Gcodein - lisp program to read cnc files into autocad

[wjbzone]

This is a link to a zip file that contains gcodein.fas and a readme.txt file.

You can use it to read a cnc mill file into Autocad. I also have a lathe version I will post on my website later.

intergate.com/~wjb1/wjbzone/autocad/gcodein.zip

Bill

[CNCadmin]

What does that do?

[wjbzone]

You can read a cnc gcode file into an Autocad layer.

1. Launch your Autocad application.
2. Use appload to load the gcodein.fas.
3. Type gcodein at the Autocad command line.
4. Browse locate your cnc gcode file.

The cnc file is read into the current Autocad layer as lines and arcs.
You can step one line at a time or set the number of lines to step.

I use to verify my code before I run it on my machine.

Bill

[CNCadmin]

OK, thanks I understand now.

[ger21]

It would be nice if the step number stayed the same so you could just hit enter or right click to step through, right now I had to type the step amount each time. Other than that, it seems to work pretty good.

Gerry

[wjbzone]

"It would be nice if the step number stayed the same so you could just hit enter..."

Gerry,
That's the way it works. At each pause in execution, the default step number is displayed at the beginning of the command line.
i.e.
if the default is 1 the command line reads:
"1 Enter Step Increment (0 to Continue)"
if the default is 20 the command line reads:
"20 Enter Step Increment (0 to Continue)"

The number at the beginning of the line (the 1 or the 20 shown above) is the default number of steps if you just hit the enter key.

The only time you should have to type a number is when you want to change the default (can be any positive number).

Type a 0 (zero) to run without a pause.

Let me know that is not working for you.

I'll try to make that more obvious in next revision.

Bill

[ger21]

My mistake, it does seem to work properly. One thing I noticed with code generated from MeshCAM, It crashed if the first move was:

G1 Z0.00 F10.00

I'm guessing it didn't have a place to start with just the Z-value in the first line.

Gerry

[wjbzone]

You got me on that one. Looks like a G0 or G1 with a zero move at the start of the program is a problem. I'll get that fixed as soon as I have a chance. Got to to some painting first today.

Will post again as soon as it's fixed.

Bill

[wjbzone]

I got the program updated. Fixed the problem with the first move.

The link on the first post of this thread is the current version.

Bill

[mrainey]

Hi,

Can you use this with AutoCAD 14 and if so, how? I've never run across a .fas file before.

[wjbzone]

Sorry mrainey,
I don't believe a .fas file can be read into Autocad 14. The lisp routine uses several visual lisp functions. These are supported by Autocad 2000 and above.
Bill

[wjbzone]

Another update to the gcodein program has been posted. I also put the lathe version (gcodeinL) on my website. (in the Autocad section)

Bill