We are new to CNC work and have a 3 foot by 4 foot router. Running Art of CNC mach 2 soft ware. When we inport a drawing in to the software the machine goes to the far limits and limits out before it gets to the item to mill in drawing. From the screen view it looks like the item to mill out is a dot in the corner of a large field. It seems the drawig field is too large and we also do not know how to call a start or zero point. Probably all simple items for someone use to CNC but as I said we are new. If anyone has screen shots of Mach 2 set ups it would be of great help also.

Marty@RKTknife.com

I am wondering if you are importing a Metric Drawing into Mach2 but have the units in mach2 set to inchs. This means a 500mm drawing will become a 500 inch cutout. A huge difference hey?

Let me know if this was the problem.

Thanks for the idea, We tied both a metric and inch drawing and checked the setting on each even changed them to see it seemed to make no differance. This may be a more CAD problem than Mach 2 I am not sure but welcome any help trying to track it down. We are also open to any other control soft ware if some feel it is better.

sounds like not zeroed...
Jog router to lower-right corner (or Home if you have switches)
Load drawing, hit ZeroX ZeroY ZeroZ (or ZeroAll) then Regenerate Toolpath

Mach2 is the best...keep it!

Sounds like the coordinates of the actual drawing file is not close to 0,0,0, you need to move the drawing file to the desired X=0, Y=0 and Z=0 in your cadd program 1st, then generate your g-code.

Look and see what is the coord's in the g-code is to start with, or post your drawing/g-code here so we can look at it.

Joe

Could you post the drawing here?