Centroid Community CNC Support Forum

I see on Marty's cnc garage that when he is running a file that the trail has a large dot. Mine only has a small dot that is hard to see how do I enlarge the trail dot

Go into your tool library and change the diameter of the tool number you are using.

You need to be careful changing the tool diameter in the tool table. As Shawn stated, CNC12's graphing feature uses the diameter in the tool table to render the tool diameter on the graph. It's probably not showing up because it's set to zero.

Where you run into problems is if your CAM system uses "wear" compensation, then the tool diameter in CNC12 needs to be zero ( or a very small number like +0.001" or -0.002"). If your CAM system uses wear compensation and you set the tool diameter in the CNC12 tool table for your 1/4" endmill to 0.250" so it graphs correctly, your part will cut VERY wrong.

I am assuming that since he's a router user he's possibly using Vectric software and there is no cutter comp in Vectric. At least in version 10. They have a pseudo "cutter comp" called "allowance" but you have to recalculate the tool path to use it. Since he cant see the tool on the graph that tells me he probably doesn't have an ATC or the tool size would be correct on the screen. Again, these are all things I assumed. He could be using Fusion 360 and I assume that does have some sort of cutter comp built in given it's a powerful tool for CAM.

Hopefully we can get more details from him.

Shawn you are correct about me using Vectric have been using Aspire since before it was officially released. I am happy that I haven't had the problems that I had before. board now powers up every time and no glitches when the spindle fan starts.

luke wrote: ↑Fri Jul 28, 2023 12:06 pm Shawn you are correct about me using Vectric have been using Aspire since before it was officially released. I am happy that I haven't had the problems that I had before. board now powers up every time and no glitches when the spindle fan starts.

Then simply go into your tool library and increase the tool size for whatever number tool you are using. On customer router machines with no ATC and they all use Vectric I set the first 10 tools to 1/4" diameter. If you have a small table, 4x4 or under, maybe try 1/8" diameter. Just adjust it so the "dot" on the screen looks good to you. My most complex part is 5 tool changes so 10 is more than enough to not have to worry about it again.

Boy what a difference this is all those problems are behind me now and I can actually use the controller. I ran 2 jobs today and had now problems at all and it only took me a couple of minutes to get them to run. Before it was like 30 0or more to get it to do what I wanted.

Glad to hear it’s working great for you noe Luke. Enjoy

The only issue I have now is the speed control for the spindle doesn't work. I have A Yaskawa Varispeed V7-4X

luke wrote: ↑Mon Jul 31, 2023 3:24 pm The only issue I have now is the speed control for the spindle doesn't work. I have A Yaskawa Varispeed V7-4X

Was it previously connected to a ShopBot Modbus speed controller?
Can you show a diagram how you have it connected?

This may help. Note that the colors refer to my harness wire colors. YMMV