CNC Shark Forum

Hi. I am working on an irregularly-shaped, nearly circular piece of wood roughly 21" is diameter. I would like to use the Virtual Zero feature, but the 4 of the 5 collection points hover over a corner of the workpiece that does not exist. Can I move the collection points?

Here is some additional info:

* I set X0 and Y0 to the center of the circular workpiece.
* I initiate the Virtual Zero setup.
* The router moves to 6:00 on the edge of the circular workpiece, which I assume is collection point 1.
* The router drops down to the touch plate to record the 1st collection point.
* The router moves left-to-right across the X-axis. It reaches the end of travel but continues to try to moves further right. Since it cannot physically travel further, it stops. But the coordinates for the X-axis continue to change until the controller stops the motor.
* I cancel the operation. The router moves to Y0 and roughly 10" to the left of the original X0.

Needless to say, I am thoroughly confused.

Look and see what the size of your blank is in your tap file that is what v2.05 uses for the reference points. It can not be larger than the travel of your axis.

Here are the first 16 lines of the TAP file:
**********
( Pocket Logo [Clear] - endmill 1-4 )
( File created: Sunday, February 08, 2015 - 03:38 PM)
( for CNC Shark from Vectric )
( Material Size)
( X= 20.625, Y= 20.625, Z= 0.750)
( Z Origin for Material = Material Surface)
( XY Origin for Material = Center)
( XY Origin Position = X:0.000, Y:0.000)
( Home Position)
( X = X0.0000 Y = Y0.0000 Z = Z1.2500)
( Safe Z = 0.200)
()
(Toolpaths used in this file:)
(Pocket Logo [Clear])
(Tool used in this file: )
(End Mill {0.25 inch})
***********

I use the Shark Pro Plus HD; the travel of the X-axis is roughly 25". I clamp the piece to the table so 9:00 is at the leftmost end of X-axis travel and 6:00 is at the closest end of the Y-axis travel. The piece is 20.625" in diameter. If I center the router to the circular piece and set X0 and Y0, the router should not have to travel on the X-axis more than 10.3125" in either direction.

The "new" users manual has not kept pace with the new v2.05 GUI. It shows Preferences under the File menu. In my GUI, Preferences is a button in the right panel. Under Preferences, on the Virtual tab, there is a setting for Collection Points. I selected Image Cutting Area, hoping that the Collection Points would map to a routable surface within my circle. But the collection points still map to a rectangular piece, which makes them fall outside my work piece.

Please - help is needed!!

The collection points will always be a rectangle not a circle. You may be using a circle but the software will measure in a rectangle based in the material size in the tap file.

I don't see how that can benefit anyone working on an irregular shape. I thought I saw a video where someone was carving a section from a tree branch or tree trunk.

So, even if I must define a rectangle within my circle, what is causing the second collection point to move beyond the furthest travel of my X-axis?

Do you know where I can find a video of someone creating the drawing, creating a TAP file, and then running the SCP2 with Virtual Zero? I would really like to see this process end-to-end.

Your going to need to lie to the app that your shape is about14 3/4 " square. That will fit within your 20" dia. Your establishing a plane surface that the app can apply Z corrective values. I would think that once that was done it would continue to apply to areas out side it's original scan area. Then I think we might be able to go back in and change the stock description to the real one-leaving out any new data entry to the Z. I think this might work-have had no chance to try it. But since it can do rectangles and squares----why not?
Good luck.
Would be nice if the fella that wrote the program could chime in about this. Hopefully he reads these posts

I thank you both for your input. And I agree - it would be lovely if the programmer (at the least, their Subject Matter Expert) would tell us what he knows. I am still hopeful that I am just using it incorrectly, and that the setting for Collection Points -> Image Cutting Area means that the collection points will fall within the boundaries of the job and not of the material.

I've been using Virtual Zero for a couple of months now. I have found that it will pick the range of the rectangle that it uses as collection points based on the size of the job.

For instance, I was carving a cribbage board, and part of the board is just a few holes (for centering using a two sided cut) down the middle of the board. Virtual zero took two readings at each end of the center of the board, since the job was only happening on a single line it did not register outside of this.

When I loaded the next .tap file to actually drill the holes for the board, the software re-ran virtual zero and did all four corners up to the edges of where the holes would be drilled.

So virtual zero is someone dynamic in defining the locations that it uses to pick up the z-height, but it will always do the four corners and the middle. I've not seen any way to change the shape it uses, or the location of the four corners of the job.

I know that this does not exactly answer your question, but hopefully it will help.

Gordon

Thank you.

Any suggestions on how I can lie to Virtual Zero about the size of the piece?

I have a workable solution.

I upgraded to v2.1, which then threw me another curve. Instead of the first collection point moving to 6:00, it moved to X at -9.938” and Y at -9.938” – roughly the lower left corner of rectangular work piece. I cancelled, set Preferences -> Virtual to Edge of Material with a 3.75” border. It then collected points at roughly 8:00, 4:00, 2:00, 10:00, and center. I checked the Z at each point and the variance is enough to justify the use of Virtual Zero.

I thank everyone for their contributions. I'm sure we'll chat again...