Hello Bill and Gerry, its me again, Edmund,
I have reached the stage,......... of drawing a part in autocad and changing it to a DXF file, now I have a image of cutter in cutviewer that travels to a point on the part and travels around the outside returning to the start,trouble now is I have a lot of squigly lines at the start and end of run and when cutter reaches the end of cut, the cutter does a lot of loops and circles and winds up cutting into the part, I have tried to trim the squigly lines but am unable to, so I try a erase but that erases all the drawing, can you give me some suggestions?,
Oh yes, I loaded a .250 cutter and got a window informing me the radius was 3 times smaller than the cutter radius so I entered a smaller cutter and still get the message but its only 1 rad now, I believe the squigly lines evolved from that problem,

Hello Edmund,
Just getting back from the Thanksgiving holiday. Hope everyone enjoyed the week as much as I did.
I don't have cutviewer, so cannot comment on the results there.
I review my paths inside Autocad/Tahlcam. Are you seeing the same results there as you do with cutviewer?

Could be some problems with the start and end of the path. The corner radius smaller then (or same as) the cutter radius has caused some problems in past. Have you tried a square corner on the path (or test with an even smaller cutter).

I could take a look at the drawing if you want to send or post.
Bill

Bill, welcome back, Ive missed yah, big grin,

No bill, what I meant by cutviewer was the cutviewer in the Tahlcam program, although I do have the other cutviewer, I purchased that one with Meshcam,
I think whats happened at this point is I went into pathwork and pathfinder also pathdirection, then leadin, and I think thats where my problems started, (the squigly lines) at start and finish of run,
Hope you can understand, I will try to send drawing, not sure exactly how, here goes,

Edmond,
The file transfer worked fine. No need to use .dxf, just send the .dwg file.

I looked at your drawing and see the lead in and lead out are a problem. I got it to work by:
1. Deleted the set of curves on the lead in.
2. Extended the horizontal line you are starting on so that it does not connect to the end curve. (Not necessary, but its easier to pick the start point for pathfinder)
3. Click Pathfinder, type an F, enter 0.01 fuzz. (some of your lines are not connecting)
4. After Pathfinder creates the polyline from your lines, I used Leadin to create a lead in and lead out.
5. Select a 0.250 Ø tool.
6. Run selection. It gives me a warning that radius is smaller then tool, but runs anyway. (The warning occurs if you use a radius exactly the same as the tool, but it still works)
7.Create group (Path1)
8.Clipboard - T02 PATH1
9.Post.

I attached my drawing and the post.

hope this helps
Bill

I thought I uploaded both files, didn't seem to work. Heres the post file.

%
O0005()
N10 G90 G00 G90 G40
N20 G49 G80 G17
N30 G20
(CONTROL 1)
(COOLANT=FLOOD)
N40 M09
N50 G91 G28 Z.0000
N60 M01
(TOOL CALL)
N70 T02 M06 (.2500 DIA EM HSS)
N80 S1000 M03 (HFDR 6.0 VFDR 2.0)
N90 G90 G43 D32 H02 Z4.0000
N100 M08
(SKIP-FP PATH1)
N110 Z1.5050
N120 X-.3857 Y-1.1927
N130 Z.3000
N140 G01 Z.0000 F2.0
N150 G41 X-.3494 Y-1.0575 F6.0
N160 G03 X-.4444 Y-1.0450 R.3668 F6.0
N170 G01 X-1.0200 Y-1.0450 Z.0000
N180 Y.0000
N190 G02 X.0000 Y1.0200 R1.0200
N200 G01 X2.1500 Y.8176
N210 X2.1914 Y.8129
N220 G02 X2.9620 Y.0020 R.8120
N230 G01 X2.9620 Y-1.0450
N240 X2.4420
N250 Y-.9200
N260 G03 X2.3170 Y-.7950 R.1250
N270 G01 X.1403 Y-1.0103
N280 G02 X-.3341 Y-.9637 R1.0200
N290 G03 X-.4944 Y-1.0450 R.1250
N300 G01 X-.5044 Y-1.3098
N310 G40 X-.3645 Y-1.3151 F6.0
(JUMPZ)
N320 G00 Z1.5000
(COOLANT=OFF)
(PARK)
N330 M09
N340 M05
N350 G91 G28 Z.0000
N360 G90 X4.0000
N370 G91 G28 Y.0000
N380 M30
%

One thing to keep in mind when using Leadin, each time you use it, it adds to the previously created Leadin. You want to redo it, you can use undo to remove previous leadin before doing it again.
Bill

Hello Bill, thank you for all the time you are spending trying to educate me, OK, heres the problem now, first I was unable to open your autocad drawing, something about not compatable, so I had to use my drawing, I followed your instructions and managed to produce a G-code and post it in a clipboard, the tool starts with a leadin to the left bottom corner of the part, and travels around the outside edge in a clockwise direction perfectly, but as it nears the end of its run, right at the large radius where the tool should travel upwards slightly to the small .250 radius and then travel downwards and then finish in a horizontal direction to the bottom left corner, the tool stops at the bottom of large radius and then shoots over to the finish corner stops and it then reverses back cutting into the part and stopping at the bottom of the large radius, the reverse path is a blue colour, and the clockwise is green,

Sorry to sound like a dunce, but sometimes I have a hard time decifering.

Edmond,
What version of Autocad are you using. (I posted Autocad 2004).
Here is the dxf of my drawing. Hope you can open this.

Try again, The dxf file I uploaded did not work?

Zoom in to the end where the tool starts making those reverse directions. The small radius at the path end needs to be erased.

Explode your path, erase all the leadins and leadouts. Redo the leadin and out. Zoom in to end to be sure what is has done. Then redo the path.

Test the results from the Lead in dialog box to be sure what you get. If you want, you can draw the leadin yourself. (or no leadin at all)

Bill

Bill, Im sorry but I am stumbling around like a blindman, Ive got drawings and folders all over the place, Im so confused I dont know my arse from my elbow, is it possible we can start right from the beginning, Im really sorry, I tried your latest dxf this morning but Im like clutching at straws

..............................................................

Hello Bill, I have just done a rectangle drawing in autocad 2000, used polyline, I followed your instructions, pathfinder, fuzz, 0.010, then path direction, then leadin, the toolpath of cutter starts at bottom left corner and leads in, then travels around outside of part and leads out at bottom left corner, I have created path group, in a clipboard, can you tell me how I can view the gcode?,

It seems my troubles occur with the straight lines and radiuses when I combine the two, any thoughts,

Edmund,
I always create a New Folder for my current project and keep all related files there. Create a new folder inside that folder to put obsolete stuff (to cleanup mistakes).

Inside the clipboard you should have Line 1 something like this:
T02 PATH1 (select tool 2 ; run path1)

-Close the clipboard, and select POST (Tahlcam-Post-Post Pgm)
-In the post dialog box, Enter the post filename. Save In will be the folder you have the drawing in. I always keep that default location. (my current project folder)
The default filename extension is .nc (you can change if you want)
-Hit the save button.
-A "Select Post to view" dialog box will appear. You can click the filename you just created and view the post using wordpad.

Bill

Hello Bill, Edmund here, I have just completed a small drawing and run it with Tahlcam cutviewer everything went very well, I created a path including a sink and posted into a text file as nc, I opened it up in Mach3 the Gcode is there but there is no path on the screen, it is blank, when I start the Gcode program in Mach3 a error sign appears at bottom of mach screen it says bad character used on line number #1,
Im using Fanuc post in tahlcam, do you think that could be the problem, (not compatapal with mach?), I have tried editing the code but had no luck,

Can I send you the G-code?,

........................................

Bill, something else now, I did have the clipboard visible with the program showing in the left column ie: T02 PATH1 SINK1, I clicked on the small x at top and it vanished of the screen, now I cant bring it back on,

can you please advise me,

Hello Bill, yoo hoo, TahlCam is calling you, :=)

......................................................................

Edmund,
I've been away from a computer for a few days, hope you have solved your problems by now. If not:

I don't use Mach3 (my wife to would not get it for me for Christmas) You may be able to get help in that forum. If you post the first few lines of code here, maybe I can see the problem.

What post defination are you using in Tahlcam (.def file). What editor are you using to edit the code?

To get the Clipboard back, Select from menu Tahlcam->Open Last Clipboard.
(to get the "Run Clipboard" back start Tahlcam again.

Bill.

Hello Bill, sorry for the delay, no I have not solved the problem, what I have done is do a new drawing as a dxf and loaded into Mach so I could finish the job, but I would like some help with the original in tahlcam so that I can learn, I really like TahlCam and the way it works inside Autocad,

If its ok with you, I would like to send the dwg producing code in TahlCam, also the final code in Mach which is in notepad after loading TahlCam into mach, I cycle start
but the prog stops at line #25 informing error zero radius arc and the prog stops at that point, also there is no toolpath visible in Mach,

Post definition?, would that be Fanuc?,......Editor?, would that be NotePad?.

Please let me know about sending the dwg, and the G-code?,

Bill, are you home or away?,
There is a message for you in Tahlcam,

Go ahead and send it Edmund.
I sent my email address in a private msg.
(or you can find it at wjbzone.com)

Bill

To get a few items from email posted on this thread:

Your post (.def) file is probably located in this folder:
"c:\Program Files\TahlCAM2K4"
(you may want to make a copy before editing)

To edit your post (def) file:
-After starting Tahlcam within Autocad,
-select the menu "TahLCAM-Post-Edit Post Def"
-in the Post Editor, click "Open" and select the post .def file you are using. (Open that file)
-In the Sections box, select main category to edit (ie Post Readability)
-In the Settings box, select specific item (Pos-No)
(description will tell you what that item does)
-In the Setting Value Box, change value to what you need. (hit enter)
-Save the file, you might want to hit SAVE AS and name it *.def



Similar to editing the post def,

The tahlcam.ini file has some default items that you also might want to change (such as scale of the datum and other objects.) To edit that:
(make backup of tahlcam.ini before editing)

-select the menu: "Tahlcam-Setup Options"
-In the Sections box, select category you want (ie Object Scale)
-In the Settings box, select specific item (datumscale)
(description will tell you what that item does)
-In the Setting Value Box, change value to what you need. (hit enter)
-This file will save as tahlcam.ini so a backup will be important.

The ini file will only change drawing defaults when a new session is started.