Is there a way to import the numbered cutters sold by Carbide3d into Meshcam so I don’t have to worry about setting correct feeds and speeds? I see this has been brought up before but no one has answered the question yet.
I know how to add a tool from scratch but I want to avoid having to set all the parameters if the Carbide3D cutters can be imported somehow.
Thanks for any help,
T
Just a comment that the there is but one feeds and speeds in the table.
With multiple materials it will just about always be wrong - my RPMs vary for rough and finish (besides from material to material). @Randy and I have asked for an improved tool table and feeds and speeds data handling. @WillAdams has publicly agreed with the basic ideas. Maybe someday…
Currently my MeshCAM tool entries are all set to ridiculous values. Heaven help me if I don’t set the RPMs appropriately for each job. AAARRRGGG!!!
In BobCAD-CAM - and many other high end packages - this is handled “better” and “nicely”.
mark
That’s a huge miss if there’s no way to import the tools with proper settings for various materials and finishes. The one thing that has held the 3D printing community back is that you have to spend a lot of time setting parameters to get good parts. The Zortrax printer did away with that nonsense and its really starting to catch on. You just load your file, set just a few simple settings which are more like preferences and hit go. The parts come out nearly perfect every time with no fuss and no time wasted adjusting parameters.
It would be so easy to import tools for this machine. I’m shocked to hear that they haven’t done it already.
Is there a way to import the numbered cutters sold by Carbide3d into
Meshcam so I don’t have to worry about setting correct feeds and speeds?
If you are using the Carbide license with MeshCAM there should be a wizard that has the Carbide tools in it with telling it your workpiece material? When I tried it last year that was so.
I’ve been using MeshCAM for 12 years and don’t use the new Carbide license becuase I have many tools already defined in MeshCAM and the Carbide tool numbers walk all over them. I’m coordinating tools between MeshCAM, SheetCam and the tool table in my Tormach milling machine.
Randy
That’s a huge miss if there’s no way to import the tools with proper settings for various materials and finishes. The one thing that has held the 3D printing community back is that you have to spend a lot of time setting parameters to get good parts.
Yup. They are integrating something like this into Carbide Create but MeshCAM is lagging IMHO.
Here is what I said in another posting:
In fact, I’d like to see the tool table set up differently too (all UTF8/ASCII) data:
A) A “pure” tool table
This has only tool characteristics. There is a field for leaving notes.
B) A material table.
This identifies a material (e.g. HDPE, 6061, brass, etc). There is a field for leaving notes.
C) Feeds and speeds table.
This has a pointer to the material table record, a pointer to the “pure” tool table, a field for leaving notes, the usage (e.g. hog, rough, finish, fine finish) and the feeds and speeds.
By “pointer” I mean a field that a “relational join” can be done on. Often, this is the record number within the table (e.g. material number, tool number).
This way each tool appears once in the tool database. The feed and speed for the tool with each material is unique.
I miss being able to maintain the tool table using a text editor (and have asked Rob several times about that).
With today’s processors, memory and storage devices, saving data in UTF8/ASCII - given that the size of tables is small (hundreds, not tens of thousands of records) - is surprisingly efficient (in space), easy to process (simple grammar), and human readable/editable.
By-the-by, this is the way that BobCAD-CAM (BCC) and many others work. Once you get a tools, materials, finishes and feeds and speeds database set up one can emit it as CSV files. Import it back when you need it.
The Zortrax printer did away with that nonsense and its really starting to catch on. You just load your file, set just a few simple settings which are more like preferences and hit go. The parts come out nearly perfect every time with no fuss and no time wasted adjusting parameters.
They have a new machine were the cartridge has most of the parameters in it.
mark
P.S.
I take my BCC data and jam it in manually for each job when I use MeshCAM. I developed a post processor for BCC so I don’t MeshCAM often… except when I post a design for public consumption (since all Nomaden have MeshCAM).
CNC machining is fundamentally different than 3D printing, in that beyond the workpiece material, the cutter size and number of flutes, etc., the distance you extend the cutter out of the collet has a huge effect. The lateral deflection of the cutter varies with the third power of the length sticking out of the collet. That will influence the stepover and stepdown that are appropriate. “Choking up” and “hanging out” of the same cutter are two entirely different scenarios. When you’re hanging the cutter out for long reach, you might need to cut the stepdown and stepover by a factor of 4 or more. The only thing that would fix that is (and this is done with PCB routing and drilling cutters) depth stop collars to ensure a consistent stick-out of the cutter. PCB mills do this to avoid length detection, but this would be another application of the collars.
Randy
3D printers have close to 100 variables to set. The companies that automate that process the best will dominate. Zortrax has come very close to doing this and their market share is increasing. The same will be true for desktop CNC’s.
When an inexperienced user can create quality CNC parts without a steep learning curve, the market will explode.
The Glowforge laser is another good example. They lowered barrier to inexperienced users and had the largest crowd funded campaign in history.
I bought the Nomad instead of a Tormach because of its lower cost and simplicity. The Carbide crew is a sharp group of people. I hope they will be the first to make desktop subtractive printing as simple as 2D paper printers.
Apparently, if you click on “Tools” then “Carbide Auto Toolpath” you get 4 tools to choose from. 101, 102, 111 and 112. Those are the 1/8" and 1/16" ball and flat end mills. That’s helpful. I’m not sure why you can’t see them when using the standard toolpath generation menu but you can’t.
I’m hoping to get to cut more than air by this time tomorrow.
Four years later - same problem!
How does dredging up a four-year-old thread solve some problem without asking a question about something? It is kind of irritating to start reading an “unread” thread, realize something doesn’t seem right and look for the date only to find out how old it is.
Please ask you question on a new thread where we can all help find the answer. (Perhaps you already have.)
I thought threads were closed after 30 days of no responses.