Z retract at the end of each line

[crash5050]

I am trying my 1st real cut with my bot, and it is cutting a PVC file, it goes across the board, the z retracts, then goes back down and goes the other direction, the z then retracts again, I would say about an inch, then it goes back to cutting . Very time consuming and hypnotic, making me very sleepy watching this do this. Why? and how can I make it not do that anymore?

David

Oh and one more thing, Is there a way to rotate the file 90 degrees? the cutter wants to cut it across the Y, and I want it to cut it down the X?

David

[myxpykalix]

I am trying my 1st real cut with my bot, and it is cutting a PVC file, it goes across the board, the z retracts, then goes back down and goes the other direction, the z then retracts again, I would say about an inch, then it goes back to cutting . Very time consuming and hypnotic, making me very sleepy watching this do this. Why? and how can I make it not do that anymore?

Depending on what program you are using it sounds like you need to set your Z home position just above the material like .2(?) so it only rises a little bit.

Oh and one more thing, Is there a way to rotate the file 90 degrees? the cutter wants to cut it across the Y, and I want it to cut it down the X?


If you mean you want the design to stay in the same position in your material but cut the file across a different axis then that would be where you set your "raster angle"

[crash5050]

Why does it even rise? On my Mach 3 machine it just goes to the next line without rising.

[CNYDWW]

You need to check to see if you are cutting open vectors. This would explain why it's cutting a line then retracting. Right click and choose "select all open vectors" and see what you get. If they're open, there is your problem. On the left in the tools there's an option to close open vectors and that will take care of it for you. As far as the direction of cuts, keep in mind that when you use partworks, on the screen left to right is the X axis and up and down is the Y. When you design something, stand on the long side of the machine with X,Y zero to your left. That is how the software in relation to the machine is setup by default.

Regards
Randy

[rb99]

This reminds me of vectors that are not joined. If you have a vector of a circle and it is a "closed vector," meaning it is joined completely then it will cut out the circle in 1 go. If the circle is made up of 3 segments, or an "open vector," the router will lift up and down at the end of each segment.

[adrianm]

You say you're machining a PhotoVCarve file?

When you say you didn't see the Z lifting like that when using Mach3 was that with a PhotoVCarve file as well?

I've compared the ShopBot output and Mach3 output for a PhotoVCarve file and they both lift at the end of each line. I can't see that it can do anything else because of the way a PhotoVCarve image is made up.

There's not a lot you can do about it in PhotoVCarve other than set the rapid clearance gap in the "Set cutting parameters" as low as you can get away with.

To adjust the cutting direction from X to Y I think you need to rotate the actual photograph you're using in Windows and then load it into PhotoVCarve. You can also adjust the line angle in the cutting parameters.

[cip]

Davis this is an issue with your software call me.

[gc3]

create a boundary vector