Need Help!- How To Move Zero to a New Location

[nfrees114]

Hi Everyone- I am a First time user of BobCad. I just got it yesterday and have been trying to program a part that needs done ASAP. I've been doing very good except for the fact that when I imported the DXF of the part it put the part Geometry in the upper Right corner of the datum reference. well i programmed it and then realized that i need the part to be in the same orientation but in the bottom left corner of the datum plane. I need my part Zero to be the top rt corner of the part not the bottom left. is there a way to make this move so that when i post the data it makes the machine go in the negative X direction instead of the positive. i just hate to have to re-program this whole part. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!

Thanks!

-Nate

[Paul in OK]

Can you not just set your 0,0 at the upper right corner and run this part that way? What is keeping you from running the part with that orientation?

[nfrees114]

right, that's exactly what i want to do. but in the help menu it doesn't show you how to make that corner 0,0. and i don't have the manual yet because it hasen't arrived. i'm just going by the tutorials and the seat of my pants here so how do you do that? that sounds like exactly what i want to do!

[mcphill]

Got to Utilities -> Translate. Then draw a box around EVERYTHING, right click and say OK. Then you should be able to tell is exactly how far in the X, Y (and Z) you want to shift. Hit OK, and it will move to the new location. Alternatively you can drag it to the new position if you don't know the exact coordinates.

[BurrMan]

In the lower left corner you will see a tab for the UCS Manager. Right click in there and Make a new UCS. You can use coords or 3 points or Snap if you have a nice corner to use.

Your 2d operations will post from the active UCS.

[nfrees114]

Burrman- I tried to do the UCS and it moved fine but it didn't post the code in Negative. and I translated it like McPhill said but it didn't move the tool paths. Yeah i was hoping that making a new UCS and re-posting the tool paths would make it make the coordinates negative but they arne't. am i not doing that right? I just created a UCS on the top right corner of my part and then re-computed the tool path but when i look at the G code all the Coordinates are still possitive and they should be negative.

[BurrMan]

You may have to re-select the geometry from within the feature before you re-compute ( It may just be remembering where the last place you selected the geometry for the feature)

But also is your geometry at Z "0" along with the UCS?

Make sure the new UCS is the "Active" one when your are working. This would have a red check on it in the UCS manager.

If you can post a file that would help to see better what your looking at.

[BurrMan]

Yeah, Make the new UCS in the corner you want, then in the feature, right click the "geometry item" and choose re-select. The geometry should highlight automatically (if not then re-select it) and just choose OK. Then re-compute toolpath and post.

[EDIT] Same thing with mcphils method. Anytime you move things around you will have to update the feature. This enables each individual feature to "remember" what it was supposed to do. So for purposes like using the 4th axis you can create indexed code by using many rotated UCS or rotating the part for each feature. Then you can create mutiple features from any angle and post one code file.[EDIT]

[sandy baby]

What version of Bobcad are you using???? I could help quite a bit with that. I have a bunch of videos that you can download from my website: cadcamtrainer.com The password to download videos is 1955 and user name is september. I could make a quick video and post it there if it helps.
Best regards,
Sorin

[nfrees114]

Excellent- Thank you all for the information!!! That will help a ton!!! and hopefully actually getting the program and the manual will make me not have to ask so many questions ;-) Thanks again everyone!!! You guys are lifesavers!!!!

[BurrMan]

I've heard nothing but good things about Sorins classes. (The previous poster). Everybody that goes says good.