interface Controller
    Rotor: 1.5kw air cooled spindle Huanyang VFD

    Tool: Amana 51482 Spiral 'O' Single Flute 1/8" 3.175mm

    IMG-0284.jpg IMG-0285.jpg
     
  4. David the swarfer

    David the swarfer OpenBuilds Team
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    The details
    HOWTO Calibrate your CNC Machine for MACH3 or GRBL

    Using OpenBuildsCONTROL wizards makes it easier but you still need to follow the process above
    upload_2019-11-26_8-22-24.png
    Click 'Wizards and Tools'
    Select each axis in turn and calibrate over the longest distance you can measure.
    I use a 500mm steel rule for X and Y and a short pocket rule for Z.
    Be careful to avoid parallax errors.
     
  5. giardinm

    giardinm New
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    so question on CAM software. this appears to happen with cam.openbuilds.com and carbidecreate and others.
    I change the stepover percentage to be about 50% of the cutter diameter for cutting softwood/plywood. I lose TONS of details in the corners of my pockets and some connected paths between two islands don't cut at all. I change this to 10% or something <<smaller and it cuts them but costs me TONS of machine time when I don't need the 10% stepover. Why would the toolpath be so different near the walls/islands/edges with a stepover change. I would understand a stepover change would affect the 2nd pass and how far away it is from the 1st pass. But why would the 1st pass be nowhere near the edges of the islands. See attached screenshots for 50% losing edge details.

    Also, trying to generate screenshot for 10% and the gcode generator will not turn off geometry merge so the code is WAY wrong. Every time I turn off geometry merge it turns back on by itself. I tried a new workspace, new settings, new artwork from scratch, nothing is allowing me to turn off geometry merge. Even turning off advanced features still generates the gcode with all geometry merged. clearing cahce in chrome didn't work either.






    50%stepover.PNG
     
  6. Peter Van Der Walt

    Peter Van Der Walt OpenBuilds Team
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    Pockets needs 'geometry merge' to calculate correctly... Internally it needs it for the calculation.
    If you want to exclude certain sections, just exclude them from the selection when you create the toolpath

    Try 49% or 40% etc, play with the numbers, its really complicated math (under the hood: Javascript Clipper / Wiki / Home 6) so fudging with the numbers is an easy way to tweak things until it looks right. The human eye is great at understanding if the result is what you intend, sadly hard to automate that (; so its up to the user to play with what they want to do.

    Pocket out the majority of the waste, then run profile paths (inside/outside cuts) to cleanup the corners
     
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  7. sitoru

    sitoru New
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    will this ever work with a 2 button mouse with scroll wheel? any mouse I've tried ,left click orbits and the moves selection
     
  8. Peter Van Der Walt

    Peter Van Der Walt OpenBuilds Team
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    No 3 button mouse is required. Left = click on stuff, middle = orbit, right = pan, scroll=zoom.

    Almost every mouse the last 30 years has had a middle button (click the scroll wheel)

    Its the same as Sketchup and a few other CAD applications use.
     
  9. sitoru

    sitoru New
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    so how do I fix this? or that's how its supposed to be with left click?
     

    Attached Files:

  10. Peter Van Der Walt

    Peter Van Der Walt OpenBuilds Team
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    H
    Hit "reset view" button, and do the moving in top-down view first, then orbit again
     
  11. romamaker

    romamaker Well-Known
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    Still learning here... got a question regarding toolpaths in CAM. What do you specify for the Endmill diameter for a V bit or angled engraving bit? Or does it really matter? Do you just pick a no-offset vector, and ignore diameter and just work with the cut depths?
     
  12. Gary Caruso

    Gary Caruso OpenBuilds Volunteer
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    Typically the dia is the max dia of the V-bit, not very important unless doing deep carves.
    example from Freud, the capital "D"
    upload_2020-2-21_10-20-10.png
    Cheers
    Gary
     
  13. romamaker

    romamaker Well-Known
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    Ah, that makes sense. I had seen in some of the other CAM software I've looked at that you can specify pretty much the entire geometry of the tool / bit. I just wasn't sure what to do in the Openbuilds CAM, since you just specified the diameter. But it does make sense to specify the maximum diameter it could cut. Thanks!
     
  14. Peter Van Der Walt

    Peter Van Der Walt OpenBuilds Team
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    In OpenBuilds CAM, v-bit arent properly supported (doesnt do the correct maths that say Vectric would do to finish sharp corners, etc) , so its entirely up to you. If you just want to engrave a v-shape groove "on the line" then the no-offset operation will do. Endmill diameter just "moves" the toolpath away from the CAD line by half the endmill diameter (offset) so in an ordinary cut the final product is correctly sizes (machine moved tool half the endmill away from the cut, endmill removed the material, what's left is where the line was)
     
  15. Governor

    Governor New
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    I have a question about the post processor for the OpenBuilds control software. I am using BobCad-Cam and I need to know what post processor or an example of one the will work with your control software so they can send me a post processor that will work with Bobcad. I have just installed your Blackbox on my C-beams XL but none of my g-codes will read in the control software. Please help.
     
  16. Peter Van Der Walt

    Peter Van Der Walt OpenBuilds Team
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    BlackBox runs on Grbl gnea/grbl - ask them for a Grbl Post
     
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  17. Governor

    Governor New
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    Thanks Peter. I greatly appreciate it!
     
  18. Craig & Silas

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    I cut out a pocket letter using OB CAM software and OB Control. Thus the inside corners of the letters have rounded interior corners. I now have V Carve Desktop and would like to cut male letters to fit into these pockets using the Create Inlay Toolpath. How do I import the OB CAM drawing into V Carve as a vector?
     
  19. Peter Van Der Walt

    Peter Van Der Walt OpenBuilds Team
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    That is unfortunately not an option.

    Start a fresh project in Vectric and do the project from the start
     
  20. Rich Ricket

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    Guys, Newbie here - I've got great hopes for CAM, it's exactly what I'm looking for. However, my dxf file seems to be misinterpreted - looks fine in all other software but CAM seems to corrupt some arcs per the attached graphic - anyone got any ideas?
    DXFcorruption.JPG
     
  21. Peter Van Der Walt

    Peter Van Der Walt OpenBuilds Team
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    You need to export (save-as) your DXF as "R14 Polyline" format
     
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  22. Rich Ricket

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    Thanks Peter - that's the options I used - version R14, with "export all splines as polylines" selected. I've saved annotation views, selected various faces, enabled and disabled merging, upside down views etc...the DXF always looks right in every other reader...Assistance appreciated - I'm stumped. I really want to get this to work :)
     
  23. Rich Ricket

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    I tried converting the lines in the sketch to polylines, and the dxf looked ok in eDrawings, but loads into CAM looking like it was drawn by a 3-year old with big gaps :)
     
  24. Rich Ricket

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    Peter - I've edited the dxf files using Notepad - the problem seems to occur when an arc is going from (eg) 270 degrees to 0.0 degrees, or if it passes through 0 degrees, it flips to the opposite direction (the dxf AcDbArc lines don't include any direction statements).
     
  25. Peter Van Der Walt

    Peter Van Der Walt OpenBuilds Team
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    I tend to just throw non working DXFs into QCAD, save-as R14 Polyline.
     
  26. Peter Van Der Walt

    Peter Van Der Walt OpenBuilds Team
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    Pull requests for bugfixes are welcomed:

    Parser: OpenBuilds/OpenBuilds-CAM (from gdsestimating/dxf-parser)
    or
    renderer OpenBuilds/OpenBuilds-CAM (modified from gdsestimating/three-dxf)

    not sure which doesnt handle it correctly, but if you want to take a knack at a fix (;
     
  27. Rich Ricket

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    Peter, you're a star - thanks for bearing with me - QCad conversion worked a treat
     
  28. Rich Ricket

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  29. Peter Van Der Walt

    Peter Van Der Walt OpenBuilds Team
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    :) see why you have to convert to Polylines (; so much easier to Parse than adding parsing for harder entities (;

    LibreCAD - Free Open Source 2D CAD makes nice clean R14 DXFs - convert your DXF via Librecad (save-as)
     
  30. Peter Van Der Walt

    Peter Van Der Walt OpenBuilds Team
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    Fantastic! Yeah its a go to tool for me! And its "free-er" brother LibreCAD - Free Open Source 2D CAD
     

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