New user here. After assembly and calibration Iwas finally able to download and cut the Maslow emblem. That is the last thing I have been able to download. Ground control does not seem to see all the files in downloads or documents. Tried to download the scardy cat cutout and it will not load in ground control. I am sure as a newbie I am missing something. I have created another file from Inkscape to gcode and it is not recognized. Thank you. Mike
you have to convert the svg files to gcode (.gcode or .nc) that groundcontrol can read using a software CAM program like carbide create, easel, estlcam, kirimoto, jscut, cambam or probably several others. The gcode is usually customized for your system based on the material you are cutting and the bit you are using. Once you have the cutout in gcode, then you can open and cut. In the wiki section, there are a few tutorials on how to do it.
Yes. One file from Inkscape had been converted to gcode and the other file was downloaded from the Maslow Garden site. The maslow is recognized when I go to the actions section but will not load into Ground Control.
Use your favorite search engine for “cnc routing workflow tutorials”. As with all searches you’ll need to weed out the buyme and other cruft but the truth is out there. It can all be done with free software, no need to drop a couple grand on aspire or the price of a.small bizjet on some 500 seat industrial package. Even a bit of casual perusal will give you a good foundation to learn more
What operating system are you using? Is it possible that the user running Ground Control and the user doing the downloads are different?
marie.o
Windows 10 64bit. I think that I have found a path to my ;earning as a result of forum encouragment. I have had better results with Carbide Create as a result of a series of tutorials. Thanks to all for the prompt feedback. Mike
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Maybe you are having the same problem I have:
My two go-to programs for writing G-code are Fusion 360 and Scorchwork’s F-Engrave.
Every once in a while, Fusion360 puts out something that has very oddly ordered cuts. So my path to fix that has been to open my G-code in NCviewer (www.ncviewer.com), edit the code until i am content with what order it’s going to cut things, and redownload the gcode.
For whatever reason, GroundControl cannot open anything that I download for NCviewer.
It spits out the error that i can’t understand and GC freezes. The error seems to be related to unicode or ascii or something. I get the impression that GC cannot read the file because it’s in the wrong file format or something.
strangely, if I do my editing in ncviewer.com, and literally copy the code off the screen (ctrl-c) and paste (ctrl-v)it into a text editor like MS notepad, GC can use that.
I can open the NCViewer.com-created code in MSnotepad, but that doesn’t seem to help GroundControl.
If you are opening Gcode and it isn’t doing what you thought, go look in the terminal screen in the background, you might have some clues to the problem.
-M
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Thank you. I will keep this in mind.