new X carve owner here.
Need help bringing an existing job, that I programmed in Mastercam, into easel. Super basic rectangular cut out in .012" aluminum. Only thing is, it has to be precisely located, and the z CANNOT drift into he material. Got the machine super squared up and rigid already, ran some tests in easel, but cannot figure out how to precisely locate the cut out using easel.
Any ideas?
Thanks.
Are you exporting G code from Mastercam?
Yes, program has been done. It’s an existing program/part that I used to make at a buddies shop. Now that I have the X carve, I’d like to do it at home.
Would like to be able to set my origin, per my drawing, not the edge of the table like easel seems to require. That way I can sweep a pin to verify the machine hasn’t drifted.
It isn’t actually setting the origin to the closest, leftmost corner of your wasteboard. The origin is whatever zeroed xyz location is currently stored in your x carve controller. So you can in fact set the origin per your drawing. Is that what you want to do? Set the origin to be a point on your aluminum stock sheet instead of your wasteboard corner?
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Yes. Ok, then-next question.
I’ve tried to import the existing g code, into easel, but I’m obviously not using their post processor. wondering if there is a way to go through the g code, by hand even, and get it to an easel acceptable format.
That I actually am not sure of. What file type is your 3D model?
it’s a mastercam file, but the g code is standard g code for any haas, fadal, fanuc type control.
From what i’ve seen, there are alot of codes that the G shield (I think that’s what runs our X carves) cannot read, and need to be simplified.
Luckily, like I said, I’m cutting a simple, basic rectangle (sort of) at a fixed Z of -.012.
RIght now, I’m playing with the 3 axis homing block (Triquetra) from the guy here on the forum. Once I get that set up, I can run test cut, in easel, on some mdf.
Hopefully I don’t need to convolute the process with extra stuff like UGS or Chilipeppr…
Thanks
Not saying you will but I had alot of issues running fanuc formatted code. I run files that are standard .txt, nc., and inch arc .tap.
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Awesome, that’s what I needed.
I’ve been reading the forum pretty much 24-7 for the past 2 weeks, minus time spent assembling the X carve, but there’s so much information here you forget where you saw everything and what is was you thought you saw.
Hmm… So what did you end up doing?
I’d like to stick with a program I’m used to (Mastercam), but am not against learning a new one like Fusion, etc.
Thanks
John
I haven’t used mastercam so I don’t know the options for code output you have but those were what ended up working for me with out using xcarve post. Can you output as .txt?
Yes, standard g code. I can save it as a txt or no file in the editor I use.
I’ll play with it today and post my results.
Thanks for all the help
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