4 AXIS POSITIONING

[mcpgmr]

I am new to Mastercam and having trouble with 4 axis positioning. I created a box with the WCS in the center C/G of the box. I created 3 simple tool paths on 3 faces of the box rotating about Y axis. At each tool path I have the tool plane set to the respective face with the Z axis vector pointing normal to the face I'm machining. I have tool plane and construction plane set the same and the WCS set to 1 (Top). Keep in mind thatI have the WCS Z axis vector pointing normal to the fist face which should be B0.0. The output I expect to see is three cuts 90 deg from eachother. I do have this but I get A axis output instead of B. I am using the MPFAN.pst and have tried every combination of work planes I can think of. Prior to this job I was using Catia V4 and it was a piece of cake to do this.

[mayday]

grab the MPmaster post from this site. it has the options for switching A to B for vert. and horz. machines plus lots of other goodies the mpfan dont have

[mcpgmr]

Thanks I'll give it a try. Is this feature selectable on the fly or do I need to modify the post and have seperate posts for horizontal and vertical machines with a rotary axis.

[Bill Craven]

You can also modify the mpfan post.

 

search for the fmt statements and change the A to a B for CABS and CINC

[Tim Aydt Prototek Engineering]

It would probably be better to have separate posts for your vertical and horizontal machining centers

[mcpgmr]

Got it working thanks to you guys. I did make two sepperate post by turning off (#) the VMC in one and turning on the HMC in the other. Oh and I had to change rotation direction (rot_ccw_pos : 1 #Axis signed dir, 0 = CW positive, 1 = CCW positive) to get the rotary table to go the right (industry standard right hand rule) direction. Thanks againg for the sugestions !