I have seen some discussions about how to use work coordinates in files using G10 L2.
I am wondering if there would be interest in a small app that you can type your offsets in a more user friendly style and then they would be inserted into the start of your NC code file.
I put together this GuI last night:
I envision it being used on a laptop beside the 1F. You find the origin of each part and type in the machine offset you see on the controller. You then click Load NC File and the G10 L2 lines are added at the top that file. Thus if you have multiple files to run just pass them all thru this app and they will all have the same work offsets.
Is this something that would be useful?
Perhaps before I spend a whole lot of time building something that is flawed in concept i will ask what you think it should do - if anything.
I like the Idea of what you’ve shown. Looks like it would make using offsets more user friendly for the non-g-code reader types like me.
I wish the 1F controller had this built into its UI. This would be a very helpful tool.
I’m not familiar with gcode enough to know how useful it would be. You’d still have to probe each location and then type them in. I did see an alternative video where a guy modeled his table space and setup a template where all of his bench dogs were located. Then he simply places his pieces at the defined bench dog locations in his software and everything is all set. It is nice because he can run anywhere from a single part to five or six. I am a hobby woodworker making gifts for family and friends so I’m not into making a lot of projects with multiple batch runs of things so I personally wouldn’t use it very often. But I like your idea about wanting to save time. Hopefully some guys who run batches will be able to give you a better reply. For me I think using a template would be more efficient since it would avoid having to probe each part location.
I guess too, it depends on what software you are using. I went with VCarve Pro and it is very nice. You can import a part, and then it will automatically create multiple copies in a grid, or you can enter several different parts and it will nest them all onto a single sheet.
The big benefit is when you’re cutting out parts of different pieces of material. I cut coasters out of 9 3/4x9 3/4 in blanks of scrap wood and epoxy. In fusion i have the model set up once and then fusion multiplies it by my offsets. So I can have 1 or 2 or 5 offsets with out having to model extra parts/material and with out actually changing the CAD to do more or less parts. Just change the number of offsets and youre good to go. Granted, unless you’re batching out parts as you mentioned, this might not be as big of a deal.
Ideally anything that interfaces with OF should be in the browser, where OF control panel is already.
If I had the time to do this, I would make a browser extension (chromium).
Work Offsets could be feature one, but there are many others I can think of, like pre-canned macros you can save/run, as well as basic operations like, given direction, generate gcode for a straight cut.
Things like that would be very useful as they would break the need and reliance on CAD+CAM software that takes you out of the workflow.
