Machined a friend photo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njHgg5jnFsU

Olá Pablo!

Ótimo trabalho!

A propósito... estou a procura de um fórum bom sobre CNC em espanhol... Se puder indicar algum agradeceria muito!

Abs.

Paulo Bubolz

Tem muitos mais nunca participei neles, so estou aca e na cnczone.


Pablo

What did you use for CAM software?

old version of art cam

Very cool.
Is there any software to do halftoning using different sized
drill bits, instead of carving?

Edit: I re-read the topic and saw Danilom's post about the brazilian software
which can use stepped drill bits. Really nice!

Maybe you can convince the finish guy who developed the software to use a finite amount of diameters for the circles, then any CAM would do the rest of the job for you.
Even better, from what he has now, posting G-Code directly would be super easy as I'm sure the DXF file export filter needs to specify the center of each circle.

Or maybe a compromise in the middle, just be able to export a text file with the X,Y,Diameter of each hole and then post process it directly to gcode.


Pablo

Did one video not show a chap using a 60 deg V-Cutter ? Will the CAM then not tell the Z-axis to go deeper for bigger circles ?

yes, you can use V cutter too, I used a ball mill because I used a 4mm MDF sheet, larger holes could go thru the sheet, with a ball mill your spoilboard needs to be dead flat because holes do not go deeper than 0.5mm when you set max circle diameter of 2mm

Just for fun today I opened the DXF file generated by the halftone app, each circle has this info:

So, all the info its there, 10=X, 20=Y, 40=Diameter. One just need to calculate the depth of the V cutter or Ball mill based on the diameter of the circle and then gcode is around the corner. Any trigonometric guru reading?

I think can do the code in visual basic given enough time :)

Pablo

When I get a chance, I might write a macro to do it in AutoCAD.

Does anyone know a way to get a .dxf of circles out of Inkscape? I've spent the last two hours trying, but it seems that .pdf is the only way that doesn't take forever.

But I do have Aspire that I can use. But an AutoCAD macro would give me a more optimized toolpath

Here is what we need to know:

http://i54.tinypic.com/2yvq88z.jpg

For a V bit, the depth = Radius of circle/tan (1/2 cutter angle)

For a 6mm circle, with a 60° v bit, the depth = 3/tan(30) = 5.196mm deep

A friend of mine offered this solution for the sphere, can you validate it?

c=ballmill radius
d=circle diameter

depth of cut=c-sqrt((c^2)-(d/2)^2)

I will test it empirically with Solidworks :) [edit] works!


Pablo

yesterday I sent an email to the developer with the formulas and some comments about how to implement gcode generation to the program, today he replied saying that he was already working on the new version and it should be available today or tomorrow as he was waiting for some betatesters, he even provided this image:

http://i54.tinypic.com/2qls7jn.png

I would like to think that brilliant minds think alike, but he actually did all the heavy lifting :) :)


Pablo

Version 2.0 is up!

http://www.students.tut.fi/~syvajar3...lftone20_1.jpg

Path width modulation example video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqksgmyWI3k

Download here:
http://www.students.tut.fi/~syvajar3/

Have fun! I'm looking forward to see your work. :)

Amazing Tomi !! and welcome to the forum. BTW, Tomi is the software developer.

For some reason I cannot make the wave method to be shown in the preview, how does preview knows which method to show?

general tab, dumb me :)

Hi Tomi! Great looking software! Is there an easy way to output the code into inches or to set the software up in inches? Keep up the great work! Really cool, wow!

Just ignore the fact that is says mm's, and enter the numbers you need in inches.

Hi Ger, your right....it worked! Thanks. All the code looks good. The program outputs the number to the 10th decimal place. I hope mach will read/run it ok. I'll have to try it out when I get home.

Tomi, that is so amazing!

I would love to have a metal speaker grill (a funky car sub grill, more
like) with a half-toned logo made of the drilled holes :-)
More reasons to build a CNC.
Someday, when the space-time-money conundrum is solved...

Works fine in inches
 

Grabbed a pc of mdf and a can of black. Mach ran it fine..... 4300 holes, 30 inches per minute, picture is 8.8 x 10.5 ish. I like how simple it is!

Hi Tommi,
Great software! It works!
Will try to run on EMC2 once I get a chance.

Thanks for sharing.

Travis, you may be able to make cloth prints. Coat that mdf with
fabric paint and press it on a T-shirt.
This half-tone stuff is way cool!

Worked no worries with EMC2. Can the software write the gcode for the cut out?

Nope, making cutouts is not supported.

Adding that feature would require a new tab of UI and all kinds of parameters such as endmill dia., offset, tabs, pass depth, material thickness, ramped plunges... to be any good.

Making and tweaking the user interface for new features usually takes longer than coding the actual stuff and is frustrating, boring work. I'm starting to understand why Linux coders like to make console apps.

Tomi,
You listed off all the options/parameters just to cut out or profile cut and I could put a tick next to all of those options, it is amazing how I as an end user take coding software for granted.

You could also use the export size parameters on my software to make multiple dxf files, each containing a different size range. Then just use any CAM-software to generate GCodes and change the drill after each set.