Crazy toolpathing cutting??

[myxpykalix]

I "enhanced" this design to add the indentions for flutes. When i toolpathed it I didn't get any error messages about broken vectors or anything like that. I saved the toolpaths seperately. The toolpath to cut the inside took probably a minute (cut speed 1.7, .50 in the Z speed).
However when i went to cut the outside toolpath that took almost 9 minutes! Rather than follow a line to cut the perimeter in a clockwise or counterclockwise path it would skip around cutting one arch, jumping around to part of a curved angle, raising up 1" in the Z for every move. I understand that the machine figures out the optimal cutting pattern but this made no sense. Should that take 9 minutes to cut out?
I will say prior to running this toolpath i had one of those spikes where had the machine loose everything mid cut. I rezeroed and started this. I hadn't ghad time to run an additional ground rod as suggested, i was hoping to get this done first. And it didn't cut the full path also

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[Brady Watson]

Clean, closed vectors is the name of the game, Jack.

Group vectors, looking for 'white stars' indicating a node problem. Ungroup and fix if needed and look for blue (open) and red (duplicate) vectors. You have to really ZOOM all the way in on some designs to find problems. This will get easier with time. In the meantime, before you toolpath, you should be asking yourself this one question: "Does this design hold water?"...In other words, if you were to pour liquid into the design, would it leak out because it isn't closed? Merely GROUPING vectors does NOT close them or make them suitable for toolpathing.

Keep at it...it gets easier.

-B

[myxpykalix]

But is is reasonable to you that the outside toolpath would take 9 min to cut? And cut in the fashion described above? I would have thought it would just follow the design around and cut instead of jumping all over the place. Would that be a result of the open vectors?

[scottcox]

Jack,

Absolutely. If you join the line segments, the software treats it as one continuous line. Be sure to close it as Brady said. Do the same for the inside line segements and close that vector. Then group the two closed vectors together and your software should recognize the area/solid between.

?If it even needs to. I think you'll then have to specify an inside and outside profiling path for each.

[Brady Watson]

Yes Jack...toolpaths take an especially long time to cut when the occasional open vector slips thru PartWizard's 'checks and balances' when a profile pass is used. If the tool is not doing what you expect it to do, stop the tool. Go back and check your toolpaths. Recalculate and try again. You know how long a profile pass should take...if it is taking longer or doesn't do what you reasonable think it should, you the programmer and operator, need to find out what's going on.

-B

[myxpykalix]

makes sense, the inside toolpath cut continously with no problem. I'll crank up the prescription on the glasses to see if i can see a broken vector.

[jsfrost]

Jack,

Running a trial in preview mode will often allow you to see this type of problem and others without dealing with material and cutting.

Jim