Posting to Mach3

[Danno]

Hey;
I bought my Dolphin cad 2 program last week and doing pretty good with it, but I'm stuck on a couple issues.
I got as far as drawing a part, and was able to generate a G-code for it in the Cam section. I don't know how to send this to my Mach3 on my mill so that I can try to cut it. Any ideas?
Also, when I purchased this program, I was told that I would be able to draw, and save into DXF format. When I try and save a drawing, I can only save in DRA format.
Thanks in advance for any help, Dan

[dertsap]

to save as dxf you have to "export " the drawing and not use "save as"

no cad/cam will import code directly to mach other than mach's lazycam .
so as far as the g code goes you need to save the code to your documents or where ever you save these types of documents then when you fire up mach you use load g code then direct mach to where ever you have saved the g code

[Danno]

Well I must be missing something or I'm totally stupid !!

First problem;
I was able to save a drawing in CAD by exporting then saving as a DXF.
I then open CAM, and try to open the same DXF drawing I had just saved, and a window comes up telling me that "CLASS IS NOT REGISTERED". Once I close that, another window pops up telling me that "Partsmaster Cad is not installed"

second problem;
I still can't get a program to load into Mach3.
When I click the button in Mach to "load G-code", it automatically looks for files with .TAP extensions.
The Dolphin Cam program saves the G-code files with an extension .CNC !!
If I try to open the .CNC file with Mach, no g-code appears in the window !!
It's a good thing I'm bald or else I'd be pulling my hair out.
Last resort is to call Dolphin Cad themselves if I can't figure this out.
Too bad they don't have a toll-free number!!! Dan

[nobikes]

i am running mach 3. i have had good sucess by just renaming the post (g-code) file to .txt (Notepad) works great.

[Dolphin USA]

If you are using Dolphin for both Cad & Cam, there is no need to use dxf at all. Partmaster Cam will read the .dra file directly. The .dra file is the propriotary format the Dolphin CAD uses to generate the drawings.

You had mentioned that Dolphin saves you're program has a .cnc file and Mach can not load that. The .cnc file is not you're g-code program. The .cnc file is the CAM side of the actual machining operations. When you post process with Dolphin Partmaster CAM, it will produce a .pun file which is the actual g-code file. You can set up where you would like to have the files sent to on you're computer. When you have the g-code program, you can then open it up in notepad, or whichever program and change that over to a .txt file so that Mach 3 will read it ok.

[sqatch]

In the cam modual toolbar select execute then post process and in the bottom right corner of the box there is a select file extention box just type in the tap or txt extention you want to use and it will post process to that every time thereafter. Also put the tool path animation switch to envelope
for faster rendering.

[windy_miller]

Hi Dano,

It is a nightmare understanding this cadcam lark. I've been there! It is a shame there is not a tutorial taking us all the way from creatin a drawing through cam and out to mach. It is very confusing for a beginner. I had never used cad or cam or mach or g-code so had to learn everything. It is a steep hill to climb, but worth the effort.

As for getting started, draw your stuff in cad & save it You wiil have to add the nc contours, patterns etc. It will save as .dra This is fine, do not bother with dxf for now.

Do not close cad but select 'machining' and then 'mill' from the top toolbar in cad. This will instantly open cam and load your drawing into the cam system. From here select your tools, cutting speeds and what parts to be machined etc. Don't forget to save it It will default to save it as the same name you called it in cad but with a .cnc extention so it will not overwrite your cad drawing. In the 'View' window tick 'g-code' Now when you hit the 'post process' icon you should see your g-code.

My Mach opens the .pun files no problem, but as the other post says, you can change the extention. Go into Mach and select the g-code file you have just created. Away you go.

When I open mach and select 'load g-code', the pop up window 'file name' has*.pun in there by default and 'file type as (*.tap) thus I see all the dolphin produced g-code files which have the default .pun extention

.dra Dolphin extention for cad drawings
.cnc Dolphin extention for drawing taken from cad and saved in cam
.pun extention for g-code produced by Dolphin.

Please check your PMs

Regards,
Windy.