Newbie- G-Code to carve out an area

[lyassa]

Is there any G code command or routine such that I supply it the xy coordinates of 3 or more points, and it carve out the area enclosed by these points? If no such G code command, how do I go about that? Your answer is very much appreciated.

[Geof]

As far as I know there is no general G command to do what you want. Some machines have canned cycles for simple pockets. Haas is one where you drill a hole at the center of the pocket and just program the perimeter coordinates once and then the machine starts at the center and works its way out.

Or of course you can use a CAM program.

Failing all these you need to code it yourself which is possible but can get tedious.

[lyassa]

Thanks Geof. It seems that I will end up using excel to generate the gcode to do the area fill (or rather empty). I am able to do it with shapes like squares and rectangles. I will try to do the calcs on irregular shapes.

It is hard to believe that nothing is available out there!

[texaspyro]

Without knowing which CNC control that you are using, it is impossible to answer your question.

Several controls do have some generalized pocketing commands... they do tend to be a royal pain to get working since they are seldom documented properly and they have tons of parameters.

[ProProcess]

Originally Posted by texaspyro ...Several controls do have some generalized pocketing commands... they do tend to be a royal pain to get working since they are seldom documented properly and they have tons of parameters.

This is where a good understanding of a give machine's macro language proves invaluable.