Will it work with an indexer?

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Lrob
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Joined: Wed May 10, 2006 8:54 pm

Will it work with an indexer?

Post by Lrob »

I have a Shopbot with an indexer and was interested to know if the Cut3D will work with the Shopbot indexer.

Larry

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Tony Mac
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Post by Tony Mac »

Hi Larry,

Cut3D won't drive the Indexer automatically, but you can use the
4 sided machining strategy and manually index the job 90 degrees
and run each of the 4 sets (roughing & finishing) toolpaths.

Does sound feasible?

Tony

mcurtis
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Joined: Tue Aug 23, 2005 9:18 am
Location: Maine, USA

Post by mcurtis »

It should work, but if the toolpath was based on the fourth axis the toolpath would be half the time. While we obviously haven't seen how the present 3dcut works with 4 sided machining, it would seem you end up machining twice the circumference. I don't have a clue what is involved creating a toolpath about a rotation, as compared to a 4 sided raster approach, but it seems like you would get better definition with the tool always perpendicular to the work,and a faster machining time.

Maynard

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Tony Mac
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Post by Tony Mac »

Hi Maynard,

You are correct that some regions will be re-machined but Cut3D includes the option to
machine inside the boundary of the model, looking down onto each of the 4 faces. This
should certainly reduce any over cutting and won't waste the same amount of time cutting
a complete rectangular region on 4 faces would.

Tony

Peter Stenabaugh
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Location: Calgary, Alberta Canada

Post by Peter Stenabaugh »

Ok, Tony, here comes a couple of the first wish list items....

First off, as per the above topic, is there a plan for you to include a rotary axis capability - wow would that ever be great.

Secondly, what about the ability to combine VCP and C3D files.......Oops, did you just spew your coffee all over the keyboard......lmao.....

Well you knew it had to be forth coming, and I doubt that I am the only one to think.......what about being able to write some text on each side.....or maybe copy a Vcarve profile to a second surface.....

Is this something that we might look forward to down the road, like maybe next month......just kidding, but I know many guys will be drooling about that ability.

Thanks to you and your team for such a great new program, you guys rock.....I particularily like the built in viewer, fast accurate and easy to use. I am sure the other cam programmers out there are quite envious.

Pete

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