Can you use a Tormach CNC Spindle probe as a basic digitizing tool for creating a reference model of a surface? You bet. We gave it a shot and had pretty good results out of the gate, so seemed like a great thing to share.
Here’s a copy of the modified SMARTPROBE.NGC script we used in the video to capture the point cloud on the Tormach PCNC 1100.
( Rectangular Probing )
( )
( This program repeatedly probes in a regular XY grid and writes the )
( probed location to the file 'probe-results.txt' in the same directory )
( as the .ini file )
(Configuration section)
G20 (Inches)
F12 (probe speed)
#1=-1.5 (X start)
#2=.04 (X increment)
#3=76 (X count)
#4=-1.5
#5=.04
#6=76 (Y count)
#7=1.1 (Z safety)
#8=-.25 (Z probe)
(End configuration section)
(LOGOPEN,probe-results.txt)
#9=0 #10=0
G0Z#7
O1 while [#9 lt #6]
#10=0
G0 Y[#4+#5*#9]
O2 while [#10 lt #3]
O3 if [[#9/2] - fix[#9/2] eq 0]
#11=[#1+#2*#10]
O3 else
#11=[#1+#2*[#3-#10-1]]
O3 endif
(#11 is X target)
#5070=1
O4 while [#5070 NE 0]
G38.5 z#7 (Probe away, stop on loss of contact)
G38.3 x#11 (Probe toward, stop on contact)
O4 endwhile
G38.3Z#8 (Probe toward, stop on contact)
(LOG,#5061 #5062 #5063)
#10=[#10+1]
O2 endwhile
G0Z#7
#9=[#9+1]
O1 endwhile
(LOGCLOSE)
G0Z#7
G0X#1Y#4
M2