Machine forgets to tab

[B Kelly (Unregistered Guest)]

Hi, I was cutting something I drew on vector, and halfway round the tabbing switches off. I've tried increasing and decreasing the distance between tabs but that doesnt help, it still stops tabbing at the same place. The file is a series of arcs. Can anyone help. This is a repeat order so I have to get it sorted, I have no problems with other files.thanks. Bob

[srwtlc]

Bob, If you are using the VB command with your file that was created with Vector, tabbing won't work. It's a problem with CG's and the VB command. I ran into this a long time ago and just stopped using the VB command and make my own tabs in Vector where I want them by cutting and pasting a section of the arc higher (.1, .125, or whatever you want), then line connect them with the rest. The one drawback is that with a curve the tab can't be ramped, so you can get a dwell mark on your material. You can also have Vector create tabs by changing the attributes of a line segment to "TAB" and when you generate NC code it will write a tab in (beware though, I think my machine got totally lost once when using this with an arc also). One other way to make tabs on straight lines is to use a little program that was made by Bruce Clark called ManMatTabs. He also has another one that is called GeoCrush for crushing all geometry to Z=zero.

For any Vector users out there, there's a nice program for automating drawing and code generation activities in Vector called MTB Pro made by Wayne Hill. Basically, you write a macro to do something with one button click that would take numerous mouse clicks to do otherwise. It can be found here. Some of what can be done with it can be found here, and here.

Scott

[gerald_d]

Had the same problem as Scott. The auto-tabbing generated by the SB program flakes out when it hits certain types of arcs.

The problem is not caused by Vector as such.

Our solution is similar to Scott's, we draw the tabs manually and don't use the ShopBot's auto-tab.