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Examples of using Excel within your Manufacturing experiences


#Rekd™
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Hi All,

I would like to be better at Excel as it is likely one of the most used software's in the world. I was hoping that members could exchange ideas/ samples and possibly Excel help here.

If there is a better place for this topic feel free to move it.

Thanks in advance!

 

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55 minutes ago, #Rekd™ said:

Hi All,

I would like to be better at Excel as it is likely one of the most used software's in the world. I was hoping that members could exchange ideas/ samples and possibly Excel help here.

If there is a better place for this topic feel free to move it.

Thanks in advance!

 

I saw a CamInstructor video showing how to use excel to create geometry in Mastercam.  Not anything I'd likely use at my current employer, but definitely pretty cool.  

 

(10) Do the Undoable in Mastercam with Excel and Scripts - YouTube

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In the past i made an Excel file to determine the optimal tool order for a turret lathe and a "near" optimal tool order for a fixed tool magazine mill. This uses Excel for the program input and machine input. Then with VBA it calculated the results. After calculation the results were showed in Excel.

I say near optimal tool order, because it is imposible to calculate every posible solution in an acceptabele time.

On average i saved a second a minute. Which is a lot in mass production

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I wish databases were used more widely for data management, as the name implies, that's where data should go, not in a spreadsheet. It is a good swiss army knife though.

There are about a hundred of employees here and everybody seems to love Excel (colors, yay). There's just one big drawback...it's not funny to extract data from an excel file to be used for queries you sometimes need really badly. Not even going to mention data integrity and concurrency...

Macros are a must IMO with Excel

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3 hours ago, SlaveCam said:

I wish databases were used more widely for data management, as the name implies, that's where data should go, not in a spreadsheet. It is a good swiss army knife though.

There are about a hundred of employees here and everybody seems to love Excel (colors, yay). There's just one big drawback...it's not funny to extract data from an excel file to be used for queries you sometimes need really badly. Not even going to mention data integrity and concurrency...

Macros are a must IMO with Excel

Interfacing with excel sucks, I could talk all day about it but I wont! #base

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Not really Excel related but in our shop Excel is widely used for various stuff even if it probably  shouldn't (including setup sheets/tool lists).

It can be painful to find specific files or specific data from Excel files located in various network folders.

To this we use File locator from https://www.mythicsoft.com. It's a powerful multithreaded files search engine which can dig into office files with regex filters on filenames and data. Lite release is great but pro release adds some great features (it can be programmed inside VBA with a COM component or in .NET)  

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2 hours ago, #Rekd™ said:

It would be great to see examples of other uses like setup sheets, inventory etc. 

 

Used Microsoft Access for dong this 20+ years ago. I had a full query process, inventory, time sheets, job scheduling and other things done. We had all of the customer information stored in it and could tell you the machines part ran on and what we the scheduled work for the machines we had.

Excel can be used in many different ways.

I have used it for accounting, scheduling and many things over the years.

Setup sheets I used it for were also copy paste or manually write information into them. Zoober had a pretty slick X+ script written to make setup sheets from Mastercam that was output in Excel years ago not sure if he has kept up with it.

I have seen it used for Quality checklist, Inventory control, any other things, but most of those I cannot share since they are customer files and not what I created.

 

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18 hours ago, Metallic said:

I would like someone *anyone* to make a quick youtube tutorial on how to export Mastercam tooling data in .CSV format or something similar so that I can harness excel in my tooling management workflow.

 

Newbeeee has been asking for the same thing!

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I use it on a daily basis (and Google Sheets). I have made files for keeping track of tools in machines, stick outs, part numbers, rough bar stock length, program numbers and customers, tooling usage and costs. I have used it to convert metric dimensions to English and vice versa. We use a sheet to track program names and cycle times. Tracking Macro variables used and available is also a good use. Feeds and speeds calculations also.

Personally, I also use it keep track of my trades in the stock market and gains and losses there. I even made a "calculator" for my wife to track her mileage at work. I have racecar calculators that I have made to track math formulas. I have a log book that I use to keep track of our racing as well. Pretty much, if I need to keep something neat and orderly I use a spread sheet.

The sky is the limit and you can pretty much track and figure whatever you need to with it.

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At my current company we use excel to attempt and quote more accurately.  Ideally making a rough estimate of the time required to machine the part using length of cuts from a print in conjunction with speeds and feeds that get calculated using the results from our Machine Data handbooks.  Only really helpful on doing lathe jobs which Is what I do primarily but it does a pretty solid job imo and its definitely close enough.  I've got it setup to be able to split the time results into two columns based on a check mark system which switches the times from the main spindle to the sub spindle and gives the final time as the smallest time of the two.  Also has a 'buffer percentage' area where I can manipulate the time as sometimes the time results from the book can be too slow/fast for the quoting preference.  

 

That and keeping track of gage calibration is primarily what my shop uses it for! 

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At my last job, I used excel to work in parallel with a new ERP system the company bought.  They never considered what the programmers did with the old ERP, basically hung us out to dry.  Excel was the bridge that kept us connected and working efficiently.

Then we got Esprit, so overly complicated for simple jobs (especially ones we did in the past) when simply going from one machine tool to another (different control, brand, codes etc) that I built a converter.  Select the conversion to do (Fanuc Robodrill to Hyundai Wia for example) paste in the original code in cell A1, click on convert button, then paste the new code into Cimco.  6 mouse clicks done.

And since the posts and post support were so good, I built another Excel workbook to paste in the posted code from Esprit, click on the fix button, and the spreadsheet would parse through the file and fix, delete and re-write sections of code that were bad.  Paste into Cimco, done.

I also use it as a giant calculator, especially for more complex formulas.  Fill in the blanks, get the answer.

Now that I am spoiled with only Mastercam, I don't have a whole lot of use for Excel anymore, but it is a powerful tool if anything comes up.

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7 hours ago, crazy^millman said:

Used Microsoft Access for dong this 20+ years ago. I had a full query process, inventory, time sheets, job scheduling and other things done. We had all of the customer information stored in it and could tell you the machines part ran on and what we the scheduled work for the machines we had.

Excel can be used in many different ways.

I have used it for accounting, scheduling and many things over the years.

Setup sheets I used it for were also copy paste or manually write information into them. Zoober had a pretty slick X+ script written to make setup sheets from Mastercam that was output in Excel years ago not sure if he has kept up with it.

I have seen it used for Quality checklist, Inventory control, any other things, but most of those I cannot share since they are customer files and not what I created.

 

I used D-base for keeping track of program files in the late eighties and upgraded to Access 2 whenever it came out. Now we use the Office 365 version of Access. Most people around here will use Excel for their database work. They say it's easier to set up but I've always thought is was easier setting up Access The only part I don't like is the 2GB data limit per file. I haven't checked 365 to see if the limit is still there but my understanding is the limit was put in to avoid lawsuits.

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On 8/31/2021 at 5:46 PM, Metallic said:

I would like someone *anyone* to make a quick youtube tutorial on how to export Mastercam tooling data in .CSV format or something similar so that I can harness excel in my tooling management workflow.

 

If you only want to extract information and you're using Mastercam 2022 a script can do this.

You'd want more information, but here is an example.

#r "C:\Program Files\Mastercam 2022\Mastercam\ToolNetApi.dll"

using System.IO;
using System.Linq;

using Cnc.Tool.Interop;


var filePath = Path.ChangeExtension(FileManager.CurrentFileName, ".csv");

var tlMgr = TlServices.GetTlMgr();

var isHeaderWritten = false;

using (var writer = new StreamWriter(filePath))
{
    foreach (var tlAssembly in tlMgr.GetAssemblies()
                                    .Where(t => t.GetMillTool() != null))
    {
        if (!isHeaderWritten)
        {
            var header = $"TOOL NUMBER, " +
                         $"OVERALL DIAMETER, " +
                         $"OVERALL LENGTH, " +
                         $"NAME";

            writer.WriteLine(header);

            isHeaderWritten = true;
        }

        var millTool = tlAssembly.GetMillTool();

        var outputToolData = $"{millTool.ToolNumber}, " +
                             $"{millTool.OverallDiameter}, " +
                             $"{millTool.OverallLength}, " +
                             $"\"{millTool.Name}\"";

        writer.WriteLine(outputToolData);
    }
}
            

 

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If you want to use csharp scripts in an older version of Mastercam my free extension will give you access to .net scripting in c#

 

you would need to add this line to the top of the file for my extension since we don't add any references on startup

#r "C:\Program Files\Mastercam 2022\Mastercam\NETHook3_0.dll"

 

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On 9/1/2021 at 10:09 AM, crazy^millman said:

Used Microsoft Access for dong this 20+ years ago. I had a full query process, inventory, time sheets, job scheduling and other things done. We had all of the customer information stored in it and could tell you the machines part ran on and what we the scheduled work for the machines we had.

Excel can be used in many different ways.

I have used it for accounting, scheduling and many things over the years.

Setup sheets I used it for were also copy paste or manually write information into them. Zoober had a pretty slick X+ script written to make setup sheets from Mastercam that was output in Excel years ago not sure if he has kept up with it.

I have seen it used for Quality checklist, Inventory control, any other things, but most of those I cannot share since they are customer files and not what I created.

 

I tried for so long to get a handle on query and and the finer controls of access and I just couldn't do it I gave up around 2003ish. I can however program my way around excel. I used to make a highly custom X+ excel file complete with tables of cycle times, MRR, feeds and speeds, torque, horsepower.... you name it I had it in there and it was mostly based off data I pulled from Machinery's Handbook. If you wanted to know how many parts you could get in 6 months at 70% efficiency with my current program broken down by toolpath? Done!

Nowadays I have a few excel files I use occasionally. I have 1 to calculate savings between up to 4 different tools for testing. I didn't like any of the excel files my tool vendors gave me so I developed my own. I have 1 big excel file with loads of conversion math, chip thinning, finish calculations etc.., I do a lot of probing and macros now so I have a couple I use to test the math formulas I write for macros since I don't have a really good way of verifying my hand written chicken scratch.

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Many Many Things.  But I guess the two most complicated things I ever did were:

Filtering points and postures of full 5ax NCI files, so I could import them back in and post them.  This resulted in a lot of time saved.  Roughly 30-40% improvement.  Drastically better surface finish.  This was done via VBA.  Excel was just a vehicle to graphically see areas where changes were made.

The other was to make end to end size compensation on some rotary surfacing ops.  I wrote a routine that could rotate G1 and G0 points about any point in space.  Never got around to adding further functionality, but it wouldn't have been too hard to at least give it that ability to do drill cycles and G2/G3 moves as well.  I just didn't need it, so I never bothered.  It was far faster to write that routine than it would have been to correct the geometry issues on the machine or in CAM as everything was an organic surface.  Never figured out if I could have used WSEC or coordinate rotation to correct the issue as we were running G43.4, but for H/H and were rotating an added table that was not compensated, which is where the error was...  Worked like a charm.  I could compensate out .002" or so over 15" in about 30 seconds, with just a few clicks.  Generate the new program and run it.  I had excel on the machine control computer so I didn't have to go back to the desk.

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Here's a link to some SPC stuff I use from time to time (though not as often as I did BITD)

Some Excel Add-Ins for high end statistical functions.

https://home.uchicago.edu/~rmyerson/addins.htm

 

Some Customizable templates that will dazzle bean counters and help you  track processes.

https://www.vertex42.com/ExcelTemplates/statistics.html

 

Some Six Σ resources if you're into that

https://www.systems2win.com/solutions/SixSigma.htm

 

An Iscar HVM guide that has proven quite valuable over the years.

HEM Calculator-protected.xlsm

 

A gage block calculator that was passed on to me at some point.

Gageblock Calculator.xls

 

A tool that was passed on to me and I've added to it.

Milling Formulas(In Process).xls

 

DISCLAIMER:

Use these tools at your own peril. I am not claiming authorship, nor rights, etc... yadda, yadda, yadda. Enjoy. Hopefully they will spark some interest in the data side of the business for you. :) :cheers:

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On 9/5/2021 at 9:19 PM, huskermcdoogle said:

Many Many Things.  But I guess the two most complicated things I ever did were:

Filtering points and postures of full 5ax NCI files, so I could import them back in and post them.  This resulted in a lot of time saved.  Roughly 30-40% improvement.  Drastically better surface finish.  This was done via VBA.  Excel was just a vehicle to graphically see areas where changes were made.

The other was to make end to end size compensation on some rotary surfacing ops.  I wrote a routine that could rotate G1 and G0 points about any point in space.  Never got around to adding further functionality, but it wouldn't have been too hard to at least give it that ability to do drill cycles and G2/G3 moves as well.  I just didn't need it, so I never bothered.  It was far faster to write that routine than it would have been to correct the geometry issues on the machine or in CAM as everything was an organic surface.  Never figured out if I could have used WSEC or coordinate rotation to correct the issue as we were running G43.4, but for H/H and were rotating an added table that was not compensated, which is where the error was...  Worked like a charm.  I could compensate out .002" or so over 15" in about 30 seconds, with just a few clicks.  Generate the new program and run it.  I had excel on the machine control computer so I didn't have to go back to the desk.

I would be interested in this if you are willing to share more info.

However I wonder if it is needed with the moduleworks toolpaths as far as filtering. For a recent project I was messing around with Surface Finish using the Unified toolpath. I came out with several locations with fields to change that resulted in dramatically better surfacing quality by "filtering". In addition to that my controller does use a Smoothing Parameter using Misc Reals/Int. that seems to help as well (from the machine side). Let me know if these achieve the same thing:

image.png.5ee2f1c29d4a3ba3fc55614fc4792d0f.png

image.png.4b064fda653010e59e0890adba161f0e.png

image.png.eb2b7752436555296b7a38f9bd3a99fb.png

image.png.fdd4f6adcf49a0313d7c84f2fab0f66a.png

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