i am new to maslow and doing my first cuts here in germany - very exciting
i have problems with teh tabs that should hold the object in place. like in the tutorial i did the following in makercam:
Insert > circle > 15 cm
select circle
CAM > profile operation
CAM > calculate all
CAM > add tabs to selected > spacing 15cm, width 5 cm, height 0.5 cm
CAM > export gcode
result is:
when i cut the circle no tabs are there.
is the a common error users can do / forget when inserting tabs?
is there a better way to work with tabs than with makercam?
I’ve followed your steps and there a 5mm 0.5mm! tabs in the g-code.
The online version of makercam has issues with metric. One issue is the up to 16 digits behind the decimal.
Checking the g-code with camotics, the tabs show, but allot of errors are shown as well.
You can make them higher, or try to turn truncation on in GC, to see if that helps.
Edit: In your screenshot the tabs are showing as green (bit goes up) and red (bit goes down) circles.
That they are not cut can have to do with:
the material thickness is not set correct
Z was not zeroed correct on the top of the material
the pitch setting in GC does not match the actual pitch of you router
a backlash on the pitch-screw
Edit2: I usually set the material up to 2mm more then it actually is, to ensure that I cut all the way through.
Then I add those 2 mm to the tabs. Try to see if the tabs show up if you make them higher.
I have good news. You have done everything correctly and the tabs are there
When you cut that file it will cut with tabs.
The tabs look a little different in Ground Control because Ground Control is showing just the gcode file which is made up of machine movements. It doesn’t know that it is making a “tab” just that it needs to move in a certain pattern. When the z-axis moves up it is shown with a small green circle and when it moves down it is shown with a larger red circle. You can see the beginning and ends of your tabs shown like so:
