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CAM toolpath jumps in dependence of tool diameter

Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2018 12:54 pm
by oe5hpm
Hi folks,

have a look to attached contour.
If i choose a tool diameter of 1.5mm the toolpath makes a weird jump, if i increase to 1.505mm the toolpath is OK.
Any ideas on this ?
Selection_029.png
Selection_029.png (6.48 KiB) Viewed 9426 times
Selection_030.png
Selection_030.png (6.16 KiB) Viewed 9426 times

Re: CAM toolpath jumps in dependence of tool diameter

Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2018 12:59 pm
by andrew
Thanks for your report. This problem has been fixed in the latest development version of QCAD/CAM. If you can indicate what platform you are on (Windows, MacOS, Linux, 32bit / 64bit), I can issue a snapshot release for you to try.

Re: CAM toolpath jumps in dependence of tool diameter

Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2018 3:38 pm
by oe5hpm
Hi Andrew,

currently i run here linux 64 bit.

cheers,
Hannes

Re: CAM toolpath jumps in dependence of tool diameter

Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2018 12:08 pm
by andrew
I've just sent you a download link for the latest QCAD/CAM snapshot release 3.19.2.6 for Linux 64bit via private message.

Re: CAM toolpath jumps in dependence of tool diameter

Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2018 2:00 pm
by oe5hpm
Hi Andrew,

thanks for that ... i tried and it works.

Here i have another problem ... don't know if this is 100% related to the last one. But there are different (even weird) toolpaths generated with the different versions.

3.19.2.6
Selection_032.png
Selection_032.png (4.45 KiB) Viewed 9398 times
3.19.2
Selection_033.png
Selection_033.png (4.93 KiB) Viewed 9398 times
Any ideas on this?

Re: CAM toolpath jumps in dependence of tool diameter

Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2018 6:53 pm
by andrew
Unfortunately, these polylines are rather messy with duplicate and triple nodes and many virtually straight arc segments with huge radii. Presumably these are the result of exploding a text. Some fonts contain glyphs with such problems which makes them unsuitable for further processing without some clean up work.

I would recommend to either re-draw these polylines from scratch or clean them up using:

Draw > Polyline > Arc to Line Segments
Draw > Polyline > Normalize
Draw > Polyline > Simplify

Relocating the start point of a polyline helps with lead-in, lead-out problems.

Re: CAM toolpath jumps in dependence of tool diameter

Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2018 7:26 pm
by oe5hpm
Hi andrew,

many thanks ... that did the trick ... now i have a perfect toolpath. :lol:
QCAD is really cool !

Re: CAM toolpath jumps in dependence of tool diameter

Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2018 9:47 am
by andrew
Excellent, thanks for the feedback!