Hello. I’m a new user running woodworking projects comprised of many sub-projects of different material thickness and many cuts which span days. I also see inconsistent behavior with whether the Pro 5 retains the Z0 setting through shutdown, restart, and re-initialization. Sometimes it does sometimes it doesn’t. Non-graceful shutdown also affect this. For all these reasons I find myself setting or at least checking Z0 frequently before starting a program.
In the Rapid Position menu we have Rapid to Current Z and Rapid to Current Z + 6mm but no Imperial option. Can we get a Rapid to Current Z+ .200" or .300"?
When I’m in doubt of the state I often hit the Z+ 6mm button in a clear area…then I manually jog down -.236" to see where 0 really is. This is tedious because it’s not a round increment. At first I tried setting my own Quick Actions but navigating to and opening those is just as tedious as jogging down -.236".
I know CNC is natively metric but I’m set to Imperial so its odd to still have a metric button presented to me. This is not a huge deal, just an annoyance. I have a .236" cut off I use as a Z gauge but its not perfect. Another button seems like something that could be easily implemented.
Thanks, yes I did try but that navigating Quick Actions isn’t any more usable than manually jogging in different increments. It’s just odd to have one built in function still in Metric when Imperial units are set.
As @Tod1d said you can do a Quick Action. You could also just machine a 6MM tall block and use that when you do the Z+6mm. It is 6 of one and half a dozen of the other. Either would work to do a quick check of the Z zero.
The machine does remember the X Y and Z positions from the last time it was set. However the initialization can be off a few thousands each time you initialize. The last X Y and Z positions are recorded in the shapeoko.json file and how the machine initializes is what is used to repeat your X Y and Z positions. So if initialization is off a few thousands you would be off a few thousands. Maybe it would be best to set your zeros after each power cycle if your projects are sensative to small variations. If your Zeros are changing during running then it is likely a mechanical problem. Have you oiled your linear bearings on a regular basis? If the linear bearings dry up and/or the rails are dirty you can have mechanical issues and lose your zeros.
Thanks…Quick Actions aren’t as easy to execute a a button front and center in the UI. I’ve never had a problem with X and Y being retained. Many times I check Z and its within +/-.003" which is great to me. Wood and MDF could shrink or swell that much with temperature and humidity changes overnight. Sometimes I see a completely random change like Z0 is now -.3.456" or +2.345". Those are the ones that scare me into check, check, and check again. It’s a new machine there’s no mechanical issues it cuts perfectly on target.
I should add that the random Z changes never happen while the machine is powered up. It’s only after a shutdown, restart, reinitialize overnight cycle it sometimes is way off.
I’m on 651. I’ve heard before about Z being undetermined it makes sense. I’m going to start taking notes when I power up to make sure I’m explaining what I see correctly. I didn’t mean this to be so much about how Z works. It really does seem odd that a very specific Jog shortcut function exists in metric units only, even when the machine is set to Imperial.
My issue with the Quick Actions is the UI. It’s a small window which displays a short list. I already have a long list of User Defined QA’s to scroll through to jog directly to various locating or probe points for my workholding fixtures.
I agree with both. I already put in a feature request that Z+6mm should automatically change to Z+0.250" if CM is using imperial units, and another feature request that Quick Actions be available on the Jog page.
Unfortunately, C3D never comments on feature requests, so there’s now way to know when, or even if, a feature request will be looked at by the devs.