Assign cutting tool to Liner Cutter

[SusanMcCurdy]

We have had the Multicam technician here today trying to fix our liner cutter.  He is asking how to change the assignment of the Liner Cutter Tool to '61'.  He said it is probably currently set to '31'.  I have looked everywhere that I can think of withing the CAMduct software but cannot find a place where I could do this.  Honestly, I don't really understand anything about the Multicam side of things so I am quite lost, and don't even know if I have phrased my question correctly.  Help, anyone??

[LanceTSM · Accepted solution]

The required tool number is set in Installed Machines, Tool Setup - "Post Number"

See screen shot below

[SusanMcCurdy]

The liner cutter is now up and running, but cannot cut a diagonal line.  The knife head will not rotate so for anything other than a straight line along the x or y axis, the knife rips sideways through the liner material.  Does anyone know where the setting is to allow the knife head to rotate?  Thanks.

[LanceTSM]

Our liner cutting table has the "Tangential Control" built into the machine controller software, so CAMduct doesn't need to output any control codes for it.

Our controller software setup has a tick box for "Tangential mode" and when enabled it controls the asigned axis to keep the knife blade tangential to the direction of cut. It also has a setting to control how far the knife is allowed to rotate within the material before it needs to lift out and rotate on tighter corners.

I would suggest you talk to your machine supplier and find out if "tangential mode" is in their controller or if the axis control codes needs to be in the nc code.

If it needs to be in the nc code then the CAMduct post processor you are using needs to support tangential mode.

[LanceTSM]

Did you manage to get any further with this?

[SusanMcCurdy]

Our liner cutter is now up and running.  It took some more help from Autodesk via a remote log in, and then Multicam had to come in and adjust some settings to which only they have access and that did the trick.  

[LanceTSM]

Good to hear it is up and running!
How does it perform?
What cut speeds did you end up using and what is the maximum thickness it will cut?
We built our own, from a standard router table, by adding a custom built tangential oscillating knife, and are consudering a second machine for a branch office.
Trying to decide if we build another or buy off the shelf.
The Multicam (or MatCam as it is branded in Australia) is on our radar and it would be useful to get a users perspective on it's performance.