Not sure if this has been suggested before, but here goes.
It would be nice with a warning if, when you start your job, CM calculates that the job exceeds the dimensions of the machine.
Why would you start a job larger than your machine, you ask? Well, I won’t.
The thing is I occasionally run a job that just fits within the limits of the machine. Problem is, I sometimes forget this, when I set the zero-position of the job, meaning the added offset will inadvertently make the job exceed the limits.
This is also the reason the warning can show only when the job is started and not when it is loaded, as it depends on the current zero-position.
The first time this occurred I spent quite some time figuring out what was happening as I had set the offset every so slightly to far inside that steps were missed but there was no real grinding sounds from the steppers.
It would be a real useful reminder to just check your zero, if CM determines that offset+jobsize will exceed limits.
A work-around for this is to put one or more drill points at the corner(s) (only top-right if using lower-left, all four if using center, &c.) which just go to 0.001mm deep (just make sure not to have clamps there).
Did this yesterday in a subtle way.
I was fixing to add a vcarve engraving on the back of a completed project. I figured it would be best to do a test run, so I grabbed a scrap cedar 2x6 I had laying around. I couldn’t figure out why it was plunging the vcarve much deeper than it should. Finally realized that from a prior job had the retract height set at 2 inches, with the thicker board led to hitting the upper stop on retract and losing steps (which they didn’t lose on the way back down )
An out of bounds warning would be nice.
What Will means (I think) is to move the spindle to the extreme points before cutting to make sure it doesn’t hit the limits.
You can do this in the g-code if you program 2 (don’t need 4) opposite corners to move to the extreme limits of the job. Then make this the first operation in the program.
You can also just measure the extreme points & jog to those points before starting the job.
I put a marker in my spindle & draw the outside of the machining envelope right on the table.
Then I can place the stock on the table completely inside those marks. Leave a margin if the path goes outside the stock. And if it’s a tile job or the stock is bigger than the envelope, mark the boundary of the path on the stock before securing to the table.
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