Y'all do know I'm one of those "Engineer" types, right? And that "what I do" is full-on electronic product design? As in 24 ideas-through-prototype in 2017, year and I'm on number 8 already this year. My overriding requirement is that my design tools be "frictionless". That is, creating design, working on them concurrently, picking up old designs for changes, all that needs to happen without me constantly having to build some new system to support "just that one", or try and figure out where some tool it used went off to*. So, all my projects of any significance are kept in a unified project area, highly organized and backed up.
So, let's get to it. The number of "support systems" I've assembled around the machine is a bit more than some might imagine. What's funny is that ALL of you do ALL of these things to some extent. You just might not normally think of those as support systems, or have not gone to the (bizarre, some might say unhealthy) lengths I have to make it a "frictionless" design environment. Either way, our goal is likely the same: to turn ideas into...whatever the heck we want to, and stop wasting time, material and bits having to figure things out a new every time. My mom used to say: "Write sh!t down; use that stuff later. Dumb@ss." Mom was mean
.
My CNC Shark (HD2+, Rockler Anniversary edition, circa 2015) is only one of many systems in my home. Thing is, the wife left in 2005, and my daughter hasn't lived at home for nearly a decade. The GFs were only after money anyway, so I've let that foolishness pass into the distance as well. So, I put those spaces to good use, and made my own personal product-development fun-house. Yes, I keep a bedroom. No, I don't have a couch. And yes, I have both hardware AND software development labs in my house
. (Now you see my earlier reluctance!)
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Addition for your fun, 9 March 2018: A little machine-bed porn....annotated even!
Some photos of the various physical systems
- A little montage for y'all
A diagram of most of the software systems I use to get stuff done:
- A Variety of tools for a Variety of product components.
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Okay...so you wanted to know aout my Support systems, eh? Hee hee....
NOTE: this is going to take a while, so I'm going to be editing this as I add information. I can already see a couple detail errors, and please do forgive the typos.
The system only lets three pix per post, so I'm not sure what I'll do about that. I'm not opposed to people "seeing". Someone seeing a dual-dial tramming gauge either knows what one is by name, or wouldn't know what it is when they saw it anyway, so it's not that big a deal. Oh wait...for some things I can just give links! Perfect. No limits there. If anyone wants more-detailed information about these systems, please do feel free to ask. I'll try and gather links here in these forums, as I've posted about some of these in months past.
In general, you can think of the following as supporting flexible product-development flow for physical products. That can include capabilities I have here (e.g., wood and aluminum CNC, filament-based 3D printing, and generalized metal and woodworking tools. I also try and locate a local machine-shop for when I have things my machines can't handle.
Without any further ado, this is how I divide the things that go into getting stuff through....
Project Management systems
-- Scripts and systems setup to manage and create projects: Go to, create new project, copy base files, etc.
-- Fully-Qualified Build Identifier (FQBI) part numbering and versioning system. That's why my stuff is named things like:
2018-008-001 Pill Bottle Tray v1.01.007.004, which is really:
<project year>-<project serial number>-<part number> Descriptive name v<product major version>.<product minor version>.<design version>.<CAM/toolpath version>
-- Microsoft OneNote as a mobile-friendly note-taking platform
-- Standardized project folder hiearchy across all various tools
-- Software Installation changes to enable archivable configuration data and installers.
Design, CAD/CAM Systems
This is somewhat in order of how often I use the system:
-- AutoDesk Fusion360 for 3D CAD
-- BobCAD/CAM for CNC toolpath creation
-- Vectric software for "art" style toolpaths (pretty much all but Aspire)
-- ACDSee Canvas for generalized drawing and image editing
-- EAGLE CAD schematic and PCB design software
-- Microsoft Visual Studio for PC application software
-- Microchip / Atmel Studio for embedded software
-- Notepad++ for generalized text-file editing
-- Slic3r, Cura for 3D printer processing
One thing to note is that when you're doing many projects over the years, you need a way to archive / store the configuration files and installers (remember to record your license keys!) so you can resurrect that system if you need to make a change in the future.
Parametric Planning Systems
This is about the numbers. Getting them right, verifying them, and recording them
-- CNCCookbook GWizard calculator for feeds-and-speeds and so much more
-- OneNote-based bit-stock tracking system, since I go through bits on a regular basis. They DO wear, after all
-- OneNote-based cut catalog wherein I track the cutting parameters by material, bit size, surface-finish quality, and so-on.
-- Design and toolpath verification using built-in and stand-alone tools, including the GWizard Editor and backplotter by CNCCookbook
-- For each project, it seems there's always a full day of time I have to reserve for detailed validation of literally every parameter in the CAM projects.
Toolpath Processing systems
Thing is, most people it seems (on this forum, anyway) use the output from Vectric or whatever, and don't hack it. Not me. I abuse that stuff on both ends (config and output). My toolpaths would call the cops on me if they could (and it was a crime).
The driving force behind this is that while I'm okay handing individual files to the CNC controller, I am NOT okay with having to hand it a million of them. And I intend to use the full complexity of my toolpath-generating tools, and my many bit types. Most CAD tools absolutely SUCK when it comes to providing good ways to make complex designs efficient to machine. So, I built a set of utilities myself. Similarly, IT is the freaking computer...why am I turning stuff on and off for it? That was the impetus behind PilotFish, a 20 Amp-per-channel, 10-channel (yes, 200A switch AC easily feasible) automated remote power controller that's commanded by pulses put out by the Shark's router-power output signal. And yes, it is STILL compatible with having a router on it. It's slick, since I control the whole thing from a standard "coolant type" pulldown menu in BobCAD
.
To accomplish all that, I just did what anyone would do....
a) First, I switched to BobCAD, which lets me output all the toolpaths into a single file, even when they use different tools.
b) then i hacked the HECK out of all the post-processors that all those tools have, so it could support....
c) an application that does what I call "splatter-gather" in that it splits out the individual toolpaths, and then recombines them according to a project-specific, multi-design "join" file.
d) an application that does what I call "shimming", allowing changes on individual axes to effectively shim the toolpath.
e) an end-to-end integrated system for automatically controlling the power to the ancillary systems from inside BobCAD.
f) Then, I built the PilotFish power-control system to handle the commands put out by d), so that I no longer have to turn on any of the ancillary systems...they software does it automagically
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g) wrote a set of scripts that can take the toolpath file, determine the most-recent version of the toolpath, then run it through the processing steps b-d above, resulting in nice, compact, "combi" runs, and the individual step files, with all the power-control commands built right in.
h) back-propagated the capability to the Vectric outputs for the toolpath processing.
And yes, if it isn't entirely clear, my post-processors are blasphemous hacks of the original...just the way I like them.
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Okay, stopping for a bit...this is gonna take a while
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Production Support Systems
setup sheets, production notes, material cost analysis, bit life tracking
Provider and provider systems
-- Lubrication / cut coolant mister
-- Chip extraction: blowing and vacuum
-- Spindle power, speed control/contactor, cooling
-- Under-spindle lighting
-- Shop air (mister, directed chip blower for deep bores)
Work holding systems
Kurt Vise, Stationary Vise, fixtures, jigs, clamps
Metrology systems
Center- and edge-finding systems, including the laser cross-hairs
tramming, sizing, pin gauges, etc.
head-mounted feeler gauge
Dual-dial tramming guage (not usable with the vises, due to low Z-axis height)
Books!
Material preparation and handling systems
Metal-cutting band saw, table saw, chop saw
Bead-blaster, wire-wheels
Buffers and convection oven
Drill Press
Cheers! Hope you enjoyed that long tour of one crazy dude's "stuff"
* The overriding philosophy here is: I'm the computer engineer, that thing is the computer. It will do what I say and make my life easier, or I will program it MORE! I do not relish being the automated tool changer, nor the "bar puller" for this mindless robot. So any tools that make that work more efficient, where I can reliably walk away and come back later, those are almost always worth the investment of time and effort. Said the geek. Uber geek
.