7 hours and I am still stumped....see image.

[nate]

the toolpaths that bobcad makes are being intepreted by mach3 in such a way as to make anything with a radius into full 360 degree passes... needless to say, this really creates some bad toolpaths, and ends up plunging into the work and crashing.

I am really new at working with lathe. and this is all done on a milling machine that I built a lathe attachment for the table. (bed and spindle travel on the table, toolholder on a beam that straddles the table.) this setup is akin to your standard front toolpost manual lathes. only I have it so the work moves not the tool.

I believe that my toolpaths that are generated with bobcad that dont have radiuses are fine. I certainly can run the Mach 3 wizards without the same problems.

Attached is a screndhot of a finishing toolpath. 20 passes at .005.

Any ideas?

[WayneHill]

Change your BobCAD - CAM lathe post processor arc center type from "radius" to "incremental" in order to output I and K values instead of R. Some controls choke on the radius values of arc definitions if they are not perfect mathematically.

Jackson, Michigan

[nate]

Wayne-

First, thanks so much for your help. I think that cleared the problem up.

So far, all the new drawings and the generated code for them have not produced the same odd code.

Could I trouble you to have a look at this attached image? This is a part/code I made just to see if the other problem was fixed. The problem in this code is in the lower right portion of the image. The green cut line that travels from the bottom of the radius out to approximately Z +.3

This line should not be there. I thought it was a rapid out, but changing all of those settings in bobcad does not fix the problem.

Any ideas?

Best,
Nate

[nate]

P.S. the problem is at 299.

[billyfriday]

Originally Posted by nate the toolpaths that bobcad makes are being intepreted by mach3 in such a way as to make anything with a radius into full 360 degree passes... needless to say, this really creates some bad toolpaths, and ends up plunging into the work and crashing. I am really new at working with lathe. and this is all done on a milling machine that I built a lathe attachment for the table. (bed and spindle travel on the table, toolholder on a beam that straddles the table.) this setup is akin to your standard front toolpost manual lathes. only I have it so the work moves not the tool. I believe that my toolpaths that are generated with bobcad that dont have radiuses are fine. I certainly can run the Mach 3 wizards without the same problems. Attached is a screndhot of a finishing toolpath. 20 passes at .005. Any ideas?

I had the same problem and fixed it by changing the settings in mach 3 by clicking CONFIG then PORTS & PINS then TURN OPTIONS and there will be a tick box REVERSED ARC'S IN FRONT POST try ticking or un-ticking this box