Hey guys,
I was just thinking about clearing up all my grbl files - do you guys keep all of them? I really don’t see a need to save all of them, unless you had a jig to go back to when running one again- and then everything would have to be exactly the same, I’m thinking as long as you have the file saved isn’t it just easier to save the file all over again? They are really starting to build up. How do you guys handle the file work flow? One problem I was having was I was forgetting to save the file while I was working on it and only saving it as the grbl, well this doesn’t tell me anything about the actual setup,when I wanted to run it again or does it?
I keep them, just in case we need to verify behavior between new and old versions.
I have one “projects” folder where I keep all design files, and one “gcode” folder where I keep all gcode files, both using a given naming convention. They don’t weight much on my NAS anyway.
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Do you ever use the same gcode file again?
Not very often, but I do. E.g. this morning I realized I needed to cut a feature (shallow pocket with dogbones in the corners) of the exact same dimensions as one I had done earlier this week, on the back of another piece I was working on: I just ran that gcode file again. I’ll only do this if I still remember exactly what this gcode file does, so if I ever needed to reuse a gcode file from months ago, I would not take any risks, and would regenerate it from the design file. Which means I could delete all gcode files older than a few weeks, I just don’t bother.
I have a synced project folder in Google Drive that I keep everything in. I do this so I can work from any computer I may be at. Under this folder are subfolders of my customers, templates, personal projects, etc. Each customer folder has subfolders of their individual projects that contain all of the design files, and finally a folder labelled “NC” in each of the individual project folders that contain the code for the Shapeoko. I have been using this same file system for about 20yrs at a work environment. The “NC” folder at work has folders for different machines.
As for keeping the files…why not? Modern storage is so cheap, and the files are relatively tiny. If you ever need to go back to an old project, or copy one over for reuse, it will be available.
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So, how do you look at a gcode file to be comfortable enough to send it to your Shapeoko and push GO! ?
I have all of my code named with operation number and tool being used. I have the toolpath named the same in Vectric, so I can look at the Vectric file and see the toolpath If needed. 99% of the time I start at the lower left top for my zeroes.
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Most alternative G-code senders (CNCjs, UGCS, …) have a 3D previsualization of the job upon loading a file, that’s a pretty good way to double-check where the zero is, how deep it will cut, and more generally whether one picked the right file
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camotics is really good software for this (open source), https://ncviewer.com/ is great as well
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