arcs and milltronics control

[3R!< W3NG3R]

Does anyone with a milltronics centurion 6 control have periodic problems with filtered arcs ending up being about 500 inches in dia where the machine cuts the wrong way around the arc (it takes the long route instead of the short). I tried signed R for the radius, IJKs, and changing the min max arc sizes with no luck. The arcs are broken at quadrants too.

 

Any help would be great.

[BernieT]

Yes. It is a PITA!!! My experience is with a much older control but same problem.

 

It was most often a problem with filtered arcs in the XZ or YZ planes on a 3D surface toolpath. We finally quit filtering to eliminate the problem. On another (again old) control I had to eliminate arcs altogether from the NC code, even XY arcs would sometimes take off in the wrong direction. We always used IJKs and NOT broken at quadrants.

 

The most common source of huge arcs in code is when splines have been 'converted' to lines and arcs. Many times an 'almost straight' spline will convert to a 3500 inch rad. Answer is to analyze any converted straight splines to make sure they are not arcs.

 

Check your filter settings, there is a place to set a max arc size.

 

HTH

[Steve Biehl - Cimquest Inc]

I had a problem with a Centurion 7. It has an "Arc Estimation" function that is on by default.

 

You use a;

PB81=2

at the beginning of the program to turn it off, and;

PB81=0

at the end.

[3R!< W3NG3R]

Thanks, however, I don't feel better about the machine. What a PINA! I agree that XZ and YZ arcs suck on this control but the XY arcs shouldn't be a problem. Steve, I will try that, but I don't think that my control takes those codes.

 

What really gets me is that the IJK arcs did the same thing. It seems like the machine is cutting a CW arc instead of a CCW arc. I guess the only way to stop this with MC is to take filtering out. That sucks!

[Mark V.]

Eric when contouring on the roll cutter around corners selection in the contour parameters have "sharp" selected.We have problems with XY arcs if "all" is selected.

[cqualls]

I use program for a milltronics that had the same problems(I believe it was a centurion 6). I can't remember what setting it was but there was a setting in the parameters that was set wrong. Once I changed the setting I never had another problem with it.

Milltronics has a simulutar that can be installed on your desktop that will appear the same as the control on the machine, it runs in dos.

[Saultspics]

Eric,

I had this problem for years. I have not had the problem after I did the latest updaded for the Centurion 6 controler. Call Milltronics they helped me out.

[3R!< W3NG3R]

Thank Stephen, I will give them a call.

[Roger Peterson]

there is a setting for the the G18 arcs. It is backwards by default. You need to go into the settings to edit this (default password is proto3 - level 3). You can easily test this by drawing an arc in the front plane in Mastercam and doing a 3d contour on it. YOU NEED TO TEST THE G18 ARC!! If it cuts the same direction (up or down) as it does in mastercam you are good to go. You can also turn off the trig help function in the settings to eliminate the arc problems. In the settings under misc parameters set the special flags to 002 (it is 000 by default). Making these two simple changes is neccesary on these machines.