Mach3 has constant velocity mode, which is what you mean I think. Constant velocity mode tries to always keep the tool moving at a constant velocity, and not stop between segments and corners. Say you're making a 90° corner. In TurboCNC you'd decelerate the current axis to a stop as you get to the corner, then the other axis would start to accelerate in the other direction. With mach3, when the first axis begins to decelerate, the other axis begins to accelerate so that the tool doesn't stop. The downside is that the corner gets rounded slightly, with the faster the accel the less rounding you get. When the corner is less than 90°, you'll of course get much less rounding.
Constant Velocity gives you faster runtimes, because you're not always stopping and starting, and a smoother running machine, for the same reason.
There are a couple ways to minimize or eliminate the corner rounding I mentioned above.
1) Mach3 has an angle setting so angles less than a specified angle will not get rounded. So you'll be in CV mode for larger angles, and exact stop for smaller angles.
2) If when you offset your toolpaths, you radius all the corners by the tool radius, You'll get toolpaths with rounded corners so the CV won't have to round them, and the part will still have square corners. You can also use Cutter Comp in Mach3, which will automatically do the offsets with radius corners for you.
__________________ Gerry
Mach3 2010 Screenset
http://home.comcast.net/~cncwoodworker/2010.html
(Note: The opinions expressed in this post are my own and are not necessarily those of CNCzone and its management) |