Great glad to hear you pulled it off.I have use lathe with several programing methods,cam,manual programming ,and semi-automatic which means one can run the lathe in manual and automatic by manually moving the x,z handles.The cam had capabilities to do subroutines.I had to contact the machine makers application engineer to learn the task.
As suggestion might want to contact Mac they may have a better game plan.This quite bit of code you must have large memory in your PC.My program in earlier post had around 36 lines of code but I didn't use the multiplier copying steps in the book.I draw a 12x12 square in 2d.
Made 3/4 circles,then fit array command,then second circle with the offset command and .188 larger and used path milling procedure and did two .125 depth cuts.And use a 3/8 tool bit.But you have to select each circle for the cutter path which takes little time.
What you see above took me around 1/2 hour or 45 minutes to do and would have been longer if I finish,Oh forgot to mention with using the tool path milling you do get direct plunge in the material at finish depth 1/4 inch.
It might be easier to do it in the cnc lathe or swiss machine than the mill,router,etc.but outsourcing is also an option also.Thanks for the follow up.
W.D.
« Last Edit: March 05, 2010, 09:34:10 AM by wd »
Logged
Even a mistake may turn out to be the one thing necessary to a worthwhile achievement Henry Ford
If I have ever made any valuable discoveries it has been owing more to patient attention than to any other talent Isaac Newton
I have not failed Ive just found 10,000 ways that won't work Thomas Edison