Test Release
I just posted a test release of the new version at www.grzsoftware.com/files/MeshCAM2-6512.exe . I’ve spent the last half a day in a hotel room finishing everything up to the point that I believe it works will and decided that I have several users who would probably like to participate in the test process. Please run it through the wringer and let me know what you think. Here are some important notes:
1) The oversampling value now has no effect on the parallel finishing. You control the accuracy with the tolerance parameter. I would start with something like .001″
2) For historic needs, a ZMap will still be created but will not be used. Luckily, the creation of the ZMap doesn’t take much time- the offset does and that will not be done.
3) There are probably quite a few lurking bugs so don’t start machining that rare African hardwood right away without testing it on a cheaper material or in CutViewer first.
Finally, I now have an Authenticode signature on the installer and the program. This should put an end to the Vista and XP SP2 warnings about all the terrible things that a program from an unknown author could do to your computer.
As always, let me know what you think.
Comments
5 Responses to “Test Release”
Yahoo group is down right now, so I’ll post here. This version is messed up.
Made a simple 3d shape in Solidworks to play with. When I only used X axis finishing, it looked like a waterline toolpath, and seemed to want to cut past where the model stopped. When I switched to Y axis finishing, it seemed to work correctly, but had an additional set of paths that completely covered the bottom of the stock. So after cutting the top of the part, the tool would run a full Y axis finishing path along the bottom of the stock. Very bad. Then I checked waterline in addition to the X axis finishing, and again got toolpaths on top and bottom of the stock. I have screenshots and the model if you want them, but this version appears to be unuseable for anything.
Tried a different model with much better results, so I’ll send the other one to you so you can look into it.
The photos you sent me look OK actually. They were all rotated at a weird angle, either 90 or 180 degrees, so that in some of them it actually looks like a waterline finish. I ran the file and it ran quickly and accurately. Can you try it again?
Gerry, as another Solidworks user I’ll second what Robert said. You may know this already, but in Solidworks X-Y plane is in the plane of the screen and Z is outwards. This causes the model to be rotated 90 degrees when imported into Meshcam. I found that the easiest thing, is to define a “CNC” coordinate system in the model with the X-Y-Z axes the right way round for the real world. Then when exporting the STL choose the defined coordinate system rather than the native one. That saved me a ton of trouble rotating the model around in Meshcam.
Best regards,
Randy
My mistake. I don’t use Solidworks regularly, and didn’t spend the time to figure out what was going on. Normally, when I open a model in MeshCAM, I rotate it from the top view to the way it looks in AutoCAD. When I did this with a solidworks model, it was a different orientation. Robert, here’s a suggestion. How about if the view upon loading is an isometric view, with Z up. It might eliminate user confusion. I’m sure everyone rotates their model into an isometric view anyway, don’t they?