SprutCAM 7 Annoyance #1

[dkaustin]

I'm modeling a Circlip slot cutter in SprutCAM 7, basically a cylindrical part oriented to the Z axis. The workpiece is a cylinder around the part. The toolpath generation runs fine.

On the simulation screen, however, with Machining Result Visible enabled, it insists on using a box workpiece around the part. Nothing I've tried will make it use the cylindrical workpiece. Is anyone else seeing this?

I've gone through all the options settings and don't see anything that would seem to cause this. What am I missing?

[wvines]

Yep, I've seen that too. If you define your workpiece at the machine level then it works correctly.

[dkaustin]

wvines, thanks for the tip.

I've got things working normally again, though I'm not sure redefining the workpiece at the machine level was the actual solution. It didn't work the first time, or the second, or the tenth (I can be a dogged b*****d sometimes )

Eventually, something clicked and the simulation started working normally. I suspect it was just some obscure variable in the program that got hung up and wasn't updating.

Problems that go away by themselves have a way of coming back by themselves. We'll see.

[dkaustin]

OK, I've spent some more time on this, and I think the problem I reported originally is just the tip of a big ugly iceberg.

The problem seems to be in the simulation part of Sprut. On some projects, I either get the wrong workpiece displayed or no workpiece at all. In some I cannot make the machining result visible. If I try to export the machining result as an STL file to use as the workpiece in a subsequent operation, all I get in the STL is a simple box-around-the-part primitive. In all cases, the modeling and machining screens appear to be working normally.

I am also getting occasional crashes with access violation messages involving the SprutCAM kernel (sckernel.dll).

Is anyone else seeing similar problems? Don't know yet if this is a program bug or a hardware problem. I'm running SprutCAM 7 on an HP XW9300 workstation under Windows 7 Pro 64-bit.

Would appreciate hearing from others.

[wvines]

I'm running Windows 7 Home and SprutCAM 7 build 0.6 rev 32868 on a homebrew i7 based system.

Right now, cross my fingers and knock on wood, SprutCAM 7 is running very predictably for me. Not everything works the way I want it to, but it's working predictably.

BUT, I did see some of the same problems that you are seeing on one design. It was a simple part but the workpiece was all screwed up. And the toolpaths were rotated with the tool approaching along the Y axis even though it was a 3-axis milling machine. I deleted the project and started over and everything worked fine.

Also, I've installed SprutCAM 7 build 0.6 rev 32868 from 3 different sources. The first time was from Sprut Technology UK. That download did some very strange things. The second time was from Sprut Russia. That download worked pretty well but had a couple of stability issues. The third time was from the Tormach upgrade CD and also installed the new dongle driver. That installation has been very good so far. They were all (supposedly) the same version.

The only crashes that I've seen with the latest installation occurred when I was invoking the postprocessor generator through SprutCAM instead of starting it directly.

[wvines]

I just did a binary compare on all 3 installation files and they were all identical. So maybe the trick is to go through the install/uninstall cycle 3 times. Or maybe it was the new dongle driver? Hmmm.....

[Cairns]

Just curious, are you having problems with new files or files that were originally created in a previous version of Sprut?

[dkaustin]

cairns,

Right now, it looks like files created in the previous version (2007) of Sprut behave normally. I've only had the problem in new projects created under Sprut 7.

The files appear to load normally. If I open in the Model screen, the part and workpiece appear very small and then zoom to fill the screen, then they both vanish, leaving a blank screen. After that, I can only see them both by enabling Geometry model visibility. I can see the part and job assignment by enabling their respective visibility icons. NOTHING I do will make just the workpiece or machining result visible.

The toolpath calculation appears to run without errors, getting green checks on all operations. The simulation LOOKS like it runs; the tool moves in all the right places, but I can't make the workpiece or machining result appear. The simulation screen remains blank except for the moving tool. If I export the simulation result to an STL file, it's an empty 1KB file.

I've tried reinstalling Sprut 7, and I've given carte blanche permissions to all Sprut files, but so far nothing has made any difference.

If anyone has any ideas, I'd be thrilled to hear them.

[Cairns]

I wonder if you are running into a limitation or issue with your video card. Are you using the latest drivers? I'd assume so since you're on Win7.

[dkaustin]

I think I've narrowed it down to a problem with Sprut's handling of STL files.

I've been trying to export the machining result of a project to an STL file using both the "Export" and "Save" functions in Sprut 7, then importing those STL files as workpieces for subsequent operations in another project. It is NOT working. The saved export files does not capture the machined features from the simulation. Instead, it appears to be just a box-around-the-part primitive.

Sprut saves its STL files in binary; I've tried converting them to ASCII and importing them into the second project. I tried converting the Sprut exported STL file to IGES, and the conversion aborted with errors.

Has anyone else tried to work with STL files in Sprut? Is this function broken in Sprut 7?

[justgary]

dkaustin -

This is not exactly what you described, but could be related. I figured I'd pass it along just in case.

I have run into cases before with 2007 where the simulation quits working correctly after I have had the program open for a long time. When it does this, as I recall, the simulation is basically the original part plus the tool moving around doing nothing. The cure for me is to save everything and restart the program. Simulation works again after reopening the file.

By the way, I have imported STL files in the past, but primarily use IGES. I have not upgraded to 7 yet.

You should be able to find many examples of STL files on the web. It might be worth a minute to find one or two and try them just to make sure it is not an incompatibility with your CAD program.

Regards,

- Just Gary

[dkaustin]

The STL files that Sprut creates check out OK in a 3rd-party STL viewer. Sprut's ability to import those same files, however, seems to be shaky. Sometimes it will work, other times not.

I also think Sprut just plain does not like to be told what to use for a workpiece.

It would have been a timesaver to be able to export the simulation results, but it doesn't look like it's going to happen. Time to find a workaround and move on.