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OpenBuilds CAM Software

Discussion in 'CAM' started by Mark Carew, Oct 8, 2018.

  1. Peter Van Der Walt

    Peter Van Der Walt OpenBuilds Team
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    Itd shown in mm as well, is that perhaps what you are seeing?

    Post screenshots or sample files

    Also, make sure your CAD file is sized correctly
     
  2. CKerv

    CKerv New
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    Sorry, "ltd"?
    CAD is definitely correct.
    See attached file. The large one should be 4" diameter.
    Oddly enough, it appears correct when it is sent directly to CONTROL through the CAM "Connection" window. But I'm working off a server, so I can't actually use that "send" feature for production.
     

    Attached Files:

  3. CKerv

    CKerv New
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    My mistake, I was drawing in metric in Auto.
     
  4. Peter Van Der Walt

    Peter Van Der Walt OpenBuilds Team
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    Typo "its" S and D next to each other on keyboard.

    Glad you are up and running

    Sounds interesting, care to share?
     
  5. CKerv

    CKerv New
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    I design at my nice clean warm comfy office computer. All files are saved to Dropbox and then accessed from my CNC laptop in my cold dusty workshop :)
     
  6. Peter Van Der Walt

    Peter Van Der Walt OpenBuilds Team
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    Ahhh OK sounded like you were developing something :) gotcha now - you can still keep a copy of CONTROL on your design PC just to check/sim - the viewer in CONTROL is a little different from the one in CAM
     
  7. David the swarfer

    David the swarfer OpenBuilds Team
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    now if he could tell CAM the IP address of the machine controller....
     
  8. Peter Van Der Walt

    Peter Van Der Walt OpenBuilds Team
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    If only browsers would just allow connections to IPs (;


    CAM running in the cloud, on github.io, served over https:

    1) Try a connection to CONTROL over https - fails because cert is invalid. Cannot generate a publicly signed certificate for IPs, cannot allow self-signed certificates in a ajax call (doesn't prompt to add cert to browser store)

    2) Try a connection to CONTROL over http, to port 3000 at a local IP:

    upload_2021-4-6_11-51-21.png


    It's a good thing, but indeed inconvenient to us. Even to reach localhost, we have to:
    • Host a public DNS entry: mymachine.openbuilds.com -> 127.0.0.1
    • Include a public certificate / private key for mymachine.openbuilds.com in CONTROL
    • Just so the browser can do a https connection, to localhost, with a valid cert that matches the URL.
    If there was any other easy way for a browser to make a call to CONTROL, we'd have had an IP entry field long ago. Four, five years ago you could, we had a IP scanner built into LaserWeb2 back in the day (; - used WebRTC to find the local subnet, ran a scan, found instances to connect to. Was awesome. Then the security guys closed all that up.
     
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  9. kth

    kth New
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    I use a Raspberry Pi on a converted vertical bench mill out in the garage, I wrote a proxy to relay from CAM to the Pi. I get its ip and use static DNS so I can use mypi.openbuilds.com with your certs 8^)

    I even intercept the /activate call and pop a local browser so it makes it pretty transparent

    Code:
    const staticLookup = (ip, v) => (hostname, opts, cb) => cb(null, ip, v || 4)
    const staticDnsAgent = (scheme, ip) => new require(scheme).Agent({keepAlive: true, lookup: staticLookup(ip)})
    
      var options = {
        hostname: 'mypi.openbuilds.com',
        port: https_port,
        path: client_req.url,
        method: client_req.method,
        headers: client_req.headers,
        agent: staticDnsAgent('https', mypi)
      };
     
  10. Peter Van Der Walt

    Peter Van Der Walt OpenBuilds Team
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    The problem is still that the user needs to have the proxy installed. What we're talking about is browser on PC1 > ajax call to Node instance on PC2
     
  11. kth

    kth New
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    Other then a host file entry it does limit other options 8^(
     
  12. Peter Van Der Walt

    Peter Van Der Walt OpenBuilds Team
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    Of course, if the user really didn't have any other way to get the file across, there's always "/upload"

    (CONTROL instance on other PC's IP:3000/upload)

    upload_2021-4-6_17-20-58.png
     
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  13. Dan Biskup Home

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    Use Shopbots at school, Use VCarve... Unfortunately cannot get the shopbot VCarve version to write the GCode file.

    so Im trying to learn how to use this for my new Lead 1515.. Love the configuration.... Trying to import a DXF. saved from Solidworks in several different formats....
    including the polyline version of R14 and R13 and R12... still not right.
    This is what I always get. Take a guess what its doing. Was able to move the origin without problems... but that radius on the Left.... you guessed it should be an internal radius.




    DXF Imported.PNG
     
  14. Peter Van Der Walt

    Peter Van Der Walt OpenBuilds Team
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    Post the DXF so we can tell you whats wrong with it. But basically, see docs:software:file-errors [OpenBuilds Documentation]

    Also, see Vectric Post: docs:software:vectric [OpenBuilds Documentation]
     
  15. Dan Biskup Home

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    Late last night I found that my version of vcarve would read the dxf and allow me to join the vectors then re-save it as a DXF... When I did that I was able to read it in to Openbuilds CAM to define the tool paths .... Haven't cut parts yet but I ran a simulation.... And it's looking like it should work...

    Also working on trying to add the Openbuilds Post processors to my edition of vcarve we'll see what I get.
     
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  16. Giarc

    Giarc OpenBuilds Team
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    I thought the OpenBuilds post processors were already available in Vcarve. I have it and do not remember loading them, but selecting from their list. But I could be wrong.
     
  17. Peter Van Der Walt

    Peter Van Der Walt OpenBuilds Team
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  18. Giarc

    Giarc OpenBuilds Team
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    Oh. That makes sense. I recently updated Vcarve again and added used Openbuilds post processor for cutting 3D reliefs on my main CNC. Everything I had done prior was with a post processor designed for grbl based rotary 3D carving so I had not checked when I had the older versions of Vcarve.
     
  19. Corey Applegate

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    Nested Object:

    It seems sporadic when I select an area I wish to laser cut using Raster whether the internal Objects get ignored and included in the fill or if they are left un touched. I have converted the image to a few different formats with no obvious voids in the inner object that would make it appear as not enclosed.

    So as a test I have even tried to draw two simple circles using the tools in the OB CAM and tried to only Raster Fill the outer Donut. These should be Totally enclosed and still I can not cut a donut.

    How can I manually apply a mask for the area I wish not to be Lasered?

    I have even Opened the Hello World Laser example and tried to recreate the Paths using the OB CAM software. But Can not seem to select the enclosed areas.
     
    #229 Corey Applegate, May 15, 2021
    Last edited: May 15, 2021
  20. Peter Van Der Walt

    Peter Van Der Walt OpenBuilds Team
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    Would be easier to answer if you include some examples, screenshots and source files
     
  21. Corey Applegate

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    I found that I need to Select both objects and the Raster will respect the inner bounds. Its funny though because at times the algorithm does find inner objects and doesn't fill with raster.
     
  22. sergiomajluf

    sergiomajluf Well-Known
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    Is it OK to suggest features on this thread? If not please move or remove!

    I'd LOVE to be able so save toolpaths presets
    ... or to be able remove generated toolpaths while keeping toolpath settings
    ... or to be able to create a toolpath with no geometry pre-selected (in which case I'd just save an empty workspace with my own toolpaths)

    Use case, I do most my cad in Illustrator/Affinity an import SVGs into CAM. Having presets for my usual bit settings would be a great timesaver

    Just my 0.02

    Have a great day!
     
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  23. Sophabean

    Sophabean New
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    I'm having some issues with bringing in a dxf file into the OpenBuilds Cam software. The software will say please wait parsing documents. After a few seconds it will have a message that says the page is unresponsive and ask me if I want to wait. After getting that message 2 or 3 times it will eventually switch to a web page that says error code out of memory. Exactly how much ram do I need? The file is only 1346kb.
     
  24. Peter Van Der Walt

    Peter Van Der Walt OpenBuilds Team
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    Depends on the complexity of the DXF, PC specs, and also what the entities inside the DXF are (please convert everything to PolyLines and Save as DXF R14 format for best performance)

    You can include the file if you want us to check specifically whats wrong with it
     
  25. Sophabean

    Sophabean New
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    Thank you for your response I have attached the file that I am working with. What do you mean by convert it to polylines? I am fairly new at this so please be patient.
     

    Attached Files:

    • K.dxf
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      1.8 MB
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  26. Gary Caruso

    Gary Caruso OpenBuilds Volunteer
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    Opened the file in nanoCAD and it looked like it was made out of blocks (and many many objects), opened it in inkscape and it crashed.. opened in Estlcam and had no problems.

    upload_2021-7-24_21-17-51.png

    Cheers
    Gary
     
  27. Giarc

    Giarc OpenBuilds Team
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    Estlcam works well for me too. Like Gary, it opened up for me and I had no issue creating tool paths. Estlcam was well worth the $59 license (You can try it for free for as long as you like) and tool path generation is very similar to Openbuilds CAM.

    As for the "k" file, I hoped to have a solution for you as I started writing this and taking the screen shots. In the end it failed so I opened it in Fusion360 and it looked "odd." Only two of the entities appear to be "closed" (shaded blue indicates this).
     
  28. Sophabean

    Sophabean New
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    Thanks for looking at it, I got it off of Etsy. My wife saw it and challenged me to justify my cnc machine lol. Would I be better off just attempting to create it myself at this point?
     
  29. Gary Caruso

    Gary Caruso OpenBuilds Volunteer
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    What are you trying to do, simple engrave or v-carve? you could download free Estlcam and try it or ask somebody to clean up the file, was it an svg or jpg first?
    Cheers
    Gary
     
  30. Sophabean

    Sophabean New
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    It came with a DXF, PNG, PDF, and SVG. She would like that K raised with a 3/8" border on an 8X8 piece of hardwood. Essentially all of the negative space needs to be one large pocket. I started with the DXF file because it is the only way that I know how to do it, and that doesn't seem to be working out for me. I downloaded Estlcam and will give it a shot. Thank you for your help.
     

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