{"id":323,"date":"2014-02-01T21:39:10","date_gmt":"2014-02-02T03:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scorchworks.com\/Blog\/?p=323"},"modified":"2024-05-01T20:07:36","modified_gmt":"2024-05-02T01:07:36","slug":"using-f-engrave-with-grbl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scorchworks.com\/Blog\/using-f-engrave-with-grbl\/","title":{"rendered":"Using F-Engrave with GRBL (ShapeOko)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"F-Engrave\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I have had some feedback from ShapeOko users indicating that there are some issues using the default F-Engrave<\/a> output with GRBL.\u00a0 I thought I would take some time and describe the problems that people are having and discuss the F-Engrave settings needed to produce g-code that GRBL can run.<\/p>\n

First, F-Engrave defines variables for the feed rate and engraving cut depth that are not compatible with GBRL<\/a>.\u00a0 This problem can be solved by checking the “Disable Variables” check box in the F-Engrave Settings window.\u00a0 This will prevent F-Engrave from writing the incompatible variables to the g-code output file.<\/p>\n

Second, F-Engrave uses incremental distance mode for arcs. \u00a0 In order to ensure that g-code interpreters read the data correctly the code G91.1<\/a> is set in the g-code output (setting the arc distance mode to Incremental).\u00a0 Unfortunately GRBL<\/a> does not support reading the G91.1 code. To eliminate the incompatible G91.1<\/a> code from the F-Engrave output F-Engrave users need to un-check the “Enable Arc Fitting” option in the F-Engrave Settings window.\u00a0 (Alternatively the G91.1<\/a> code can be manually removed from the g-code file.)<\/p>\n

Update: Apparently GRBL misreading the G91.1 code also results in the next g-code line, which set the units (in or mm), being skipped\/misread.\u00a0 I also see there is some discussion about fixing the G91.1 g-code problem on the ShapeOko forum<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I recently updated F-Engrave to suppress writing the G91.1 code when arc fitting is disabled so be sure to use F-Engrave version 1.34 <\/a>or higher to make sure the G91.1 is not written by F-Engrave.<\/p>\n

If you get this error:<\/p>\n

“Error while starting file stream: Command #3 too long: (55 > 50) ‘(Settings used in f-engrave when this file was created)’ ”
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"GRBL<\/a><\/p>\n

This error is generated because the length of some of the lines in the comments section of the g-code file are too long for GRBL.\u00a0 The comments can be suppressed in the F-Engrave “General Settings”.\u00a0 The F-Engrave comments allow users to recover the settings that were used to generate any given g-code output.\u00a0 Suppressing the comments disables this feature of F-Engrave.\u00a0 Disabling the comments is a new feature in F-Engrave version 1.49<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In summary, to generate g-code compatible with GRBL:<\/strong><\/p>\n