Cutting oddities

[chunkstyle]

Hello everyone,

Lately I've noticed a problem with my custom tool change file not working during a tool change call up with a link file. I have a touch off plate off the table. When the bit makes contact with the plate on the first drop it retracts normally, lowers for the secong drop and when it makes contact the second time it throws an error and says that contact with plate failed.
When I hit cancel the machine will continue to run the file which requires me to stop it, shut down SB3, reboot and start everything all over again.
If I try a C3 with the SB3 control the zero routine runs fine. It gets jacked up thru the Link. Odd.

Then there is this weirdness. Attached is an image of the link nest of some parts that were cut out for a spray cart I was making for myself this weekend. Notice how it was cut incorrect on the machine. Odd.....it also nested correctly in Ecabs. Geometry screwed up in the cutting file pushed out of the Link somehow.

[dlcw]

Tim,

I know for a fact (straight from TWD) that if you are using tabs ANYWHERE - ON ANY PARTS in your job, your results will be indeterminate. I had some tabs in a drawer box side and when SBLink cut the file the results on other drawer box parts was strange to say the least.

TWD tech support said to turn tabs off. They gave me NO estimate as to when a fix would be forthcoming.

[chunkstyle]

Thanks for that info Don. I havnt had to use tabs for my cab parts but it's good to know and steer clear of it.
Don't know why the geometry got jacked up coming out of the link.
Having the z-zero routine act up thru the link is another oddity. When the cabinet file was written out to the SB3 from the link the z zero routine failed twice. I then rebooted computer for the third time and zeroed out thru SB3. Wrote cabinet file out from the link again and tool change call up with zeroing routine went fine.
Had this failure happen with last job I ran. Seems to be happening with the link. Updated both link and SB3 to the most recent a while back but if I'm the only one having this kind of issue then it must be something to do with my machines current configuration.

[dlcw]

Tim,

I have random problems with a few of the SBLink versions. In one version I was getting unpredictable results when cutting dados. I sent pictures and cabinet files to TWD to show them what was going on and they had no explanation. I had weird problems with off fall processing. Ruined a $100 sheet of plywood when off fall processing started cutting through the middle of other parts randomly. Boy, was I PISSED. Sent pictures, exports and files to TWD and they couldn't explain it other then to turn off off fall processing. I've had weird results with nesting. Sent pictures, exports and files and TWD couldn't explain it.

I had a situation with my whole computer, controller, hardware configuration one time where I turned the machine off Friday afternoon (it was working perfectly all day). Turned it on Monday morning and nothing would work right. Drive motors stopped moving things around, control software didn't work right, zeroing X,Y or Z wouldn't work. It was really strange. Spent a lot of time with tech support and didn't make any progress. Shut everything off. Came in Tuesday morning, turned on the machine and everything worked perfectly. Go figure...

So, in a nut shell, s$**t happens in software. I spent 20 years working in the computer industry writing programs in about 10 different computer languages. For some reason computers sometimes just do things without explanations. I've had it happen hundreds of times of the years. It just goes with the territory I guess.

[chunkstyle]

Thanks for the perspective Don,

I've had this problem crop up from time to time with respect to the link. Must be an intermittent thing. Running sheets this afternoon with no problems.
The zeroing routine getting jacked up can be dealt with. I hope the part editor cuts from E-cabs isn't acting up. If so I'll report back. Thanks for sharing.

Regards,
Tim

[michael_schwartz]

Thanks for the warning to stay away from tabs. I would not have known about this and I am sure I would have found out the hard way.

[zeykr]

Another one to watch in this version is the option to do through cuts last.


From Thermwood in Nov 2012:

"Looks like the new feature for cutting route through cuts last is causing
the problem. Turning that off with this version will allow you to run."

[dlcw]

Another one to watch in this version is the option to do through cuts last.


From Thermwood in Nov 2012:

"Looks like the new feature for cutting route through cuts last is causing
the problem. Turning that off with this version will allow you to run."

Interesting Ken. I have not had that problem yet. I am bummed that so many things were broken in this latest release. We went without fixes or updates for almost 18 months then a new version comes out and takes away some of the features we used. Then TWD won't provide on any kind of a fix time frame.

Makes it kinda tough to use the software because I don't know what else is not working.