What steps are required before Post Process

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Jfile
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What steps are required before Post Process

Post by Jfile »

Hi,

New to the entire CNC process, especially the various applications. I have been able to make a few cuts from dxf files downloaded from others. However, I can not get the system to consistently Run. I think the problem might be that I'm not doing something correctly in SheetCam every time. Today, I imported a drawing and was able to process and open in my table control program and cut. Then I went back to Inkscape, made one minor modification to the size, reloaded in SheetCam and created the code again. This time, the table control program does nothing. I know nothing about code yet but there are basically the same number of lines of code as there was on the file that successfully cut this morning.

My question is, once I import the drawing (in my case they are SVG files) into SheetCam, what steps do I go through prior to running the Post Processor? I must be leaving a step out somewhere along the way.

Thanks for any assistance.

Jeff
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steel 35
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Re: What steps are required before Post Process

Post by steel 35 »

Watching Arclight's videos :mrgreen:
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Re: What steps are required before Post Process

Post by Jfile »

I agree that the videos and manuals offer some good assistance. I've watched so many videos they are all starting to run together. Seems like the manuals and help files talk about everything except what helps me. It has to be something really simple I just can't figure it out.

I'm trying to figure out if there are certain steps required once the drawing file is imported before the Post Processing is ran and if so, what those steps are. Hopefully someone out there familiar with SheetCam can help.
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djreiswig
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Re: What steps are required before Post Process

Post by djreiswig »

You have to have an operation and pick the correct tool and layer, set the lead settings, and check everything else in the operation window. Move your part to the desired position on the material. That should be it.
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beefy
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Re: What steps are required before Post Process

Post by beefy »

You are not giving people much to work with. It will be hard for someone to help when they have nothing to work with. You're also asking for someone to list all the steps required in creating a tool, operation, etc. That's normally the job of the user manual + videos on Youtube, etc, or the Arclight ones mentioned (it would be quite long winded to do it all in a forum post).

When that fails, and you don't know what's going wrong, post an example of something that works fine (the Job file, and the generated gcode Tap file), and also the same for the one that doesn't work after you've done a slight modification.

That way, someone can probably easily see what going wrong with the second one. That's a lot easier and much more efficient than trying to explain the whole process, and thus you'll be more likely to get some help.
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Re: What steps are required before Post Process

Post by acourtjester »

one thing that will cause a problem if you have created a G-code once and it fails when you try again is if you change the post processor in the "Options/machine" menu. Each post processor is written for the tables electronics and configurations so it can communicate correctly.
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Re: What steps are required before Post Process

Post by Jfile »

Thanks djreiswig. That was basically what I needed. Seems like I'm able to be consistent now. I guess I didn't do the best of jobs asking my question. I knew that I had to create the tool and all of the associated settings. Actually most of that was set up when the table was shipped. I had read up on all of that and set up the table, operation, etc... I just needed the general outline of the needed steps at a high level. I've cut 3 pieces now with no issues. Apparently I have the settings correct because I'm getting pretty good cuts too.

Again, thanks for the feedback from everyone.
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djreiswig
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Re: What steps are required before Post Process

Post by djreiswig »

Happy to help.
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