[MrWild]

I assumed that if a control has helical interpolation, the Z axis will feed up or down as a circular circuit is made. I drew up a widget and went through all the motions of Area Clear and set up Z ramping.

The simulation shows the tool revolving in a circular fashion and the Z axis is going down. In the post process however the circular motion is really a large number of straight line segments, Because of this, my program is HUGE.

When following circular contours, it uses G2 and G3 corectly. Is there a toggle or something to get rid of the large number of small straight moves for true circular Z drilling?

Once I upgrade my control, this won't matter, but my Crusader M only has room for 2,400 lines of code and with the straight segmented circlular drilling, the program is already up to 8,400 lines.

It's not the post Crusader processor either, as I also tried a Fadal Post.

[MrWild]

Interestig. If I go for a straight plunge cut for Z, the program comes down to a paltry 621 lines. I'll try this revised code tomorrow, and a portion of the huge code to see which works better.

[John S.]

Can the Crusader control interpolate in 3 axis all at the same time ?
Not many can.
The short line method is the only way many controls can handle simultaneous 3 axes INTERPOLATED moves as opposed to 3 axis SIMULTANEOUS moves

John S.

[mtzlplyk]

Some posts have helical interpolation "switched off". Edit the post and look for "HELIX VECTOR", delete this one line. Now look for the outputs rules GOCLW and GOACLW, you need to make sure they have a Z axis component. This will usually appear as #Z or $Z:ZAXIS - you should be able to work it out from the GOTO rule. Now when you use the post it will have helical interpolation working.