I have gcode! Thanks to the tutorial Cbolt360 sent me, I was able to save a png from paint, inkscape, makercam, ground control! I’m excited to have a worthwhile project to show off thanks to everyone’s help. Thank you all! 
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Excellent! Good job.
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How do you use the goto function in ground control? My PC “ran into a problem” and I know I was not far past 50% of my cut. I found that line 8200 was 49.9% do I startb there? And how. I already tried goto , entering line number, and pushing play. Do I have to zero the z-axis again. I hope not for accuracy reasons. Uh oh?
Be sure to make use of the search button here as there is a ton of hidden info within the forums. I think you may find your answer here. Good luck.
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Thanks again for your direction. I don’t understand those instructions as anything that had not tried. Does that look like what should have worked for me (to you)? I typed the line number in and pushed play. Is this what is meant by execute or am I missing something because I hear noise but nothing moves.
Yes it should be goto > enter line number > play. Make sure to read those posts in that thread like the one about it may be a speed issue and how to fix or how about the one that said how he got around the setting the speed problem.
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This is kind of hard to explain but i’ll do my best.
gcode is linear… executed from top to bottom; it makes no inferences at any point. Let’s look at an example:
1> (Generated by PartKam Version 0.05)
2>
3> G20 G90 G40
4>
5> (Path B)
6> G0 Z0.125
7> T0 M6
8> G17
9> M3
10> G0 X0.0418 Y0.0136
11> G1 Z-0.2 F30
12> G1 X0.0418 Y0.2636 F20
13> G2 X0.0579 Y0.4344 I0.9114 J0
14> G2 X0.1033 Y0.5861 I0.7629 J-0.1455
15> G2 X0.1785 Y0.7254 I0.7176 J-0.2972
16> G2 X0.2878 Y0.8576 I0.7538 J-0.5123
17> G2 X0.4199 Y0.9669 I0.6444 J-0.6444
18> G2 X0.5593 Y1.0421 I0.4366 J-0.6424
19> G2 X0.711 Y1.0875 I0.2972 J-0.7176
20> G2 X0.8818 Y1.1036 I0.1708 J-0.8952
21> G2 X1.0525 Y1.0875 I0 J-0.9114
22> G2 X1.2042 Y1.0421 I-0.1455 J-0.7629
Line 3: G20 - set units to inches, G90 absolute zero coordinates
Line 6 at the beginning of the code tells the machine to G0 Z0.125 (that is move the z-axis to 0.125 inches above the set zero of the z axis; aka 1/8th of an inch above the surface in most cases). At this point when line 6 is executed the bit will stay 1/8th inch above the surface until it is told otherwise.
In line 10: The machine is told move to the origin (in this case) of the cut (noted by the X/Y coordinates)
Line 11: Tells the machine to lower the z axis to -0.2 inches below the zero (or surface) an F30 means make this move at 30 inches per minute. When line 11 finishes, assuming the Z zero point is the surface, the bit will have bored a hole 0.2 inches into the surface and stopped.
Line 12: Starts the cut at a feed rate of F20 (20 inches per minute) NOTE: F20 is not referenced again in later lines. There for if you say GoTo after a restart of GroundControl and go to line 13 or later; the machine does not know the feed rate to move at. To over come this put F20 (or something) at the end of the line you are “going to”. You basically need to tell the machine what it would have already learnt up to that point.
A bit more of a step by step:
Now… lets say it gets to line 16 and something happens; worse case; you stop the cut; close ground control, unplug the USB and power to the Maslow shield. Reboot your machine reopen ground control; clear your gcode, reopen your .nc file. How do you start at Line 16 again? As long as didn’t redefine Home; the Maslow still knows where Home was when you last started; the Z zero is also remember (assuming you didn’t move the bit in the router).
You can now: use the z-axis controls to move the bit above the surface (don’t redefine zero); click Home, and the machine should traverse to where it started originally. Here is where it gets tricky; you would need reload the .nc file with the following additions prior to line 16 prior to GoTo line 16 (remember we have to tell it; what it should already know).
15> G2 X0.1785 Y0.7254 I0.7176 J-0.2972
15b> G1 Z-0.2 F30 -- need to add this to tell the machine to lower the z axis
16> G2 X0.2878 Y0.8576 I0.7538 J-0.5123 F20 -- add F20 to tell it the feed rate.
17> G2 X0.4199 Y0.9669 I0.6444 J-0.6444
18> G2 X0.5593 Y1.0421 I0.4366 J-0.6424
19> G2 X0.711 Y1.0875 I0.2972 J-0.7176
20> G2 X0.8818 Y1.1036 I0.1708 J-0.8952
21> G2 X1.0525 Y1.0875 I0 J-0.9114
22> G2 X1.2042 Y1.0421 I-0.1455 J-0.7629
Hope this helps.
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I hope so too,thanks! I did “redefine zero” on the z-axis but It was defined at the same plain. One of the first things I do is set zero because of how many times it doesn’t seem to remember on it’s own. I’ tell it to go to zero,for example, and it will be above or below 0 but I digress.
I also don’t begin to know where or how to alter gcode. As you can probably imagine, I have thus far in my life, never known what gcode was until this venture even though @bar says it is from the 1950’s. I don’t know what I would do without learning some of what you guys already know. If I knew where to go I would try adding a speed like you explain in line 12.
I have tried many things others said were a fix in the forums but I am getting a “Sled not keeping up” error notification. right when I think it’s gonna do something.
To modify the gcode you open the .nc file in a text editor like notepad.
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Ok that makes enough sense that I feel silly. Thank you!
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