multiple work offsets in MCX

[kprice1658]

That was it! I'm not clear on how that happened, must be because of importing saved toolpaths? Lesson learned.

Cadcam, you have helped me before and I appreciate it. It always amazes me at the time you take to help people - with the diagrams and videos you provide -it has to be time consuming. It doesn't go unnoticed.

I'm sure I'll be posting again as I attempt my first parts using offsets.

Thanks again.

[cadcam]

Cadcam, you have helped me before and I appreciate it. It always amazes me at the time you take to help people - with the diagrams and videos you provide -it has to be time consuming. It doesn't go unnoticed.

Thank you for the nice words. you are correct it is time consuming. But I just got my payback by this statement.

I'm sure I'll be posting again as I attempt my first parts using offsets.

And most likely I will be hear answering as I try and answer as much as I can. Some time I just run out of time.

Have a great day

[kprice1658]

I didn't get the code that I expected when I loaded into Mach3. I get the G54 & G55, but the toolpaths aren't right. I'm just getting the one cavity, not the steps of the translation...

So, it appears that when you use the Transform operation for offsets, you loose the ability to use the Translate Tab for xy steps & spacing ?

The Backplot & Verify looks good ,but mach3 shows only 1 cavity per offset.

I think I can just do another Transform to get the copies I need 1st, and then transform that one to get my complete G55 offset, leaving the translate tab settings at 0's.

Just wanted to make sure this is correct - or missing something...

[cadcam]

Sir please review my file and post.
this should give you what you want.

[kprice1658]

That file only gives me 1 cavity in each offset when I run it in Mach3.

I did get a test run that looked good in Mach3 - by transforming a transformed toolpath - that already was transformed - so 3 transforms of a single toolpath.

I just had to keep playing with the disable/enable posting on each of the 4 toolpaths (1 original, 3 transforms) - it kept making 1 or 2 dirty when regenerating, switching back& forth, but I finally found a combination that took.

I'm sure this probably isn't the correct way - but once I get a part(s) running - I'll have more time to do some testing. This was a test file, most will have 4-6 toolpaths that will need done.

Thank you for your effort.

[kprice1658]

Ok -here's the file back with what I figured out - who knows if its the best/right way or not? I checked in editNC and Mcam - looks good.

Going to run it tonight - guess we'll find out....

[kprice1658]

Reporting back..

I think I finally got it figured out. I ran it last night and it all worked.

Cadcam, with your file, OP3 was the correct way, but OP2 wasn't right, so thats why it only gave me 1 cavity on each offset. I changed OP2 to just do the rect. transform to get all the cavities - soon as I did that, OP3 worked like expected. (never doubted you for a second!, knew it was something I was missing)

It really was confusing, especially when transforming already transformed paths.

Thanks Cadcam - never got there without ya!!