Hi Charles,
Any updates on this? I was able to get the message "horizontal toolpath done" when setting up milling operations but still can't see anything in simulation.
Thanks
Viewing post in Not seeing anything in Simulation mode
Hi Bill, I did manage to solve one issue with the horizontal operation - one which is responsible for producing the error you're seeing but it allows for a totally separate problem to occur. There won't be a quick fix for the horizontal operation that I foresee, and it's going to require a bit of work to get working more solidly. I would suggest experimenting with larger parameters when using complex images and try to work your way down to the step and cut depth sizes you're looking to use.
I *could* temporarily 'fix' the horizontal operation but it would involve stripping the existing sorting mechanism down (which is already sub-par as things stand) and runtimes would increase greatly as it would effectively order the cuts layer-by-layer, not moving on to the next cut depth increment until all cuts at the current level are complete. For some images with a lot of individual islands/pockets this means a lot of rapid movements between toolpaths. The ideal and optimal sort involves detecting when there are groups of cuts that form a pocket and linking them together so that the tool will effectively carve all the way to the bottom of a pocket when there are no other neighboring cuts to make. The existing sorting algorithm does this, somewhat, definitely not as much as I had hoped for but without it the toolpaths generated would result in many more rapids in most cases. Perhaps I could add in an option.
Personally, I'd rather not even touch it until after I've gone back to the drawing board and re-written the entire sorting algorithm from scratch. The individual cut moves themselves are solid, I just need a better way of linking them together, and it's tricky because they generate at depth increments across the whole image.
As for the simulation not generating I'm not exactly sure what the situation is, I don't have much to go on until you can give me more details. Is the horizontal operation generating a visible toolpath? If it is, have you tried lowing the mesh quality under the config menu in 'simulation settings'? What's the logfile have to say about the simulation generating?
Thanks!