Question about the way this does toolpaths

[tlmkr38]

I have downloaded the trail version and really like it. I'm looking for something to use at work and since I know the owners are not gonna shell out the money for something like Gibbs and such I looked at this.

I wanted to use it to set up a block I was milling the other day. Simple really as it was just 72 .250 slots in a line. I had the zero origin set for the center end of the part and selected all of the slots to pocket. For some reason the code that was written took the first cut to like the 20th slot and worked back to the ) then went and finished the rest of them instead of starting on one said and ending on the other.

And I deas why it would do that? I am running a Fryer CNC with Anilan 3000M controller if that helps any.

[10bulls]

If you have a CamBam file to look at, I'd be happy to see what may be going on. You will need to .zip them to upload them here, or you can use the cambam forum (CamBam - Index) or email them to me directly at
10bulls at gmail dot com.

CamBam orders the toolpaths by starting at the first item selected, then moving to the next nearest toolpath.
If you have the StartPoint property defined for a machining operation, it will start at the toolpath closest to that, and then look for the next nearest etc.

If you set your StartPoint property near to an object at one end, I would expect the optimiser to do better and proceed along the line.

Another work around, is to select the parts in the order you would like to machine them. The machining operations have a parameter called OptimisationMode. If you set this to 'None', the toolpaths will be ordered in the order the drawing objects were selected. Although for 72 objects this would be rather tedious.

[tlmkr38]

Ok I'll try what you said and see if that does it . If not I'll send you the File or even the DXF so you can look at it. What I did was to first select all of the slots on the DXF in a window then joined them. Then selected them all again together with a window and set them up to pocket. I"ll check the settings and see it that will work .

Thanks!