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FRC CAM Studio Feedback Thread
J_White342
Member Posts: 4 EDU
Hey everyone, Im watching the stream right now and they said the best place to post feedback and ask for specific machines and such was this forum, so I figured I would start a thread here.
I personally would love the carbide motion post processor from carbide 3d, and all their shaepoko machines in CAM studio
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We will be lookiing for a post for the Sienci Labs Altmill being driven by the SLB-EXT board. This board supports grblHAL, but the generic grbl 3-axis will suffice for now. If we can get a grblHAL post, that would be even better.
Looking forward to using the CAM in build season. Our team uses a Masso controller for our onefinity. It'd be awesome to get a post processor to support it.
So, we have our CAM Studio voucher codes now. Does anyone know how to apply it to our Onshape setup?
100%, the grbl posts but it is finicky I think and has some issues with being consistent. We will run the same part using fusion 360 cam and it cuts fine under the carbide post. Would love to have one product!
Out team is also looking forward to using the CAM Studio. We were donated a Techno CNC HD-II Tabletop Router with a NK105G2 Controller and the out-of-the-box post processors never worked for us so we ended up heavily modifying the .CPS file and adding that to our machine library in Fusion. Would we be able to upload our own post processors to the Onshape CAM Studio? Or would the Techno CNC be supported by Onshape?
it'd be lovely to get a Tormach 24R post processor!
So far, CAM Studio has been promising for single-part workflows. However, when I import more than one part at a time, each part is placed relative to its own origin and cannot be moved. Currently, we use HSMWorks, and for multi-part operations we create an assembly and then generate the CAM from there. In the assembly, we can sketch the work area and position parts exactly where we want them.
I’m wondering if there is an easy way to do multi-part operations in CAM Studio without having all the parts in the same Part Studio, since our team often has subsystems in separate documents. Another issue is when we want to machine multiple copies of the same part—such as gussets—each imported instance ends up in the exact same location because they all reference their original origin.
Assemblies also help because not every part is modeled from the same reference plane, but for manufacturing the orientation must be correct. In assemblies, we can reorient the parts so they match the correct manufacturing planes before creating the CAM. I’m trying to figure out if CAM Studio has a similar workflow or workaround for this.
I agree with this 100%. Sometimes we are trying to make 16 copies of the same part out of one piece of sheet metal stock. It would be nice if parts in the CAM studio could have x/y offsets, rotations about z and maybe even be flipped over so they can be placed for the most efficient use of stock material. It would be great if they could be drug around and rotated almost like parts on an assembly tab, but manually entered offsets would also work.
I have a simple 2D part that I would normally use V-Carve and a ShopBot2418 to cut. After lots of trial and error in CAM Studio, I'm stuck trying to figure out how to 1) place the work at the machine center and 2) how to get the toolpath to cut an Outside cut instead of an Inside cut (which is a checkbox in V-Carve).
Solution: Choose Loop, not Contour, and then use the directional arrow to change innie or outie
I don't like how the Toolpath setup choices forget your last selection.
We have been using VCarvePro to import DXF vectors from single parts ('export face") or drawings of an assembly of mutiple parts into VCarve job templates with tools and toolpaths prepoulated, The routine is fast and easy to follow, but it involves lots of switching between OS in the cloud and Vcarve on a Windows Desktop, and corresponding directories to manage the job files . Also, there is no direct association between the steps, so revisions to parts are cumbersome and prone to errors. Good, but not great.
With CAM Studio, I prepare a "Layout" Parts studio and create a standard stock blank sized to fit the machine bed and oriented to the machine coordinates. I create a rectangular array of mate connectors on the bottom face of the stock to assist in placing parts.
I use the custom feature "Point Derive" to place parts into the stock. The critical requirement is that each part to be placed should have a mate connector owned by the part - most conveniently at the centroid of the part on its bottom face. I'm counting on remembering to create this MC at the time the part is created, but it can be easily added anytime afterwards. Point Derive allows me to derive these parts into my layout studio at one of the mate correctors in the array. This feature, unlike standard Derive, allows offsets and rotation around secodary and primary axes. With the parts arranged on the plane of the stock, any overlaps can be adjusted using the transform tool.
With the layout complete, the parts can easily be derived into a CAM Studio prepopulated with a job, machine, setup, and tool(s).. One 2D Profile toolpath handles the inside profiles, and another handles the outer profile. Updating the job requires selecting the approriate edges in the parts and ensuring their correct orientation as mentioned by @marten_hutchison .
Tabs for workholding? See this useful workaround that can easily be implemented in the Layout studio. Let's hope tab placement is a priority for a CAM Studio update.
It's too early to say whether this workflow will support production as well as its VCarve-based predecessor. But several advantages are immediately apparent: it operates entirely within Onshape, so no need for a Windows host for VCarve; parts can be derived in from any OS document with linking privileges; no external files, and associative links that allow updating a part revision in the standard OS way.
Good info, thanks for taking the time to share @edward_petrillo
There's a troubling potential flaw in using Point Derive: if there is more than one mate connector associated with the derived part, the one chosen by the feature is not predictable. You must suppress all MC's but the one used for attachment. What's needed is a cutom feature that will allow you to select the mate connector to be used. Implicit mate connectors would be even better- there would be no need to create the MC in advance.
I am looking forward to using Onshape's CAM studio in the future! While I'm going to enable it for our team this year, we will probably not spend much time with it until after our season is done, simply due to the proximity to kickoff and lack of time in the shop to test it.
However, in addition to kickoff proximity, there are a few features lacking that I think will add some friction to adopting for our team.
Our current set up:
It sounds like from some of the posts I've looked through (admittedly I haven't opened up CAM studio yet myself), it looks like some issues we'll run into are. I am largely basing my current hesitation to jump in with both feet off of the following post:
https://www.chiefdelphi.com/t/onshape-cam-studio-example/508160?u=ahartnet
I'm super excited to look into this more! While we will likely not contribute much to metrics this year, I think this is a huge step for FRC teams that use onshape, and we'll just have to figure out at what point we have enough workarounds that we feel comfortable with some new workflows and to update from mach3 to mach4.
Here's what it takes to create tabs. Create a grid of tab profiles corresponding to the stock for your job. Designate the grid as a collision body in the toolpath that cuts the outer profile to generate the tabs. Include the grid in your job template. It gets the job done, (credit to Onshape support)
I'm going to start with a little background, I have been writing computer software for more than 35 years. I do a little mechanical design and manufacturing to help a few different high school teams, primarily FRC teams but not just FRC. I don't have a machining background so some of the terminology used is strange to me and I may say some things that don't make sense to people that are more familiar with this stuff.
These comments are intended to be helpful feedback with the understanding that the CAM Studio is still in beta.
I have spent a lot of time over the past several days trying to become comfortable using CAM Studio so I can teach students how to use it. I have mostly been focusing on use with a CNC Router -- cutting parts out of sheet metal.
To me it seems like the software is close to functional, with some appreciated yet less than ideal solutions and workarounds for current shortcomings provided by people in this forum.
From a software interface perspective, it feels like the CAM Studio was written by a different organization than those that wrote the CAD side of OnShape. Some items that could change to make the software parts seem more integrated:
- Use the view cube from the part studios and assemblies instead of the collection of buttons for changing between different views
- Make the "feature tree" more closely match those from the parts and assemblies, same font and styling, the eye on the right for hiding and showing things (instead of a checkbox), right-click on the feature name to get a popup menu (instead of the ellipses), don't number the items in the feature tree, etc.
- When editing a feature, open in a dialog box that can be moved around, instead of taking over the feature tree, the dialog should look like other OnShape dialogs
- Allow for the selection of parts (components) and multiple parts from the feature tree
- Start with an origin, allow for mates (maybe only fasten mates) between the origin, the stock, and the parts to be made with all of the normal mate capabilities (flip, rotate, offset, etc). I think connecting the stock to an origin would server the same purpose as defining a position, directions and offsets in the setup, Would probably want a warning or error if a part extends beyond the bounds of the stock.
- Allow for inserting multiple parts at the same time -- just like inserting parts into an assembly
- The icon used for "Post child operations" to export the gcode is not obvious
- Allow individual tool paths to be exported, maybe also allow paths that use the same tool to be exported together -- I think this makes it easier to do manual tool changes
I know most of this isn't changing functionality, but I think consistency in the interface will make it easier for people to learn and use.
After spending much time working on multiple parts in sheet metal, I transitioned to try cutting some pockets out of box tube. The CAM Studio flow for a single part with multiple setups seemed fairly easy to follow. Also made me realize that defining a single origin for CAM may not make sense. Facing the ends of the box tube seems like it may need a little more work (or I may need to do more learning) but everything else seemed to flow well. So it seems like adding the capability to mate/fasten part(s) to the stock material in the "job" definition may be the addition that makes transitioning completely to this for CAM a time saver for FRC teams. The "layout" part studio described in previous posts helps a lot with multiple parts in a single setup but probably adds about as much work as using VCarve or similar applications for teams that are already using that type of application.