@donnyfl wrote:
Hey guys, still trying to get used to MeshCam. I've documented the steps I took to make a star. Could you look over my steps and see if this is how you would normally do it as well.
As a beginner, I like the fact that once loaded I could go up to Tools -> Carbide Auto Toolpath and go through all the questions and pick out what material I am working with. Have it generate the codes. But it leaves the question, how does MeshCam know that I wanted to center in the middle of my stock or lower left hand corner.
Hopefully this document will help other beginners as well. I've included all the files.
So this is my workflow:
Open Meshcam and selected my star.stl the Star is 25.4 mm by 2 mm depth
link to star.stl https://www.dropbox.com/s/nmpvspj0ym2xvgd/star.stl?dl=0Next I clicked on the first Icon for Geometry and told MeshCam that I want to Z to be 0 at top
Tool Path -> Define Stock
My stock is a round piece of delrin that is about 38 mm all around and 46 mm height but I put 2 mm for Z because I want it to start cutting from the top
Retraction Height, MeshCam auto populated to be 2.540 mm. I left it as is.
Program Zero I placed Z right in the middle of the stock.
Set Max Depth, I put 2 mm since that's how thick the star is.
Now I go up to Tools -> Carbide Auto Toolpath
Material - Delrin with Carbide #102 cutter, quality High
Toolpath Parameters, I left it alone because not experience enough to play with that yet., I then hit OK.
MeshCam generated toolpath
Estimated cutting time 1.1 minutes
Saved toolpath as star_center2.nc
file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/5qpu03zbmaohkc2/star_center2.nc?dl=0Turned on Carbide Motion and loaded star_center2.nc
Centered cutter over workpiece. I used paper method for Z. Once I felt resistance with the paper, I removed it. Measured the paper to be .06 mm thick. So I pressed Z- 6 times with .01 selected. Switched over to Set Zero and clicked on Zero All.
I then Clicked Run and the rest you can watch in the video. Video was cut short after almost 4 mins because phone ran out of memory. Please excuse my son in the background
it took about 5-6 mins compared to the 1.1 minute that Meshcam estimated.
Video - Updated to launch from Youtube
star_center2.mcf
https://www.dropbox.com/s/y2oq1eg5u6o8arr/star_center2.mcf?dl=0Log
https://www.dropbox.com/s/czb8ik890lbp30c/star_codes.txt?dl=0
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