Plasma G-code with Artcam?

[coherent]

I realise Artcam is a bit of overkill for plasma, but I also mount a router to my machine. I've had a chance to play with Artcam a little bit and the profiling, tabbing and lead in options would be great for plasma, but how would you set up a tool (plasma cutter) that doesn't have any cutting depth etc for use with a plasma cutter with a torch height control? The torch height controller would control the Z axis so just a 2 d profile is all thats needed. Any thoughts or ideas from you Artcam gurus, or should I just use sheetcam for the plasma?
-marc

[jerryrigge]

I have used Artcam and cnc plasma cutters. Your question is similar to those I was asking before I learned a little more.

After you do your artcam drawing, you tell artcam to produce a tool path. That tool path can be G-code ( or others depending on your settings). There will be no z axis moves unless you put those in using artcam. In artcam you tell it the depth of each cut. So just tell it to cut at 0 depth. Next issue is to turn the torch off and on. Although I don't know the easiest way to do it....I do know that it is not complicated. According to the torch control you are using you may need to insert some kind of m3 command that turns on a switch on your board. Something like a spindle on/off control.

[sunmix]

I wrote myself a plasma post processor for ArtCAM and it works fine. Includes M3 and M5 for Torch on and Torch Off. But ArtCAM can't let me choose the starting point of a geometry.

[braidmeister]

Thickness of material should be set to .001". Check off 'lead-in' on profile toolpath. You will need to write your own post or find one that works with your machine.

You can change the start point of any vector in ArtCAM by hovering your mouse over where you want the start point (green node) to be and press the 'P' key. You can do this in edit or node modes.

-Brady

[todd71]

If so, how do you like it. Not having a laser I've yet to use that feature. Would like to hear about and see some examples of uses for this toolpath function.

Thanks,
Todd
http://www.innovative-accents.com