My first post here. I hope this post is on topic enough for the EDM forum.
I've recently built a hot wire foam cutter that I'm trying to drive with GCODE generated for a EDM machine to do some complex foam cuts. As a compsci major writing a post processor isn't a problem. However what I lack is understand of the gcode generated by my CAM tool, and how that relates to what I have built.
Attached is the output file from the CAM software that I have.
X and Y seem to be straight forward, they plot the contour of the wing profile that I'd like to cut, however I don't understand how U and V relate to that. Is that very machine dependent?
My hot wire cutter setup:
X: left horizontal axis
Y: left vertical axis
U: right horizontal axis
V: right vertical axis
Once I understand what the CAM generated GCODE is trying to do with U and V I will be able to create my own post processor to massage it into a format that my controller can use.
u and V is used so that top and buttom wire guide follows different contours. You can it to make tappered walls or ood shapes with a circle at one end and a square/triangle at the other end
try google Squircle