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Using Gcode that someone sent me

Posted: Fri Jul 13, 2018 7:25 pm
by hraymond
I have the HD4 running VCarve desktop. How can I load a text file (Gcode) into Vcare program so I can change a Toolpaths?

Yep I am new.

Thanks in advance

Re: Using Gcode that someone sent me

Posted: Fri Jul 13, 2018 8:37 pm
by Rando
hraymond wrote:I have the HD4 running VCarve desktop. How can I load a text file (Gcode) into Vcare program so I can change a Toolpaths?

Yep I am new.

Thanks in advance
You cannot. GCode can be edited as text in something like notepad on Windows. Also, there are back-plotting code editors such as the
G-Wizard Editor (cnccookbook.com). But, none of the Vectric tools will read a GCODE file. GCode is what comes OUT of the Vectric
software after the toolpaths have been processed through the post-processor file for the particular CNC machine.

If you want to change it in Vectric, you'll need to have them send a .crv file or similar to use Vectric-to-Vectric.

If you want to import a 3D model into Vectric, then an STL model seems about the most transferrable. See if your sender can output
one of those formats. To find the complete list, open Vectric VCarve with a new document, set the stock to whatever, then use
Model --> Import Component / 3D Model. The drop-down list in the lower-right corner of the file-open window shows the list of
files it will accept. If you can get the part in one of those formats, you should be able to import it and then create new toolpaths
of your own design. Sadly, the ones from the GCode file will NOT come across inside the model brought in using the Model-->Import
command.

(Also, I don't know how much of the above shows up in VCarve Desktop; I have 8Pro, so getting dated pretty quickly; hopefully it's
close enough it's clear when you get there)

Bottom line is, if you need to do major editing, the original source is your best bet. If you just need to make a small tweak,
then by all means give it a try with a GCode editor (or yes, even notepad, I use it all the time). If you need to shift the entire
toolpath by some amount, say like up half-an-inch and over 0.27 inches, I use a program I wrote, GCodeShim, that lets me do simple
operations on individual axes in the GCode file. There are also some open-source GCode-processing utilities, though the names of
any escape my memory at the moment.

Hope that helps, and welcome, newbie ;)

Regards,

Thom

Re: Using Gcode that someone sent me

Posted: Fri Jul 13, 2018 9:03 pm
by hraymond
Thanks for a very detailed answer. I have been very impressed with the functions of VCarve and was hoping.

Re: Using Gcode that someone sent me

Posted: Sat Jul 14, 2018 5:33 am
by Rando
HRaymond:

Yeah, if you do software systems development, you'll recognize that ability as "round-tripping" the data. That is, what comes out can be fed back in as input.

I've yet to see any toolpath-editing tools that can do that. But, that's really because GCode contains so much less information than do the toolpath
specifications inside the CAD/CAM tools. And because that information is filtered through whatever amount of features the target machine has,
it's pretty much guaranteed there will be some lost information along the way. So, nobody tries. There are certainly some interchange formats,
but I've yet to see any cross-compatible ones that carry the toolpath generation information. Although, some of the tool vendors are using an OEM
package of toolpath generators (from MASTERCAM, if I remember correctly), so who knows...maybe there will some day be a compatible interchange
format among some of them.

In the meantime, we get left with text editors, back-plotters and batch-processing utilities :-).

Cheers!

Thom