Hey All, Picked up a new to us PCNC 1100 and with the help of the great service and tech teams we’ve got it up and running. We did the canned test cycle to engrave the logo and played around with the profile cycle to profile some parts. Then we got the network connected and can save files to the machine. I’m an advanced beginner in g code….
I need to profile an irregular shaped part and found the DXF tab in Path Pilot. Great, what a nice feature! Loaded the file, selected the tool, chose the right/outside offset and ran the program (with safe Z distances and no tool to verify path. The machine ran but followed the center line of the part. Looked at the G code and it says right compensation, but no G41/42 was found.
Looked at the active G codes and G40 is listed. Edited the G code to add G41 left compensation and get different errors about changing control with tool comp on or G53. When I look at active G codes, G40 is on. When I go to midi line to enter g41 I get the tool comp error.
I’m going to offset my dxf dwg by .125 and reload and see what happens. I’m missing something simple, but so far Path Pilot looks pretty cool.
PP is kind of picky about comp. There needs to be a tool # (not a probe) in the spindle and with a defined diameter in the tool table before PP will do anything comp-wise and you can’t comp in G53. There’s also some things around the next move after turning comp off has to be at least the tool diameter or some such.
I have tool 1 set up and in the spindle. So I need to add a lead in start point and then start G41? That does ring a bell from a job yrs ago. I don’t have G53 in the program, that was just mentioned in the error page.
I program in absolute. I’ve got my vice corner set to 0,0 and top of fixture at 0.
I tried again with an offset dxf and clicked on center, right, and left, and each time the tool follows the center (line) of the dwg. I need to adjust my y work offset but it looks like I can profile the part I need.
I’ll try and pull the program and edit it a bit when I get a chance…. Thx
Edited G code to produce a lead in and that worked. Now I need to rearrange the code so the cutting starts on a sharp outside corner instead of a radius so the -Z change is less noticeable. If that works, I might try the G41 and see what happens. T
Turned profile cut into O1 Sub and called it out 5 times taking -.250” doc. I may not know how to do it right, but I usually figure out how to get it done!