Rapid Clearance questions

Software
1

I read somewhere on the site that FireControl has a built in 1" rapid clearance. Is this true and where would i find it? Also i use sheetcam am I correct to assume that i should set the rapid clearance in there only? Any help on rapid clearance operation would be appreciated.
Thanks

2

You don’t need to set any rapid clearance in Sheetcam. The Langmuir post processor has a 1" retract after each cut loop. You can only change that by modifying the post processor or modifying the code after its processed.

3

Thank you, that is what i kinda thought. I am considering using 2" as the height, I do a ton of small artwork and tip ups are frequent. I am ok with the increased cut times. Now to figure out how to modify the post lol!

4

I just noticed that the post download from Langmuir has 3 different ones in it that I can choose from, does anyone know what the differences are? The description is the same for them all.

5

The current version of Sheetcam has a version labeled TD Mod Retract. That one is for Thermal Dynamics machines and adds 2 seconds to the first pierce delay and has a 2" retract height.

I noticed that you can edit the post directly in Sheetcam. I’m pretty sure I found the line for retract height and you would just change the 25.4 value on that line to 50.8 to make the height 2".

If you can’t figure out how to edit it, you could contact Les at Sheetcam and he may do it for you. He is the one that created the TDmod retract version.

6

Open the post file in wordpad and look for this section

function OnPenUp()
ihs = pierceHeight ~= 0 and cutHeight ~= 0 --enable IHS if both pierce and cut are non-zero
post.Text (“H0\n”) – thc OFF, Machine in control of Z
post.Text (“M5\n”)
if (endDelay > 0) then
post.Text (“G4 P”)
post.Number (endDelay,“0.###”)
post.Eol()
end
if (ihs) then
post.TextDirect (“G0 Z” … post.FormatNumber(2, “0.0##”) … “\n”) – Z to rapid height
end
post.CancelModalNumbers()
end

Edit this line:
post.TextDirect (“G0 Z” … post.FormatNumber(2, “0.0##”) … “\n”) – Z to rapid height

The 2 in the parenthesis is the retract height amount