Inquiries about robot path for 3D printing progress (Grasshopper)

[ithesuni90]

Ask for help. We have a KUKA Cybertech KR12-KR20 R1810 Robot and have a custom 3d printhead installed. It is difficult to control the path of the robot even though it is trying to proceed with stacked 3D printing using a robot.
1. We can't create the robot path in the form we want inside the grass hopper. Is there a way?
 If there is a way, I would like to know how we can apply variously in the form we want.
2. Is there an algorithm that slices solid forms to route them?
3. Is there a way to convert G-code from Grass Hopper to SRC code?

[Johannes @ Robots in Architecture]

Hello,
Thank you for getting in touch! Unfortunately your questions are very general so it's hard to properly address them in detail.

1) What kind of path do you want to achieve? If you simply want to slice the vase-geometry in your 3DM file, then the Contour component works well for that. I used your geometry in the contour_extrude project. For a five-axis approach, see for example the attached example PRC_Extrusion.
2) What do you mean by "route them"? For example Contour works on most geometries, not matter if they are a solid or not.
3) G-code is a super wide term. We do support importing G-code for 3D printing, there are specific components in the member section for that. But what do you mean by "G-code from Grasshopper"? If a component in GH is generating toolpaths it's usually better to take the toolpath data directly, than first writing it into a file and then re-importing it via KUKA|prc.

Best,
Johannes

[ithesuni90]

Thank you so much for your answer. It worked out well.
I have more questions to ask.

1. As we proceed with the printing of complex forms, there are more src codes, so there is a recognition error in the process of moving the code to the robot machine, is there a solution?

2. Is there a way to edit krls with a lot of code without errors?

3. I'm dragging and copying the code and applying it to the robot's R1 folder, is there a more convenient way?

[Johannes @ Robots in Architecture]

Hello,

Without knowing what kind of error you are encountering it is hard for me to provide solutions. From my understanding the issues are mostly robot-related and not specific to KUKA|prc.

1) I am assuming that you are moving very large files with over 100k positions and the robot's memory is insufficient? That is a robot issue and not really related to the software, though you can reduce LIN toolpaths in KUKA|prc via the component with that name, or use components like the "Curve to Polyline" that allow you to set the desired accuracy.

2) I am sorry, what do you mean by "edit"? Do you mean "run on the robot"? There are solutions like KUKA.CNC by KUKA and PointLoader by OrangeApps that allow you to run huge files.
It should not be any problem to edit KRL files in an average texteditor like VSCode, Notepad++ etc. if that is what you mean.

3) For an industrial process you could look into special KUKA software like the KUKA DirectoryLoader that automate the copying process. Setting it up needs some time and relatively thorough KUKA knowledge. You could also stream toolpaths via KUKA mxAutomation. But usually you copy files to the R1/Program folder in order to be able to run them.

Best,
Johannes

[ithesuni90]

Thank you for your reply. Is there a way to adjust the z-axis spacing in the grasshopper file you left in #1? I leave an inquiry with a picture.

[Johannes @ Robots in Architecture]

Sure, at the very start of the Contour component there is an input for setting the distance between the contours. Note that setting a very low value will freeze your PC for quite a bit as your geometry is rather large. So take care not to plug in a number slider set to 0.1 or something like that.

Best,
Johannes