Request for Comments- Retract Height
Over the years MeshCAM has been a test bed for different programming techniques and ideas. I try out lots of them and adopt the good ones more widely and drop the ones I don’t like. This is why you see frequent posts about small features requiring a large number of changes; this is always a good time to go back and get rid of the stuff that I didn’t need after all.
One of these old chunks of code is the retract height code. You will notice that once you pick a reference point; the geometry, the stock, or the program zero, the retract plane will always track the changes to that reference. This flexibility seemed like a good idea at the time but now, for a number of architectural reasons, should probably be removed if it isn’t being used. In the last 5 years I have only used the top of stock as the reference and I suspect that 99% of users have done the same. Can anyone provide a good situation where the other two options would be required?
Robert, sometimes to save money on rawstock I use a piece that is not as tall as the geometry. In that case the retract height would need to be relative to the geometry. If I set the retract height relative to the rawstock the geometry could still be gouged where it extended beyond the stock.
No, I’ve never used anything other than “relative to stock”.
I always use the top of the stock. Years ago I tried to use the centre axis ror rotary work but it caused more than I liked.
As a side note, yesterday I was trying to work with 70 meg+ stl files and was repeatedly warned about lack of memory and to reduce tolerance. Granted the stl was a developmental file (lots of early ssurfaces inside but not where I thought MC could see them. Both 7283 and V3-4. Eventually I managed to prune the stl to the point where it would run, too bad the resulting milling job wasn’t close to what I wanted
Today a slightly revised stl (66 meg) ran fine.
Do you have some thing which is eating /not releasing memory,The only real differences were that yesterday I only did warm boots, and a cold one overnight.
MC crashes were in the first 1/3 of roughing.
jeffD
Jeff-
Is that an STL you can share with me if I promise to burn after use? Yousendit.com is a good way to send big files if you can share it.
I have increased the quality of the toolpath internally, which may be the memory problem, but I may have to provide a way to fall back for these extreme cases.
-Robert
I’ve just started playing around with machining some very thing sheet material. It occured to me after my last session that it might be useful to set the zero to the top of my spoilboard, and then machine down half a millimeter, or so, as opposed to zeroing to the top of my sheet.
Robert,
I think that I managed to to send the stl files with Yousendit.com after a couple of tries, and off line for the source rhino 3dm files.
This was a slightly messy stl file (OK, very messy with much modification and playing with it) but not much more extreme than most of my stuff which has worked just fine in the past.
You do have more than a couple of extreme users
Maybe a check box in properties for a ‘Rabid Ferret’ check box to choose between optimal fast and handling as much extreme detail as possible. Make it hard to find and it won’t hurt too many really new users.
jeffD
Oh man, now you’ve got me wanting the username “Rabid_Ferret”. Thanks a lot, jeffD!
BTW my largest STL (57+ MB) still loads and processes nicely in 3build4.
Robert, now that you’ve ditched the text area (did I mention “thank you”?) it would be nice to include the STL information in the “Geometry Properties” dialog…
Randy
Randy,
The “Rabid_Ferret” is free for you to use.
It’s just the best description I have for my attitude at times
I will consider “Rabid_Skunk” for emphasis in future posts to protect your possible use as a username.
Enjoy
jeffD
Jeff,
No, you have full rights. If I changed my username it would be to “Happy_Puppy”.
Randy
Liav –
The “Program Zero” command will still have all of the options that it has had all along. The only change will be the retract height which can now only be set relative to the top of stock. The program zero command will never be simplified beyond what it is now- that’s one that needs lots of options to suit the most people.
Rabid Ferret-
I did receive the files so I’ll dig into some testing on them. You’ve always had a knack for giving me files that represent a nearly pathological worst-case (these will now be referred to as “rabid ferret cases”). I’ve been itching to dig into the latest code with a profiler to see where I can speed things up or reduce memory so this should be fun.
-Robert