HOME

Official Page Launch February 2nd 2018!!!

CONTACT
YOUR ALL INCLUSIVE PLASMA CUTTING RESOURCE

© 2018-2019 Desert Fabworks LLC - CNC Plasma Info, All Rights Reserved- Trademarks shown on this site belong to their respective owners

SITE MAP

LINKS

Desert Fabworks LLC

CONTACT
HOME THE BASICS PLASMA CUTTERS PLASMA TABLES SOFTWARE WATER TREATMENT AIR SUPPLY TUTORIALS VIDEOS TIPS & TRICKS PROJECTS DXF FILES FINISHING RESOURCES

MACHINE CONTROL SOFTWARE

Machine Control software builds on the CAD program and CAM programs and takes the G-Code generated by the CAM program and makes the magic happen.   The Machine Control Software uses the G-Code generated in the CAM program to tell your motors when to move and how much,  how fast to move and tells the torch when to fire and for how long and at what amperage.  There are many more things happening here but that is a basic rundown of what the Machine Control program does.    One of the most popular Machine Control software programs in the world is Mach3 its has been around for many years and controls all kinds of machines not just plasma.  For more info on G-Code Click HERE.   Below is an example of what G-Code looks like.








What do we recommend / Use

For our Pro Series plasma table from Westcott Plasma we are using Design2Cut for our machine control program.  While this program is proprietary to Westcott Plasma it can be adapted and used with other brands of machines and can be retrofitted to machines using other software options.  What is unique with Design2Cut is that it is an all in one solution for your software. Meaning that it can take the place of three programs and allow you to build a CAD part,  Complete CAM processing and send it to the Machine for cutting all in one program.  This greatly simplifies the task of making something.      

In our last machine we would use our CAD program ie, Corel or Drawplus to create the part or artwork we wanted to make. We then saved the file as a .dxf file format.   Then we opened a program called Sheetcam and imported our drawing.  We processed the part in the CAM software then ran a post processor to turn it into G-Code.  Then we opened a program called Mach3 and imported the G-Code file from Sheetcam.   Then we ran the cut on the machine.  You can see this process was time consuming and if you ran into a problem with a cut you had 3 places you need to check to find the problem and correct it.   

With Design2Cut all of this happens in one place and one program.   You can still use other CAD design programs and import the drawings into Design2Cut.    Some people may be used to or comfortable with other design software so your not limited in that regard with Design2Cut.  

There are some screen shots below from Design2Cut and we will be doing tutorial videos in the Tutorial Section  and we will also have some Tips & Tricks.


This G-Code to the left can be deciphered pretty easily once you know some basic info and terms about G-Code.  

This is an example of the machine control screen in Mach3

Related Links:

    Design Software CAD / ART    CAM Software     Machine Control    Design2Cut