Some CNC work....

[Gary Campbell]

Gerry is correct. Vectric products do not have a variable output for rotary feedrates. That said, a rotary surface feedrate can easily be added to any controller that can accept a couple math operands. The syntax for the math line is totally dependent on what is accepted by the control software. This is evident if you look at the differences between the ShopBot Indexer and CAMaster Recoil postP's.

The formula is 360 / pi * [XY Feedrate] / Diameter or as a simple line using Vectric variables: "115 * [FC] / [WRAP_DIA]"

This is a much more appropriate feed application than some methods that actually will increase rotary feedrates as Z depth increases. Very useful in metal lathe turning, not so much for rotary wood machining.

[Doug Rasmussen]

Gerry is correct. Vectric products do not have a variable output for rotary feedrates. That said, a rotary surface feedrate can easily be added to any controller that can accept a couple math operands. The syntax for the math line is totally dependent on what is accepted by the control software. This is evident if you look at the differences between the ShopBot Indexer and CAMaster Recoil postP's.

The formula is 360 / pi * [XY Feedrate] / Diameter or as a simple line using Vectric variables: "115 * [FC] / [WRAP_DIA]"

This is a much more appropriate feed application than some methods that actually will increase rotary feedrates as Z depth increases. Very useful in metal lathe turning, not so much for rotary wood machining.

Gary, if you have a situation where a cut consists of a combination of linear and rotary motion and the linear is much longer than the rotary motion you'll be in serious trouble, metal or wood cutting. For my uses in pyrography the amount of burn (width of line) is directly related to the speed of the burner. Likewise, with tiny, fragile router bits the risk of breakage is substantial unless the feed is corrected to account for linear + rotary motion.

This business about Vectric outputting variables is news to me. Can it operate as a stand alone program producing fairly generic Gcode that would run on my machines without post processing? Typically in CAD/CAM software (which Vectric is..?) the software developer provides a wide range of post processors included with the software. As an example, Autodesk Fusion 360 includes more than a hundred post processors covering a wide range of CNC machine controllers. It appears with Vectric the machine makers may be providing the post processors, am I right?

I've attended a couple of the CNC enthusiasts meeting at local woodworking stores. More often than not in talking with group members I've had the feeling we weren't talking the same language, now I'm beginning to see why.

[Gary Campbell]

Doug...
First let me say that I love your hand coded projects. And let me add that little or nothing that I say relates to metal cutting / turning, as I have no experience in that arena.

When you say: "if you have a situation where a cut consists of a combination of linear and rotary motion and the linear is much longer than the rotary motion you'll be in serious trouble", I either misunderstand the statement or disagree wholeheartedly. For 4th axis rotary wood machining of 2, 2.5 and 3D toolpaths, setting a rotary feedrate that offers the same surface feed in the radial as axial is exactly what most users would wish for. This allows us, the user, to set feedrates that we would normally use for flat work and apply the same to rotation. A rotary axis works just like a moving table that moves material, rather than the cutting head.

All of the output from CAM software, as I understand it, is in the form of variables. A post processor is REQUIRED to ensure that the output is proper for the intended machine. So no, it would not work without one. There are numerous versions included, I stopped counting somewhere north of 400 and did not open a few folders. I believe Vectric works with OEM's to develop posts that are appropriate for their various models. The OEM's provide the fine tuning based on the features they wish to use and support.

I hope this helps

[Gerry Grzadzinski]

Vectric's software outputs g-code basically the same way that Fusion 360 does. You choose the appropriate post processor, and export the g-code.
The post processor defines the format of the g-code.
I just checked, and the latest install of Aspire has 432 post processors, plus a few additional folders with additional posts.
And yes, there's a generic g-code post included in there.

[Doug Rasmussen]

Gary & Gerry, thanks for the clarification on Vectric's post processors (strange that Vectric support didn't tell me this in the email exchanges we had).

Googling, I wasn't able to find a listing of their supplied post processors. Is there one for Centroid controls?

Thanks again.

[Jerome Stanek]

If you download the trial version you can see the posts that they have and you can learn the software.

[Gary Campbell]

There are 2 posts Centroid named. With arc support, one for inch and 1 metric

[Ted Reischl]

I use Mach 3 for controlling my machine with rotary. As Gerry stated, Vectric does not calc the feedrates. There is no need, the calcs are built into Mach 3. Sort of fun to watch the machine speed up as the diameter decreases.