Carving .svg photo's with x-carve

21

Yep, if nothing happens, download and install java, and try it again :smile:

22

ok doing it now.

23

Usually if I’m doing something new for the first time, I’ll run the machine without a bit, and I won’t turn on the spindle, just so I can get an idea of what the machine’s going to do. You might want to give it a try for the next step. If you do, for the part where I say “touch the bit to the work surface”, just lower it so the bottom of the spindle’s about 1-2" above the surface.

24

Here’s the .tap file I used just to test if my machine would move correctly, if you have one prepared go ahead and use yours.

PhotoVCarve.tap (847.3 KB)

I’m not super familiar with UGS, so someone else might have some better suggestions, but this is what I just did and it started cutting as expected, so here we go:

  • select your com port
  • set rate to 115200
  • click open

it should show some red text under “Active State”, that’s fine

  • go to the “Machine Control” tab

  • click the $X button
    it should say “Caution: Unlocked” at the bottom and the red text on the left should turn normal

  • click X+, it should move to the right

I recommend you switch to “millimeters” when moving the Z axis

  • move the bit to the bottom left corner of your piece, and lower it so that it’s touching the piece

  • click “reset zero”

  • go to the “File Mode” tab

  • load your .tap file

  • start your spindle/vacuum

get ready to turn off the machine if something goes haywire

  • click “send”

if everything worked out it should start making a series of diagonal lines. If you’re just running a test pass, you can click cancel to stop.

1 Like
25

when I tried to downlod the java script I get something that is Pconverter-Pconverter.com, is this correct?

26

Nope, it should be “jre-8u45-windows-x64.exe”

Go here http://www.java.com/en/download/manual.jsp

and click “Windows Offline (64-bit)”

27

ok, I had just found that when you replied, back with you soon.

28

ok, it said I have successfully download java. I went back and clicked on the start-windows.bat and so far nothing has happened?

29

After you downloaded it, you ran it and it installed and everything?

30

I think so, let me confirm all you said. Remember, I’m old and there is a big dark area between my ears! :slight_smile:

31

If it installed ok, you should have a folder called:

C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.8.0_45\bin

and there should be a bunch of files in there, including java.exe.

Also, you should be running the “start-windows.bat” file from the folder that was created when we extracted the contents of the zip file, and you shouldn’t be running it by double-clicking on the zip file and clicking start-windows from there. If you try to do it the incorrect way, I think it pops up a small window saying “this application may depend on other compressed files”.

32

boy, my head is spinning. I have under C:\Program Files\Java a file labeled jre1.8.0_45

33

ok found all that, looking for the java.exe file wait one please

34

don’t see the java.exe but there is one labeled java and it looks like it has a steaming cup of something on it.

35

Ok, that’s a good sign. Let’s go back to your Downloads folder, find the “UniversalGcodeSender-v1.0.8.zip” file, right click, and pick “Extract All” again. Except this time let’s put “C:\UGS” (without the quotes) into the little text box that comes up, then hit “Next”.

After that runs, it should pop open a window to “C:\UGS” and you should see the “start-windows.bat” file again. Let’s click on that and see what happens…

36

ok give me a minute, trying to find down loads folder. I’m a mac man, pc’s are new to me.

37

alright, I,m not having any luck with this and I am pretty tired about now. I really appreciate all your assistance tonight but I think I need to stop for a while and give it a rest. I will review all you’ve given me and see if I can catch up with you later tomorrow. Thanks again.

38

You bet, have a good one

1 Like
39

PicEngrave Pro 5 is almost have the price as PhotoVcarve and has more options like Ellipse & Crop an image and includes profiles for spindle & laser engraving photos. it has it’s own image editor also. We also offer a very reliable, easy to use gcode streamer called PicSender for very large, fast changing raster gcode files for engraving photos using grbl.

http://www.picengrave.com/index.htm

40

I didn’t see any demos for bit carving. They’re all for Laser. Am I wrong?