Having read this forum for a long time now I see two groups at work here. I’m considering offering special pricing for X-Carve owners, and would love to have Inventables offer it as well, but I’m not sure if anyone here would be interested in this kind of thing. It’s not a CAD/CAM program like Easel, but for anyone who has done CNC programming and misses the ability to do some of the more complex G-Code functions, NCPlot is extremely handy. Things like variable macro programming, canned cycles, sub programming, rotation, scaling, etc., etc… It does this by ‘re-posting’ a program into simple G-Code commands that the X-Carve can use. Well, I’ve got some ideas about that and I’m thinking about writing a front end similar to chilipeppr but integrate it into NCPlot.īut aside from that I think that NCPlot makes a great companion to X-Carve because it gives you all of the industry standard programming capability that is not included in the Grbl controller.
#Ncplot read only software
I also happen to be the author of a really cool G-Code editor called NCPlot, so of course one of the first things I though of was “how can I make my software work with the X-Carve?”. Having put my time in, I know the experience on the floor is valuable.I am a new owner of an X-Carve and so far I love it! Number 2, take notes and let me know what we can make better. Here's how I lead when I hand some one a thumb drive (it makes the operator/machinist feel involved and that input is not shunned but requested): No matter how clean and smooth your program is, some one will want something different. I try to keep in mind what machine and who is running it when I create tool paths. Nothing beats years of experience.Īs far as changes, every machinist is different.
#Ncplot read only iso
This doesn't even touch on the issues that are created for an ISO / AS certified shop if your shop floor guys are editing programs based on what they think is a good idea.ĭitto that. The concept you describe is pretty simple, file comes back in after having been edited, programmer opens both files up side by side in cimco using compare, alters Mastercam file to conform with the edited gcode that came back from the floor.
#Ncplot read only code
Just thinking out loud here, but perhaps if the guy at the machine knows more about editing code than the programmer, its time for the programmer and the machinist to switch jobs.Īny CNC 'programmer' that can't understand the code that the CAM system is putting out isn't worth having. That allow you to modify, for example, a CYCLE/DRILL command to a CYCLE/DEEP command directly in the CL data. The only systems that can directly do something similar to what you describe are APT command based systems What you are actually doing could be accomplished with Notepad. Likely in a CDL file itself, thus making it appear that you are actually editing something outside of the system. Your scripted output from CADKEY is simply storing the actual NC Code with the CADKEY data, In either case, there is no direct link to the original operation data.
#Ncplot read only generator
If the CAM system produces G-Code, on the fly, as the operation is defined, then it is using a Code Generator and not a post-processor. It take the work done in the CAM file and formats the output for a given Machine and Control syntax. NC Code (G-Code) is the last step in the process.Ī post-processor, by definition, comes AFTER the work in the CAM is done. Was the most popular translator for getting CADKEY data into Mastercam. I still remember the days when the CADKEY CDL file translator (pronounced CAD EL in the CAM world) You are confusing a scripted output from a CAD system like CADKEY or AUTOCAD with CAM.Ī series of PRINT statements in a CDL or Auto-lisp script is not CAM. Indicates a profound ignorance of what a CAM system actually is and does. Your question and follow up statement about the difficulty of doing what you want, There is not a CAM system on planet earth that can do what you are asking. But again it only will work with like 97 Cadkey.
Is it something you can buy no because it was made by a programmer here where I work. Your wrong, and I really really hate telling someone this because I am still a little new to the programming world but I have a copy to an editor for Cadkey that will.