Looking for a Post Processor for vacuum pods.

[andrius.ack]

My machine bed has a vacuum pod work holding system evenly spaced on 4x8 bed with 24 vacuum pods. Can anyone write me a post for this setup so I dont have to manually place the tabs with the Vectric software. I will gladly pay for it. I asked the ShopBot engineers, still no answer yet.
Thank you.

[EricSchimel]

Why do you need a post processor? Can't you lay out your parts in Aspire/Vcarve with the spacing you want?

Do you have a picture of the pods?

[andrius.ack]

deck.jpg
here is the layout of my shopbot deck, Vcarve does not have a gadget I need or I simply don't know anything about it. I also wrote to Vectric for this feature but they seem to be sluggish at this as well.

[Red F]

I'm sorry that I am no help answering your question, but I am curious about your vacuum setup. I'm trying to work out some vacuum workholding form my machine and I wonder, are each of your pods controlled separately? I'd love to see a picture of your setup and more interested in the way you are controlling them with the valves?

I hope someone else can help you with the Vectric Gadget.

[srwtlc]

Not quite understanding the need for a custom PP either, when Vectric products have tabbing options built into the profile toolpath.

[Kyle Stapleton]

Hey, Scott nice logo.

[andrius.ack]

I will get back to you on your question this weekend in this thread. Thanks for inquiry.

[andrius.ack]

Srwtlc,
well, think about those felder or morbidelli machines that have those vacuum cups that even move around the bed and what not.. and this got me thinking something for ShopBot. When I purchased my first Shopbot cnc in 2015, I asked technical support how to hold the workpiece down and you know what they told me? - "Screw it". The Vectric products that you referred have tabbing options that are of a manual entry so to speak. What I need is an automatic profile toolpath detection where the vacuum pods are and have the tool tab over it when passing thru it. I cannot understand either how one simple line of code would not save me or whole world of vacuum cups out there from running them over. That's why a custom PP is so important.

[Kyle Stapleton]

What I need is an automatic profile toolpath detection where the vacuum pods are and have the tool tab over it when passing thru it.
I may be missing something but isn't it the point of having a vacuum table or pods so you can profile parts and not have to cut tabs after it is off the cnc?
If this was my setup I would have the vacuum pod layout on a layer in my cam software and would make sure to place parts so that I never profile through a vac pod.

[andrius.ack]

Sorry I may not have been clear with my issue. I am a cabinet maker and my setup would only work with 4x8 sheet goods. When cabinet parts are machined, the profile cuts all over the place as every cabinet part is somewhat different on average 10 parts per sheet. After the sheet is processed I manually cut off the tabs with the jigsaw when removing from the machine. Recently I started to layout the parts within the distance of a table saw kerf to separate the parts on a table saw only to avoid too many tabbed pieces together.

I have always thought a setup with pods is a way to go over the blower/mdf setup with immense waste of energy.

PRS Standard 48x144, 2.2 spindle, one air drill, indexer, fantastic 24 vacuum pod setup with a simple 110V edwards vacuum pump.
Vcarver Pro, Sketchup.