Conventional and Climb directions reversed

[btsioles]

Hello,

I have a homemade 3-axis gantry type machine that I built. The machine seems to be setup correctly. All 3 axes are setup to mirror what I see in Rhino. I.e. when looking at the machine from the front, X is left to right, Y is front to back, and Z of course is down to up. My Y motor is at the back of the machine, X motor is on the right, and Z is on top. I had to use the "reverse" option in Mach 3 to get my parts to come out correctly in relation to what I see in the preview screen in Mach. When I jog right on the X axis the position value increases. Jogging toward the back of the machine with Y increases the position. Jogging up toward the sky with Z increases the value. So, again I think the machine is setup correctly.

I'm using Mach 3 on a toshiba laptop via parallel port to a easycnc/mechatronics 3 axis controller, and generating my Gcode with rhinocam.

Last night I programmed 2 profile operations on a piece. The first operation was an interior profile, so I set rhinocam to do a climb cut. I'm using a basic end mill. The simulation in rhinocam shows the toolpath to be clockwise, which is good, BUT when I run it in mach3, the tool travels in the opposite direction. The orientation of the part comes out properly, but the tool path was counter clockwise. (I can machine letters and they come out fine with regards to orientation. They're not mirrored or anything like that)

My other operation was a perimeter cut, so I had set it up for a conventional (counter-clockwise) cut. Again the simulation in rhinocam was fine, but Mach decided to travel clockwise for the cut.

Any ideas on how to fix this? I'd like to be able to pick the options as designed in rhinocam's cut parameters tab and have mach listen. I can get around this by programming the part to use the "wrong" direction in rhinocam, but that is silly. I'm assuming it's a mach 3 setup issue.

Thanks,
Bobby

[bostosh]

Read the Gcode to ascertain what is coming out of Rcam.
or
Get a Gcode reader to verify.

[btsioles]

Geez, I'm off to a bad start... After slowing down the simulation in rhinocam it appears as if rhinocam has it backwards. I apologize for providing incorrect information. The simulation shows a climb cut moving counter-clockwise, and a conventional moving clockwise...

I will research from the rcam side of things. Sorry about that.

-Bobby