Ramping Values

[zorlack]

So lately I've been doing a lot of pink foam (foamular) carving lately. The nice thing about pink foam is that it pretty much the easiest thing in the world to carve. There's almost no resistance to the cutter, I can hog through it at 4 inches per second with no problems. But I'm wondering if I should have a different set of ramping values for when I cut this type of material.

My understanding of the ramping values is that they affect the acceleration of the tool, and that this is limited for a couple of reasons:

- To account for the momentum of the tool, and thus prevent visible "chatter" from when the bot changes directions too rapidly.
- To prevent cutter deflection when working in hard materials
- ?

The question is this: Is my understanding of ramping values correct and complete? And does it make sense to use different values when cutting a light weight material like foam.

The endgame of all this is to make the cuts faster. On this kind of work loosing a little bit of accuracy is okay, since we tend to sand before painting anyways.

Thanks!
-D

[zorlack]

Err... I just discovered this thread (http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/messages/29/26478.html?1199848598) in which Brady pretty much answers my question. Before I'd even asked it. Not sure how he did that. Time Travel?

One question still remains though. What do the ramping values actually mean. What are the units on "XY Move Ramp Speed" versus, what are the units on "Move Ramp Rate".

[Brady Watson]

Dave,
Move Ramp Speed is the speed at which the tool will begin moving, no matter what the MS setting is, and Move Ramp Rate is the distance that the tool moves while increasing 2 speed units.

(E.G. - Tool starts moving at .4 inches per second (Move Ramp Speed set @ .4) over a distance of .4 inches (Move Ramp Rate set @ .4") and increases 2 inches per second every .4 inches)

I understand that my write-up is probably a bit verbose if you are just getting started with tweaking ramps. My advice would be to ONLY adjust Slow Corner Speed and see what that does for you. The tool will quickly demonstrate the changes to this setting - then you can tweak other settings, but generally I leave them all alone & just change Slow Corner Speed. I do adjust Min. Dist. to Check to .08 and 3D Threshold to 150.

Remember, Slow Corner Speed will affect your tool more than any other settings. Start there. AND - Slow Corner Speed affects BOTH 2D AND 3D cutting!

-B

PS-There is more info on ramping in the ComRef.pdf under the Help menu in SB3 (1st menu item)

[zorlack]

Thanks Brady. I'm taking it all in, - it's starting to make sense!