[pjensen]

This has probably been answered, but my search-fu has failed me.

I'm evaluating BobCAD, and want to see if I can make a toolpath to cut out a shape, but leave some tabs so the shape wont fall out in the mill and jam the cutter. I called BobCAD and they said "nope, can't do that."

Really? How does anybody cut something out on a mill with BobCAD? Is there a work-around? I'm actually liking BobCAD fairly well, but this is kind of a show-stopper.

Thanks for any help with this! :rainfro:

-Peter

[Claude Boudreau]

You can always do them yourself using the break at screen each side of your tab then move the newly form entity in the +Z (the amount being the thickness of your tab)
Then just line join the higher line with the original contour.
You can make your tool follow this with 3d engrave.
This is ok for a single cut without stepdown.

there must be other way to make your tool follow your 3d contour with multiple stepdown
someone else with more experience than me with bobcad might help

Oh just tought of this, cut your profile as usual but leave maybe .25 inch.on the stock, then use the above procedure for the last pass.

[BurrMan]

You can use the contour command on entities and just have them start and stop at the tabs. Run a profile op will have it jump over all the tabs at the Rapid value height.

[Claude Boudreau]

You can use the contour command on entities and just have them start and stop at the tabs. Run a profile op will have it jump over all the tabs at the Rapid value height.

Good idea, how would you proceed to make your tabs not the full thickness of your stock ?

[BurrMan]

Good idea, how would you proceed to make your tabs not the full thickness of your stock ?

Could you do this from the parameters page of the profile feature? Just set it up to leave what you need for a tab. Or you could place geometry up in Z like you mentioned Claude.

[BurrMan]

Well that was wrong Claude. The parameters page wont do it. I did this using the stock edit and top of part settings. Set the stock down, then set the top of part along with the depth. You can see the rapids above zero, but the cuts stay down at the material.

[Magnum164]

This has probably been answered, but my search-fu has failed me.

I'm evaluating BobCAD, and want to see if I can make a toolpath to cut out a shape, but leave some tabs so the shape wont fall out in the mill and jam the cutter. I called BobCAD and they said "nope, can't do that."

Really? How does anybody cut something out on a mill with BobCAD? Is there a work-around? I'm actually liking BobCAD fairly well, but this is kind of a show-stopper.

Thanks for any help with this! :rainfro:

-Peter

Even though I have recently purchased BobCad, this is one of the reasons I am currently not using it. That and the Verify command is very lacking and can't see on my system. You would think as long as they have been in business, they would have a tutorial or something showing how to do this.

Make sure you try and do posts on your files. I could not post with the demo and the verify was not functioning. So now I am stuck with a lot of files it will not post with. So even though they gave me a competitive discount, I am reverting back for now to my original choice. I may give it another shot sometime in the future if they release continuous 4 axis.

[GeorgeRace]

Hi Peter:
If you have not, I suggest you give CamBam a try. It will do tabs with the click of just a couple boxes in the setup box.

I love the program, really does 2.5D very well, and is a winner in 3D as well.
George

[Claude Boudreau]

Well that was wrong Claude. The parameters page wont do it. I did this using the stock edit and top of part settings. Set the stock down, then set the top of part along with the depth. You can see the rapids above zero, but the cuts stay down at the material.

I dont understand why this option has not been added a long time ago. This seem essential to every cnc software that want to compete.
I would suggest Bobcad to make a free addon with this , stop calling and do what s right.

[BurrMan]

I guess I'm a bit lost. I just posted a picture of a profile op that leaves tabs. It's followed by a few posts as if it didnt do it.. I know "Other" software may have a button that says "Tabs", but this didnt take me 4 hours to setup either.

Claude, your last post has a subject of "cutting air". If you look at the picture, the cuts all happen at the material as you asked...Anything above that is a "rapid move" which isnt cutting air, and can also be controlled and lowered to the material height with the "rapid plane" setting in the feature edit.

What is it that I have missed? Is it a deal breaker to have a "button" to do something?

[Magnum164]

What is it that I have missed? Is it a deal breaker to have a "button" to do something?

Well actually yes. Especially when my current software will allow me to import a 3D model of my actual fixtures to use. Having carpal tunnel, I do count mouse clicks to get a job done. Too many clicks and I am done


You can probably do the above on parametric models, but organic models or STL or other imported models may not be that easy.

[Magnum164]

I guess I'm a bit lost. I just posted a picture of a profile op that leaves tabs. It's followed by a few posts as if it didnt do it..

Why not post the file. Not knowing BobCAD that well I am not sure what I am looking at. At least with the file I can see if it will post and verify.

[BurrMan]

Magnum164,
Here's the file. The only settings made are the stock properties, the top of part and depth of cut settings. It seems to tab. If you look at these values, see if you can then figure out how to get it to tab at a particular depth.

Seems the only obstacle is for having it tab at other than 2d depths??? You mentioned 3d models. This example is for using 2d geometry to have the profile operation work with contours. I have recently been fooling around with using the z level finish 3d toolpath as a profiling op on 3d geometry. I think it would work pretty good for this too, but havnt done any specific example. I think for it to work well with the z-level op as a tabbing source, the "boundry" would need to force that "rapid between tabs"....I dont know if it would work this way or not. If you have an example, I would like to look at it with you.

[BurrMan]

Well actually yes. Especially when my current software will allow me to import a 3D model of my actual fixtures to use. Having carpal tunnel, I do count mouse clicks to get a job done. Too many clicks and I am done

You can probably do the above on parametric models, but organic models or STL or other imported models may not be that easy.

I agree. If tabbing is something you require in many situations on various data sources, having a software that does this automatically for you would probably be a good investment.

If you need to do a tab job, there can be a method shown here. If your job is tabbing all the time, The statement that BobCad doesnt tab is more correct!

[mcphill]

Make sure you try and do posts on your files. I could not post with the demo and the verify was not functioning. So now I am stuck with a lot of files it will not post with.

While it is annoying, they do clearly state that you cannot use models from the demo version in the full version. It is frustrating, but I can understand why they do it that way.

In addition they clearly state that you can't post from the demo mode. If you could post, it would not be a demo mode any more (it would be full functioning). If the verify is not working for you, call them and get it fixed. You first best bet is to reload you video drivers, and make sure you are on the most current version of BobCAD: http://www.bobcad.com/support/updates (again, not the video driver update reminder on this screen!).

The models you have, though, you CAN use (you can copy the layers from the demo program file, and paste it in to a new file made in the licensed version). Unfortunately I don't think you can copy the CAM paths from the demo to the full version. That said, you could save each CAM feature and load it in the full version, but you would need to reselect the geometry and boundaries if you used them.

[Claude Boudreau]

I guess I'm a bit lost. I just posted a picture of a profile op that leaves tabs. It's followed by a few posts as if it didnt do it.. I know "Other" software may have a button that says "Tabs", but this didnt take me 4 hours to setup either.

Claude, your last post has a subject of "cutting air". If you look at the picture, the cuts all happen at the material as you asked...Anything above that is a "rapid move" which isnt cutting air, and can also be controlled and lowered to the material height with the "rapid plane" setting in the feature edit.

What is it that I have missed? Is it a deal breaker to have a "button" to do something?

Leaving tab the full thickness of the stock is ok but not very convenient in real life. A tab to me is something just thick enough to propely hold your stock , but easy enough to cutoff after.
When you said you were wrong in your post , it confused me as to your ability to realize this. If you have a solution other than stated before please post it.

The cutting air title was not intended to your post , just a way of saying how important this feature is for everyone without a vacuum table.

[BurrMan]

Hey Claude,
The file I posted just does the tabing down at some depth... So it is not "toolpathing" the tab at the entire stocks depth. But, you would have to run a pre-profile that took the stock down. There is no option that will say "profile down to this depth, then do a tabbing finish cut". This would just need to be setup with 2 profile features.

Did you look at the file I posted? It will verify the tabbing. This tabbing is happening at -.4 deep. The depth of this tabbing cut is .01... I think this is what you were refering too. Is something missing here? I just didnt add the "Pre-Profile" op that would show taking the stock down to that depth first.

[Magnum164]

While it is annoying, they do clearly state that you cannot use models from the demo version in the full version. It is frustrating, but I can understand why they do it that way.

In addition they clearly state that you can't post from the demo mode. If you could post, it would not be a demo mode any more (it would be full functioning). If the verify is not working for you, call them and get it fixed. You first best bet is to reload you video drivers, and make sure you are on the most current version of BobCAD: http://www.bobcad.com/support/updates (again, not the video driver update reminder on this screen!).

The models you have, though, you CAN use (you can copy the layers from the demo program file, and paste it in to a new file made in the licensed version). Unfortunately I don't think you can copy the CAM paths from the demo to the full version. That said, you could save each CAM feature and load it in the full version, but you would need to reselect the geometry and boundaries if you used them.

Well.. One thing to note, I am a programmer (game programmer) and I am using this on a $10K dollar computer I built myself which already has up do date video drivers for both cards. Advising people to keep current video drivers is very bad advice. I had to skip several versions before updating because there was an issue with the drivers that would have overheated my video cards. Updated video drivers means ones that are compatible with your system (just like your system BIOS), which I have. I have the latest version of BobCAD as well. The issue is in the software, not the system. Besides, the Verify is very lacking in features as well.

For the models, I am not using any that were created with the demo. These are all new models imported straight from Albire or Rhino (NX5 IGES). I really don't have time to sit on the phone with tech support, when I have can be making parts with another software package. But, I will send them examples and they can look at, as long as it does not generate 2500 more phone calls.

Actually, most of the top software companies will provide a fully functional demo version. At least for me, now I will not purchase software unless I can use a fully functional version. When BobCAD calls to update to the next version, it won't happen without a full demo to use. I don't mind limited capabilities, but you should be able to at least use each feature of the software. They can put a 30-60 day time limit on the software easily and allow full functionality.

[Magnum164]

Magnum164,
Here's the file. The only settings made are the stock properties, the top of part and depth of cut settings. It seems to tab. If you look at these values, see if you can then figure out how to get it to tab at a particular depth.

Seems the only obstacle is for having it tab at other than 2d depths??? You mentioned 3d models. This example is for using 2d geometry to have the profile operation work with contours. I have recently been fooling around with using the z level finish 3d toolpath as a profiling op on 3d geometry. I think it would work pretty good for this too, but havent done any specific example. I think for it to work well with the z-level op as a tabbing source, the "boundry" would need to force that "rapid between tabs"....I dont know if it would work this way or not. If you have an example, I would like to look at it with you.

Thanks I will try and look at this later tonight or this week. The z-level with 3D is where I have not had luck. At first my files posted, then calling up a few nights later the post failed. If I can part with a file I will send.

[Magnum164]

I agree. If tabbing is something you require in many situations on various data sources, having a software that does this automatically for you would probably be a good investment.

If you need to do a tab job, there can be a method shown here. If your job is tabbing all the time, The statement that BobCad doesnt tab is more correct!

I can agree with that