Comments on: New Roughing Preview

By: Ian Knight

Ian Knight — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 11:48:34 +0000

Hello Robert
No need to prove anything as you already have the best “Bang for your Buck” CAM software on the market anyway and this feature will really help.

Many thanks

Ian Knight

By: Jeff Demand

Jeff Demand — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 20:04:12 +0000

Robert,

Both are very good. I’m running a piece right now where the conformal roughing would sure help calm me. A 7283 roughing cut really looked scary with vertical steps which I didn’t understand, but not enough to abort. Finished fine though. No problems with 7283.

The dynamic feed is welcome, I manually edit to slow the the first finish pass but some models have other lines buried (in megabytes of code) which should also go slow. I just don’t have the patience to find them nor stand with my finger on the feed rate over ride. I cringe a lot, some times even put off checking the finished piece

I can sympathise with your shop temperatures, mine will often dip below 10°C (old habit with C°, but you don’t need to buy as many degrees A couple of small electric heaters help, as would a faster computer… my office is kept quite warm with my design box, although the summer AC is needed far sooner than expected.

Jeff

By: Robert

Robert — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 03:29:14 +0000

I may have a little to prove- my release date estimation record is pretty horrible.

I think I’ll take your conformal roughing term. I was trying to figure out what to call it.

I think the dynamic feedrates should be pretty good. I’ve been getting much more feedback from people lately- mostly bug reports- and I’m getting a better feel for what they’re using MC for. With that info I expect I’ll do well adding a couple of toolpath features that you’d normally have to add a zero or two on the price to get. (Dynamic feedrates also make it easier for a new user to find reasonable settings without snapping endmills after that initial plunge)

I’m anxious to see your completed mill enclosure. I’m finally able to use mine again. The 48 degree temp in the shop caused the z axis to completely malfunction until this week. I was planning to call Tormach and complain ( I couldn’t figure it out) when my dad mentioned that his Bridgeport clone quit working with some kind of fault code because of the cold weather. Turned out to be the problem for me as well.

Robert

By: Randy

Randy — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 02:10:22 +0000

Robert, you’ve never needed to prove anything to the user community. Your dedication to developing MeshCAM is unimpeachable. But thank you for the update, and another glimpse into your creative process. The “behind the scenes” is priceless…

I really look forward to your “conformal roughing” (feel free to use that term if you want–I just thought it up) because it will save me a ton of work on my more finicky jobs.

Dynamic feedrate! What can I say? That is putting MC into a whole ‘nuther level of sophistication.

I need to get my mill updates done and give 7283 a proper workout!

Randy