To get focus height

[mpipes]

@chris1

Doesn’t it measure the height before it starts printing? I thought that’s what that scanning step was where it goes over and boops it with a red dot. I understand continuous autofocus isn’t ready yet, but single point focus is a thing, no?

So why can’t it just measure the height, crumb tray or not (as long as it’s within min/max range)? Is this something that’s deliberately disabled for non-Proofgrade materials?

The material thickness we enter into the GFUI isnt for laser focus, it’s for the lid camera image.

I’m not sure what the laser focus is actually doing at this point because if you put in a scrap or material with parts cut out already, the laser dot doesnt even hit it.

For the GFUI to get the material thickness from the focus laser, I think it would require manual placement of the head by the user to ensure the focus laser actually hits a target instead of the crumb tray or floor of the unit.

[Jules]

The laser focus used to take a reading right before starting the cut in the center of the material, and we ran into some issues with cutouts in that area. Now it takes a shot near the actual cut location, over the material, right before starting. (Something we ran into with the PRUs.)

[mad_macs]

@mpipes

I think it would require manual placement of the head by the user to ensure the focus laser actually hits a target instead of the crumb tray or floor of the unit.

I’d gladly click a spot on the preview to accomplish this. Later, that same click could be used to bring up a head camera image of that area.

[mpipes]

Guess I need to keep a camera handy then, because mine fires into the crumb tray quite often.

[Jules]

It can miss once in a while. Hasn’t affected the cuts that I’ve noticed since they changed it though. It used to crater the print.

[chris1]

@mpipes

The material thickness we enter into the GFUI isnt for laser focus, it’s for the lid camera image.

Yes, but I was talking about Focus Height, not Material Thickness. This thread suggests that you don’t need to set the Focus Height, but when I left it blank I got an error.

[Jules]

If you are using Proofgrade, the Focal Point is set automatically for you at the surface of the material. For an Unknown Material, when you enter the thickness for the lid camera to use during placement, that value is automatically populated into the Focal Point slot in the Manual settings.

But you can over-ride that value if you wish to focus the beam at some other point inside the material or over the surface (defocus) the beam.

You always have to set a Focal Point of some kind or have one populate into the field. It can’t be empty.

[chris1]

I think I entered the engrave settings first, with the field blank, then I discovered the material settings. Apparently doing it out of order doesn’t cause Focus Height to be populated.

[Jules]

If you get the error and want to close the pop-out you can just enter the thickness there as well, and it will give you a surface focal point.