Laser/Router Work Flow

[Sword]

Take the same PP you use for rotary V-carving and edit it to have the needed commands for the laser on/off. Does the laser module for VCarve apply a laser toolpath on a wrapped layout? Would guess it does, but I have never tried it.

LightBurn also has rotary capabilities.

[grossmsj]

Does the laser module for VCarve apply a laser toolpath on a wrapped layout? Would guess it does, but I have never tried it.

Yes it does. So it can VCarve a three dimensional model created on the rotary. That works fine. The catch is getting it to do laser instead of spindle.
I may be able to do this. A room full of monkeys with typewriters can theoretically produce a Shakespeare script. We'll see...

[Nigelo]

Not sure what Vectric version you use but earlier today I received a mailshot that v11.55 for my Aspire is now available with laser improvements. Not had time to check details but you could check it out at Vectric's site in case of interest

[grossmsj]

It seems this Vectric upgrade (11.552) adds overscan.
I've posted to the Vectric forum to see if anyone has a PP for this. Even if it isn't Centroid, I think it might teach me how to approach a modification.
Not getting anywhere with adapting the 4th axis post processor to do laser.

[grossmsj]

SWord,
What line(s) of code in the "No_Z_Hop" laser post processor stop the Z-travel movements in that PP?
It's not obvious to me. I don't know if that might get in the way of combining the rotary and laser PPs, but I'd like to eliminate that as a potential issue.
Thanks,
Scott

[Sword]

You could completely disable it in the "Formating for variables" section, but I like to have some control at the beginning and end, so I just do it with the "begin INITIAL_RAPID_MOVE" and "footer" sections. After that, the laser toolpath output does the rest.

A laser postp needs to have "LASER_SUPPORT = "YES", "begin JET_TOOL_ON", and "begin JET_TOOL_OFF". I would take a working (for you) rotary post and modify it to add laser control. Test and retest until you get the output you want.

[grossmsj]

Excellent! This is really helpful (as usual).
I'll give it a go.
Thanks Scott

[Sword]

Don't forget about the Post Processor Editing Guide under the Help menu.

[grossmsj]

This works for rotary and laser now, varying Z-Height so you can laser engrave on a Vectric 3-D model. Jim Neeb over at Avid had a good one that was very instructive for the Acorn.

Keith, it might be good to have a place to store various Post Processors rather than have to drag them out of threads. It's also easier to keep them up to date that way.

Centroid_Laser_Inch_Rotary.pp.txt

(7.84 KiB) Downloaded 7 times

[cnckeith]

This works for rotary and laser now, varying Z-Height so you can laser engrave on a Vectric 3-D model. Jim Neeb over at Avid had a good one that was very instructive for the Acorn.

Keith, it might be good to have a place to store various Post Processors rather than have to drag them out of threads. It's also easier to keep them up to date that way.

Centroid_Laser_Inch_Rotary.pp.txt

you guys are welcome to start a thread and post them there and maintain it etc..

i'd put it in this forum.
https://centroidcncforum.com/viewforum.php?f=63