CUTTING COPY OF DIGITIZED PART TIPS:
The following are some tips on using the data from your completed grid digitizing run. The
nomenclature, procedures and programs used are consistent with the Centroid(TM) operators manual.
Consult your operator's manual for equivalent.
When you are ready to cut a copy of the part you have digitized, set your part up using the same X, Y,
and Z coordinate you used to digitize the part. The digitizing program does not put in the M codes and
spindle speed setting. You must either turn the spindle on manually or edit the G-code file and insert
this information. Simply insert a line at the beginning of the program that contains M3 (spindle
clockwise) or M4 ( spindle counter clockwise) followed by an S with the speed you want to turn the
spindle at.
The following is an example: M3 S4000
This will turn the spindle on going clockwise at 4000 RPM. To turn the spindle off when the program
finishes put a M5 at the end of the program.
You can also use the text editor to turn coolant on and off by adding, M7 (MIST), or M8 (FLOOD) at
the beginning of the program, and M9 (COOLANT OFF) at the end. Remember you can have only
one-M code per line in the program.
To enlarge, shrink or mirror your part, you can use the G51 (turns on scaling) and G50 (turns off
scaling) commands, (refer to your user manual for the complete description and definition of these G
code commands). When enlarging or shrinking your part using the G51 command remember you must
scale the size of the cutter you are going to use to cut the part by the same factor that you use to scale
your part. For instance if you digitized a part with a 0.25” stylus and scale the part up by 2 then the
cutter needed to cut the part would be a 0.5” diameter cutter. Conversely if you scale the part by ½
then the cutter diameter needed would be 0.125”.
You can also import your digitized data into an online CAM program on your Centroid control or
export it to an offline CAM system. The “Dig to CAD” menu in the Digitizing screen is used to convert
the digitized data to a format that can be used by the CAM programs.
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