Questions on Artpath

Artpath - pausing and sequence

You can not sequence the output. As for the pausing I would assume that the router firmware itself is pausing during it's calculation of the move. It attempts to "contour" the tools paths calculating velocity and acceleration.

Send me one of your RTP files and I'll attempt to run it here.

I'll leave it at that.

On sequence what would you like ?

Minimize dry haul moves
If tool path is text, do the entire text done in sequence
move from srta point to start point of closest toolpath
others

Manual and / or auto

I bet you want all the above ?

 

Mike,

As Tony mentions, sequence plot, the way most would like to see it, is not currently present.

On materials or operations where I need to have control in this area, I’ll assign a plethora of varying RPM’s for the objects. I then enable “Rearrange Output Tool Order” from the Job Output dialog, then move the various RPM listing’s into the order I want items cut. My “manual” way of implementing sequence cutting so to say.

If you haven’t used it yet, check out the animation of tool usage. This can go a long way in helping you to determine how the software/machine is going to approach the job. Keep in mind, if you do manipulate the output order, this feature is less useful as it doesn’t reflect the “desired” approach with the new tool order.

Not sure about others, but “I” would like to see animation reflect a given color for each bit being used instead of rendering all in Red. If it also offered to animate with the modified output order, it would be just that much better. In our case, with the ATC in use, I could take a little more comfort in an unattended operation using all ten tools if I watched a valid animation before starting production. Seeing ten different colors representing each tool would make the animation much easier to comprehend, particularly if I’m not sitting there watching the entire animation happen in front of me (checking in every 30 seconds or so, or looking at a final composite).

Tony,

Relative to sequence cutting, yep, I would like to see all of the above mentioned and then some:

How about treating it like vinyl cutting, completing the object closest to the 0:0 origin (or better yet, user defined coordinate) before moving onto the next item, irrelevant of any other information (like a line of complete text). Be nice to have the end user be able to put priority on either the X or Y axis.

Ability to cut all shapes at an assigned RPM/bit/depth before moving onto another RPM/bit/depth setting. Example, cut all .250 end mill, 16,500 RPM, .250 deep before moving onto other .250 end mill, 17,000 RPM, .375 deep objects. Even if the .375 and .250 objects were side by side.

Ability to manually go through and “click” the order of cutting. Some UI for the end user to ignore or keep bit usage into consideration when doing this operation.

Ability to have the same RPM/bit cut at different times within output. Example; three tools paths with an output. Path one is using a .250 end mill, 16,500 RPM, .250 deep. Second tool path, 130° v-bit, 18,300 RPM, .100 deep. Third path has the same settings of the first path, .250 end mill, 16,500 RPM, .250 deep. I would like to cut it in that order, not cut path one and three with the .250 bit then cut path two. To do this now, I assign a “dummy” bit and rearrange the output order. Problem is, two different tools can’t occupy the same position in the tool carousel.

Perhaps the ability to assign a “region” or “zone” of cutting before moving into another region. Example; cut all items from 0:0 to 24:96, then all objects from 24:96 to 48:96, etc. This would allow us to focus our vacuum efforts into a need area, shut it down in others and be able to start removing completed pieces while the machine finishes in other areas.

And, for the topper of them all, how about a combination of any of these. Perhaps set some form of rules or hierarchy approach so that multiple conditions could be set and the software figures it out from there.

I can probably come up with some more, but this makes for a good starting spot.

 

ArtPath - Sequencing

Homework, homework and more homework

Thanks

 

Tony,

No rush on this, I won’t need it until Friday!

Sincerely,
Bob Gilliland, former MSCE, now just PITA

Seriously, if just for minute, thanks for everything you do “do” and try to “do” for us end users. It is greatly appreciated.