I was reading some of your posts with David might try using a vgroove bit and just marking the holes then drilling them on my drill press. Thanks again
As Phil As Phil said, if the bit size is the same size as the hole (in other words you are not setting a 'large hole' size) then a drill bit will work just fine. In fact if all your do is select the plunge hole tool and click where you want the holes then bit size is irrelevant as a simple drill cycle will be done. Remember to set the stepover to 30% and multipass on with a suitable multipass depth (0.5 to 1mm). Setting the stepover to less than 50% activates 'hard material' logic for the drill cycle. Check the peck drilling options and test to see what works best for your machine. Check the Gcode in a previewer to make sure there are no spiral bored holes present, they will break your drill bit for sure. Drilling aluminum always works better with the correct coolant. I am cheap and use kerosene but the various Tapmatic type fluids work very very well.
For aluminum, I've been using a pretty small step down (multipass depth) of .25mm. any more than that causes badness on my cbeam. though, true drilling with a slow enough feed should be able to handle a bit deeper.
Thanks you David and Phil for the help I will try this weekend on my slightly mod cbeam . When cutting aluminum I set my multi pass about 1/4 of a mm takes a while on .25 plate but I haven’t broke to many bits this way also a little wd50 help and some air to remove chips thanks again for the ideas
Thanks for the update. If it's possible, you might want to add something at the "check for update" link target in 1.4c.
LOL, I just noted that the help page in says 'May 2020'! Seems like you've been sitting on it for quite a while waiting to give us a Christmas present!
aye, been a work in progress for some time, covid lockdown really messed with my workflow since my home computer is not neatly setup like the office PC, and the network is a LOT slower.
Huh. In Sketchup I click on the blue question mark icon in the tool bar and it takes me to a cached page that looks like this: The link to the latest version take me to SketchUcam DOWNLOAD which has nothing recent on it.
I have downloaded SketchUp 2014 and installed SketchUCam v1.5a. My intent is to use Autocad and save my files as DXF files then use them to make a Gcode files easily using SketchUp. In the pro version I am currently running it has an import file for DXF. I am not having any issue with getting the DXF file into SketchUp. My problem comes in when I try to use SketchUcam. It will not allow my to click on any of the lines. I did some research and it told me to ungroup the image, but the group tools are grayed out. I have also tried unflattening the image, but not luck. I am at a loss and not sure what to do or go for help. I cannot seem to find any info on my topic. thanks in advance
Most of what you need to know is in this collection https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLm728rLHCWOw-vRvTJwS_5MmKG1fs4sZ0 in particular If you drag a box around the entire drawing to select all of it, the right click on a line you should get a menu with 'explode' on it. explode everything. You might then need to reselect everything and explode again (and maybe again, it depends how deep the groups in your DXF go) After everything is ungrouped you can select everything, right click, and phlatten all of it to create faces. Once you have blue faces you can add cutlines. (Yes, we know that technically blue is the back face, but that is how it works)
Thanks. I did start with a simple DXF file. It was just a octagon I made with no frills, just a shape. I saw that video you posted too. I dont know version they are using, but when I imported my DXF file it was not not blue. I think it was the same color of the background. I will give it another try. I did get to the point where I exploded the shape in the drawing, but I still could count cut lines. I can try and do it a few times to see what happens. Can you explain more about phlatten the faces and the blue color? I am really new to this and the software!
any face has 2 sides, white is the 'front', blue is the back. when you draw a rectangle flat on the XY plane, the blue side is up. When you add sides and a top to it to make a box, all the blue sides are 'inside', and white sides are outside. since SketchUcam does not work with 3D shapes, and since the default is blue side up, all the code expects shapes to have the blue side up, if they are not it will affect cut directions (outside cut will go the wrong way, and so on) To generate good Gcode the shapes must be flat on the Z=0 plane in Sketchup, so we wrote a tool to 'phlatten' things to make sure all Z values are 0. Why 'ph' ? Because the Phlatboyz invented SketchUcam on the phlatforum while making 'phatboyz' model airplanes. And who are the Phlatboyz? The owner and operator of Openbuilds, Mark Carew and his wife Trish (-: how to phlatten: select objects right click an object select 'Phlat Edge' select 'Phatten Selected Edges'
I was able to get that to work yesterday with the DXF file. I tried another file I made that did not give me the explode option. I ended up grouping and ungrouping a few times and then the explode option was available. Once it turned blue I knew I was good. I still dont fully understand the color difference or the faces. the object appears flat to me so I am not sure what i need to do to learn what the issues are. also, once my eval. version runs out with sketchup I dont know if I will be able to import DXFs. I am pretty good at Autocad and dont really want to learn another CAD software. Do you know another easy program to use to importing DXFs. I know there is the free Openbuilds online software, but I found it more difficult to use than SketchuCam? Thanks in advance, you have been very helpful.
Try to get SketchUp 2017. There are places where you can get the old versions. Just search it. Once you have it, it doesn't expire. Then search for a DXF importer addon for SketchUp. There are a few. I have, I think, 2 installed on my Sketchup.
I use the freeDXF 0.57 import plugin which I have attached below. I have just tested it in Make 2017 so no problems there nor previous versions, I also use it in the old Sketchup8 without issues. I have also attached a video showing how I import, explode and add cutlines to a DXF file. Hopefully this will set you on the way to Sketchup happiness (-: Don't forget to read the SketchUcam manual! Knowledge is power!
David: Can you discuss what drives the pocketing errors and if depth is the only thing it has trouble with or if it's also the profile edge of the pocket and why?
Sketchup's internal numbers are all inches, not a real problem, but dimensionless is better all round (the way most pro CAD systems do it). Sketchup's internal math engine rounds to 0.001" when comparing. this means that any time the code does a comparison like if (X == Y) if they are less than 0.001" different the result of the compare is true. But this is not accurate enough for much of what SketchUcam is trying to do. When calculating the zigzag lines for pocketing there is a comparison for each end of each line that is affected by that 0.001" inexact comparison. This caused (and now and then still does) a transition line to be skipped, and a diagonal line would be inserted instead. This is affected by the complexity of the outline, and the relationship of features in the outline to the bit size and stepover percentage (and other stuff I have forgotten about, been a while since I delved into this deeply). This sort of thing......the algorithm and the comparisons combine to skip shadowed areas. The new 'FLOOD' fill method solves this but takes longer to calculate and has rougher 'edges', I must re-look at the vector math sometime and see what can be done about that. Note that the math here will cause hair loss. While we look at that and say 'well obviously you zigzag to there and then go over there and carry on to fill the gap' the math cannot see the picture, it has a boundary defined as connected vectors and no idea about islands and shadows that we 'just see'. Not that I am the greatest mathematician (-: there is much I don't know in the abstract geometry space.
I am still working with the software and I am close to getting my machine finished to actually cut something. In sketchup I have been trying to get the fonts to work, but I have not had much luck. I seem to have trouble with letters that have an inner circle, for example the lower case "e." I have figured out the exploding of the text and the phlatten'ing of the edges. I have been able to delete the circle on the inside so the letter is not all the same color shade, but I cannot get the letter to be set up for a pocket cut. I've looked on the videos, but still have not understood what the problem is. Any guidance is appreciated.
if everything is properly exploded and phlatenned then your bit is probably too big. it does have to fit in between the edges you are trying to cut. Also, letters usually need to make use of the FLOOD fill method for the pockets. SketchUcam Toolbar
As Always THANKS.... Hopefully, my parts I ordered to finish the build arrive. Been waiting over a week.
holes the size of the bit do not show up in g code ALL other holes show up just fine. all the inside cuts are fine all the outside cuts are fine. What am i doing wrong Tryin to put a pattern of through holes in a 1/8" foam using a 1/8" router bit nothing shows up at all. I have depth first set to true. Watched all the videos I can find and seemingly do the same thing but nothing in output. Mark
So I just did that by drawing a line and placing a series of plunges on the line erased the line generated gcode and they do no show up but you say they are still there in the gcode and will be plunged Just does not seem correct is there a way to run a simulation on the screen to see if they show that way. thanks so much Mark
You have to make sure there are no other lines intersecting the plunge hole at all (in particular intersecting or underlying the deep purple line). Each plunge hole is a group (assuming you have the latest SketchUcam V1.5a) in an attempt to avoid interference, but Sketchup still, sometimes, messes with the plunge hole stuff, so we have to help by removing any intersecting lines. If the plunges do not show up in the Gcode, then they will not be cut, the Gcode previewer will not lie to you. If you still have trouble please post the Sketchup file either in this thread or directly to me if you want it private. I have Sketchup 2016 and 2017 so 'save as' one of those versions if you have a later version.
OK David I still can not make it show the plunge holes I will keep working on it from here LMK if you find anything Thanks Mark
