CamDRAW Profiles: Flat and Rotary Work on One Machine

A profile is a slot holding one preset, meaning one postprocessor. CamDRAW lets you keep several, and switch between them from the docker without reconfiguring anything.

The obvious use is running more than one machine. The more useful one is running the same machine in two different ways.

Where profiles live

Click the gear icon at the very top of the CamDRAW docker, next to the logo, then open the Profile tab. It is the second of the four tabs in the settings window.

Each profile is shown as a block with a checkbox, the path of its preset file, and a name field, followed by a row of four buttons.

The four buttons

Import loads a preset file into the profile. Clicking it opens the installation directory containing all supplied presets, so you can pick one directly. The file is then copied into your settings folder.

Edit opens the presetting file itself, where every postprocessor option can be adjusted: commands, coordinate formatting, program start and end lines, tool change text, axis names and more.

Export writes the current profile settings to a file, which is how you move a configured postprocessor to another computer or send it to support.

Delete removes the preset from that profile and deactivates it. The file itself is not deleted and remains in the directory.

The checkbox at the top of each block activates or deactivates the profile. A deactivated profile keeps its contents but does not appear in the docker.

The name field is free text. Whatever you type there is what you will see in the dropdown, so it is worth naming profiles after what they do rather than leaving the file name.

Switching profiles while you work

The active profile is shown in the Profile section, the topmost of the four sections in the CamDRAW docker. Open it and pick from the dropdown.

One profile must always be selected. Switching loads that preset's settings immediately.

The case this is really for

Flat and rotary machining on the same machine need different postprocessors. A flat setup uses X, Y and Z. A rotary setup replaces one of those with an A axis, and the workpiece input changes with it: instead of width and height you enter length and circumference, plus a Z zero point on the cylinder surface or axis.

Rather than editing one postprocessor back and forth, store the flat preset in profile 1 and the rotary one in profile 2. Switching between a flat plate and a ring is then one dropdown selection.

The Workpiece section of the docker adapts automatically to the profile you choose, because the fields it needs are defined by the preset.

Other uses

Two machines. A router and a laser, or a mill and a plasma table, each with its own preset in its own profile.

Tool changer or not. The same machine, one profile using a preset that writes separate files per tool, another using one that writes a single file with tool change commands.

Testing changes. Import the same preset into a second profile and edit the copy, so the working configuration stays intact while you try something.

When you first start

The machine you select in the welcome window on first start is saved automatically into profile 1. Everything above is about adding to that, not replacing it.

If your machine is not in the list, the supported machines page shows what is preconfigured, and our support team helps with adapting a postprocessor to a specific controller.