Carbide Create sets Z=0 during moves, drags on piece?

1

I love CC over Makercam, but my first use of it I’m perplexed by one thing.

Looking in the gcode, whenever the bit has to move across the piece, it sets Z=0 (instead of raising it ABOVE the piece by a reasonable clearance) before moving to the new X,Y. If I’m not perfectly level, this can drag the bit across the piece, scarring my work.

Other than manually search/replacing on the gcode file, I can’t find a setting in Carbide Create to set the ‘raise above piece Xmm when moving’ setting.

Anyone else had this problem?

Example Gcode:
X76.382Y19.697 - cutting
X76.430Y19.896 - cutting
X76.450Y20.093 -cutting
G0Z0.000 - raise to top of piece
G0X108.111Y21.435 -big move, drag spinning router bit across top of piece = scar if not level and Z=0 is really a little above the piece.
G0
G1Z-0.211F64.1 -drop before next cutting cycle

2

Please see:

Job Setup | Machine | Retract height

Defaults to 10mm, but is easily accidentally changed.

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1 Like
3

Duh, forgot about the job setup page. I feel dumb now. Thanks!

4

Don’t feel bad — this comes up pretty often — the change in terminology (it’s usually termed “Safety height”) may contribute to the confusion.

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5

Actually, I’d say if they made the default 5mm (like MakerCam), it would never come up in most cases. A default of 0.0 is just strange.

6

Default should be 10.00mm — if you get something else from a new, blank document let us know and we’ll look into it.

7

Pre version 313 I would have this happen if I opened an existing drawing, cleared it (using the default setup page which was set at 10mm), and created a new drawing and output the g code. I discovered this by dragging a 1/4" end mill across some very expensive maple. I was able to recreate this several times. I just always close Carbide Create and start a new drawing that way. Not sure if the new version does this I haven’t tried it yet.

8

I just tried it in Build 313:

  • Opened Carbide Create
  • went in to Job Setup
  • hit “Clear Drawing”
  • Yes
  • Ok

and Retract Height is still set to 10.00 mm

1 Like
9

I recently had this problem occur 2 times. It happened when I hit the undo button quite a few times to adjust a design. It changed my Retract Height from 5 mm to 0 MM causing a tool drag. So if you hit undo a bunch of times in carbide create always check the Retract Height before saving G-Code.