This is the manual of Studio 1.1.0, an earlier version. The manual of the latest version

Documentation 1.1.0 / User manual

Setting up a job

The Setup workspace gets the machine and the part ready, one step at a time: power, homing, the blank and how it is held, the tools, and the work zero. Every step shows in the twin first, so you see the setup before anything moves. The machines, power and homing have a chapter of their own: Machines and power.

The Setup workspace

Setup (Alt+1) has the steps on the left, the 3D view in the middle and the chosen step's panel on the right. The dock under the view holds the Tool table.

The steps

A step that is done has a green tick; the next step has a small arrow at its end. The panel shows the next step until you click another one; click the next step to have the panel follow again. The line under the steps says what to do now. The ? on a panel opens its part of this manual.

The 3D view while you set up

While you change the blank's fields, the blank you are setting up is drawn see-through on the table: green when it can be set up like that, red when it cannot. Place puts it there; Revert or Esc drops the change.

The blank

Shape, material and sizes

In the step Setup, on the card Workpiece and setup:

1. Choose the Shape: Block, Round bar (upright), Tube (upright), Hex bar (upright), Round bar (lying), or STL file (import the shape)….
2. Choose the Material, or type its name from another standard (C45, EN AW-6061, SUS304): the list shows the grade whose cutting data Studio takes, and the setup keeps the name you wrote.
3. Type the sizes the shape needs: Length L, Width W, Height H, Diameter D and so on.
4. Choose how it is held and where (below), then click Place. Result: the panel says what is on the table and its mass.

Sizes are in the display unit; in inches the fields also take fractions (see Inch fractions).

A blank from an STL file

Choose STL file (import the shape)… in the shape list and pick the file (in mm). Studio sets the shape down on its lowest point and centres it; its bounding box gives the sizes. Material under an overhang counts as solid. If the file cannot be read, the console says why.

Holding the blank

Choose the Fixture: Clamps · both ends, Clamps · both sides, Clamps · four sides, Vise, V-block (a bar lying down), Double-sided tape, Not fixed (just placed) or Ideally fixed (for scripts).

The blank and its fixture must stay on the table (300 × 220 mm) and clear of the tool setter at the back left. While a program runs, the twin compares the cutting force with what the fixture holds: it warns when the margin is small, and a blank that slips moves in the twin, so what is cut after it is off.

Vise and parallels

Above the jaws is how far the blank's top stands above the jaws: 5 mm unless you change it. Studio chooses the parallels that give at least that. The vise opens from 3.25 to 77 mm, and the jaws must grip at least 2 mm of the blank.

Clamps

Strap clamps on studs in the table's tapped holes (M6, on a 25 mm grid): both ends along the blank's length, both sides across it, four sides both. Each clamp needs a hole 7–35 mm outside the blank's edge; when there is none, the panel names the clamp that finds no hole. Use the V-block or the vise for a bar lying down.

Double-sided tape

The tape holds the blank by its area on the table. Use it for light cuts and flat parts, not for a bar lying down. Once it lets go, only friction holds the blank. Not fixed (just placed) holds by weight and friction alone; Ideally fixed (for scripts) never slips, for scripts and tests.

Room above the blank

The programs that the CAM writes use the room above the blank like this:

• A program starts, ends and changes tools at the top of the Z travel.
• Between operations, the tool moves across at the safe height: 5 mm over the blank's top, or 2 mm over a clamp that stands higher than the blank.
• Where the set-up leaves less room than that (a long tool, a high vise, a tall blank), Studio lowers the safe height to what there is, at least 0.3 mm below the top of the travel, and says so with the program. When that would be less than 0.5 mm over the blank, it does not write the program and says why.

The setup sheet's Z clearance table checks the touch probe and every tool for each setup. See Z clearance.

Placing the blank

Position X and Y place the blank's middle in the twin's table coordinates (the table's centre is X 100, Y 75). Angle ° turns it counter-clockwise, seen from above.

• Place: a new blank there. The blank before and what was cut in it are gone.
• Move here: the same blank moved, turned or held another way. What was cut stays.
• Remove: the blank off the table.
• Revert: the fields back to what is on the table.

Setting up waits while the spindle turns, the machine moves or a program runs.

Arranging in the 3D view

Click Arrange workpiece (Technician level and up), or use View > 3D view > Arrange workpiece. Then:

• drag the blank to move it, the orange handle to turn it, the blue handles to size it (with Shift in fine steps, with Ctrl in coarse ones);
• or use the keys: the arrow keys move it 1 mm (Shift 0.1 mm, Ctrl 10 mm), Q and E turn it 15° (Shift 1°), Enter sets it up, Esc puts it back.

Leaving the Setup workspace ends arranging.

Flipping the blank

Flip turns the blank over in its fixture, 180° about its length: top and bottom change places, and so do front and back. What was cut turns with it. The work offsets stay as they were, so set the work zero again (see Probing).

For a part machined from two sides, CAM plans the turning over between its setups (see Jobs with several setups).

Tools and the tool table

The dock's Tool table lists the machine's tools: the T number, the tool, and the specification the program reads. The tool in the spindle is marked In the spindle. The table comes with an example part, a CAM job or an AI client; you cannot change it in the window.

With a tool table, the program changes tools by itself (M6): the tool goes in, the machine measures it on the tool setter and carries on. Without one, an M6 waits for you to put the tool in (Change tool in the step Tool), then Cycle start.

Changing the tool in the spindle

1. Go to the step Tool.
2. Choose the tool in the list Tool, for example Flat end mill Ø6, 2 flutes (stick-out 15.5).
3. Click Change tool.

The spindle must stand and the machine be idle. If the new tool is longer or shorter, measure it (Set tool offset) or set the work Z zero again. The list has the standard tools, metric first (inch first when Studio shows inches). How a tool is described, for example flat 6 n2 L15.5: Tools and the tool table.

Measuring tools with the tool setter

The tool setter stands at the back left of the table. The machine must be homed and idle, and the spindle stopped.

1. With the tool you set the work Z zero with in the spindle, click Measure reference tool.
2. After each tool change, click Set tool offset. Result: Studio measures the new tool and sets its length offset (G43.1) from the difference.

The same keys are in Machine > Tool setter and probe. The reference is kept until Studio closes: measure it again after a restart.

The part to compare with

With the part's design, the twin shows where the cut part differs from it (Engineer level and up).

1. Set the work zero first: the part is placed at the program's zero when you load it.
2. In the step Setup, under Part comparison, click Part STL (compare)… and choose the part's STL file (in mm, its origin at the program's zero). Result: the workpiece is coloured by its deviation from the part (View > Colouring > Workpiece: deviation from the part): within ±20 µm counts as good, the other colours show stock left and gouges.

Stop comparing removes the part. The example parts load their own.

Saving and opening setups

• Save setup… writes the card's setup (the shape, sizes, material, fixture and place) to a JSON file.
• Open setup… reads one back into the card; click Place to set it up. It also opens an STL file as the blank's shape.
• Export workpiece… saves the workpiece as it is cut, as STL (in program, blank or machine coordinates) or as a 16-bit height map (PNG). The same is in the File menu: File > Export workpiece…, from any workspace.

Each machine keeps its setup and its cut workpiece in its world. Studio saves it each time the machine has stood still for two seconds after a change, and when the window closes, so after a crash or a power cut the machine comes back as it last stood.

Jobs with several setups

A part that is machined from two sides, or held in two ways, is one job with several setups. In the CAM workspace, Setup… adds a setup to the job. The job tree then has a level for each setup, with its operations and its program under it, and a Turning over step between two setups. A job with one setup has no such level.

• Each setup has its own operations and its own program. The programs are named after the job and the setup's number, for example plate-1.nc and plate-2.nc.
• A setup starts from the part as the setups before it left it. In the twin, Studio runs setup 1, turns the part over as the Turning over step says, and writes the next setup's program for that part. In the 3D view, what was cut before and is now underneath is drawn dashed.
• The tree calls a setup front or back from how many times the part has been turned over.
• Under an operation's panel, This setup shows the setup's fixture, its zero, how the part was turned and the program.
• Check results has a row for each setup and one for the turning over. Total adds up the time at the machine and gives the worst chatter margin and the largest gouge. It also compares the finished part, after the last setup, with the design part.

A job has at most 8 setups. A nested job cannot have setups yet. Several setups are in the Maker edition and up (see Editions).

The setup sheet has a section for each setup, with what to do between them. See Setup sheets.

Turning the part over between setups

Select Turning over in the job tree. Its panel says how the part comes to the next setup. The settings belong to the setup after the step.

U runs along the machine's X axis and V along its Y axis, through the part as it lies in the setup before.

What the operator does lists the steps at the machine: let the program of the setup before finish (spindle stopped, coolant off), unclamp, turn the part over, clamp it, set the work zero again, and load the next program. In the twin says what the twin does with the part.

Carrying the work zero over

When the part is turned over or held in another fixture, its corners are no longer where they were: the work zero (G54) has to be found again. The job tree says so next to the setup, and the setup's program starts from the zero you chose:

• Front left top corner: the front left corner of the part's top, as the part now lies. This is the zero after a turn or a change of fixture unless you choose another.
• Centre of the top: the middle of the part's top, for example for a round part.

Find the zero with the touch probe (see Probing). The setup sheet gives the probe steps for each setup.

When the part is neither turned nor held another way, the zero of the setup before is kept and not found again. A second setup that only uses other tools works like this; its section on the setup sheet says that the work zero is not touched again.