Toolpath time estimates are way off.

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Chuck26287
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Toolpath time estimates are way off.

Post by Chuck26287 »

I just upgraded to Aspire v9 from VCarve Pro 8.5. In both apps, my toolpath time estimates to run have been WAY off. From my searching, it seems there are some multipliers that affect this calculation, but it appears the user interface in Aspire doesn't allow us to adjust them to make the calculation more accurate? I understand the concept of running an actual 2D or 3D toolpath, and accurately recording the time to cut and compare the actual to the estimated, and adjusting a multiplier to adjust the estimated to the actual... I just can't find anything telling me where or how to do this in Aspire v9. Since the interface doesn't allow us access to the data, I assume it's in a config file somewhere that it could be edited in?

Any help would be appreciated VERY much by this Aspire newbie.

Incredible upgrade, by the way. I installed the Trial version and learned enough to edit/produce the 3D project I had envisioned, then finally bought the upgrade just to be able to output that 3D project. Seems to be worth every penny. I do, however, need the time estimates to be accurate.

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martin54
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Re: Toolpath time estimates are way off.

Post by martin54 »

I don't think there is a way to permanently set anything up & I have always done it on a session by session basis by changing the scale factor depending on what sort of job I was cutting, I still find it a bit hit & miss but that is probably inexperience rather than the software.
I have worked out a number of scale factors for my machine that I use, one thing I have noticed though is that they don't update the time as soon as you enter them, I normally enter the scale factor I want to use then close the time estimate & then open it again for the new times to show :lol: :lol:

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Adrian
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Re: Toolpath time estimates are way off.

Post by Adrian »

There's no change to the way the scale factors are entered in V9 compared to previous versions.

Click on the Summary icon (clock) in the toolpath tab and enter the rapid rate and scale factor in the boxes on the form.

There is no hidden data to access etc as there is no way that Aspire can know the actual speeds your machine can run at for the job so you will always have to use a scale factor based on real world results.

You'll need different ones for doing different jobs. Cutting large rectangles with a profile cut will be close to a 1:1 scale factor as the machine will be running close to the programmed feed rate. VCarve and 3D jobs will be at the other end as the moves will be small and mixed with Z moves and as Aspire doesn't know about the acceleration/deceleration profiles of your control software setup those jobs could be 3:1 or 4:1 scale factors.

4DThinker
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Re: Toolpath time estimates are way off.

Post by 4DThinker »

I'll add that even if you can come up with a good scaling factor for 2D/2.5D tool paths it will likely be far off for 3D toolpaths. I have a CNC Shark that will give me a very accurate time estimate once the controller software has loaded up the G-code file. They can do that because their controller is proprietary and they have intimate knowledge of the acceleration/deceleration rates their controller uses. I've encounter no other system that can do as well.

4D

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mtylerfl
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Re: Toolpath time estimates are way off.

Post by mtylerfl »

My two CarveWright CNC's are a proprietary system also. As such, the time estimates are extremely accurate, within a minute or so. The system allows 3 minutes for each bit change when the estimate is calculated. However, it doesn't take me three minutes to change a bit, so I "beat" the time estimate by a few minutes.

For my ShopBot, I set the Scale Factor to 1.1 to 1.5 for an "all vector" job.

For combo raster and vector, Scale Factor 1.8 to 2.4 depending how much is raster vs vector on a job.

Unless you run the exact same job repeatedly to time it and tweak the Scale Factor for only that specific job, you will never get an exact time estimate. Best we can do is an educated guess to set our Scale Factor to get kinda close.
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mtylerfl
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Re: Toolpath time estimates are way off.

Post by mtylerfl »

martin54 wrote:...one thing I have noticed though is that they don't update the time as soon as you enter them, I normally enter the scale factor I want to use then close the time estimate & then open it again for the new times to show
Hi Martin,

Are you sure about that?? My times have always changed instantly upon entering a Scale Factor! Perhaps it's because I have all the toolpaths selected before going into the Time window?

Try it again and see if your time estimates update instantly. I'll be surprised if they don't. I have never had to close and re-enter the time window to see an updated estimate when a new Scale Factor is input.
Michael Tyler

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Chuck26287
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Re: Toolpath time estimates are way off.

Post by Chuck26287 »

Well, ask, and you shall receive...

Thank you all, I have what I came looking for. I'm guilty of learning just enough to do what I need, and being satisfied with that... until I'm not. The only place I was getting time estimates from was by creating a job sheet, and viewing them on that for the individual toolpaths. I had no idea about the time estimate icon under the toolpath flyout tab. I usually try to do my due diligence and search on my own first, so I have no idea how I didn't see anything pointing me to that icon/function. There's a reason why it made no difference to me that it hadn't changed from earlier versions... I was blissfully ignorant in that version too.

Now that I see where the changes in scale factor can be input, I can start getting much closer estimates. Thanks so much, everyone.

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