Start point of toolpath?

[drodda]

I am trying to clear an oval shape. The start path I want is center of the straight side. No matter where I move the origin point of the shape it always starts the tool path in middle of the curve on the end? Can anyone explain why? I have been battling this in pw2 for a long time. Today I am frustrated as this would be great if I could understand why things are happening. I have redrawn the shape in Autocad and imported it in again with the origin point correct for the shape. Yet the toolpath still starts in it's own place. WHY!!!!!!!

[bryson]

Dave, I'm guessing that you should check the box that says "use vector start point".
Bryson

[drodda]

And where do I find this check box in PW2?

[Brady Watson]

In PW2, you really only have 2 choices as to where the toolpath starts when doing an Area Clear. You can do an offset, where it starts in the center of the oval and goes outward, or outside and goes inward. By selecting climb or conventional, you can select the cutting direction. You can also just do a raster and it will go back and forth to clear the area, and then do a perimeter clean up pass to remove any cusps left by the raster. With raster, you can alter the direction by changing the raster angle. Most times 0 is fine, but if you want to clear (and start) in the exact opposite direction, just enter a value of 180 and it will reverse what you have.

Sometimes there is a need for a more advanced approach, and this means thinking outside the box. Sometimes an INSIDE profile of the area to be cleared can be helpful if run before the area clear toolpath. This helps to maintain a clean cut around the entire perimeter and lets you choose climb or conventional easily. Sometimes you have to hack apart vectors and make a machine along vector strategy to handle times when you are getting tear out and things like that, usually at the edge of a part.

-B

[drodda]

Brady,

I am using an area clear to plane the surface of hardwood boards glued to make a circle. I am using the area clear starting from the outside and moving inward towards the center. It would be nice to be able to select where the machine jogs inward to the next line. There are always more marksin the surface at the point whre it moves sideways. SO I would want this to take place in an area I am going to cut out anyhow to avoid sanding. Is there any way to munipulate this point to get the area clear to happen where a chip tray will go anyhow?

-D

[beacon14]

The best way to have complete control over the toolpath in this situation (IMHO) is to draw the actual toolpath you want the bit to follow, then use a Profile toolpath selecting ON the vector (AKA machine along vector).

If you are not proficient in CAD send me the details and I can draw it for you in a few minutes.

[erik_f]

When I first started I was using BOB-CAD and at that point the only way to set up your drawing for bit diameter was to offset everything you were going to cut by half the diameter of the bit. This was a royal pain. But knowing how to do that and knowing it is an option has been useful at times.

[beacon14]

That was how we created all our toolpaths for several years and I can tell you it was a royal pain. Not only did we have to offset and draw the toolpath manually but it had to be drawn in the order in which we wanted it to be cut, otherwise the SB would jump around and cut each line in the order in which it was drawn.

The new guys have no idea how easy they have it.

[bill.young]

Amen!

[knight_toolworks]

if your flattening wood then you want to use raster to keep the cutting going along the grain that would help a pot.
create a box a bit larger then the piece and use raster along the grain.