c planes, t planes & WCS & 5axis programming

[MIL-TFP-41]

right now I am programming about 50 different parts, all very short run, all 5 axis work (some swarfing, but mostly 5 sided or more machining). Typically, how I do this is by creating a c-plane by either rotating a plane or by picking a solid face. I then go into the WCS manager & "right click, create, copy current c-plane" and give it a name. I then toolpath using the named plane as my c-plane/tool plane. This works, tho I am always checking to make sure that my c-plane & tool plane are equal in the operations parameters...and on occasion when I call up a old file the c-plane will default to the top plane & the tool plane will remain the same. Scary part about this is backplot looks great, but in verify & in real life on the machine this a big crash waiting to happen.

 

Am I missing something with the WCS?? Is it possable to use all of my named WCS's in 5ax programming? One would think that if I have a named WCS, toolpath with that WCS active, and have the t-plane & c-plane as "top" it should work....

 

 

any comments??

[Mike Whitten CAD/CAM Contractors]

I am sorry JMC but I do not understand everthing in your post 100%

 

So..

 

-I always leave my WCS set to "system view 1 top" This is the most important thing! At this point you can create named views from there and you will not have a problem as long as you do not make a mistake. I have been doing this for about 3-1/2 years or so and in the very beginning I did blow one view just as you described. My associate over here also did it once in the very beginning. We learned the hard way that when you have an expensive piece of five axis equipment that you must have five axis simulation software! This will show the error in the g-code if the view was blown in Mastercam. I have never found a bug in named views and I have been using them since late 7.2 early 8.0

 

HTH,

Mike

[somename75]

I have found many problems when using multiple wcs's in the same file when doing 5x work. I talked to my re-seller many times about it and he said that it has problems, so just have one wcs, and then create named views to do whatever you need, never have more than one wcs in a 5x file. that is what he told me and have had no trouble since. hope that helps

[MATT Q]

I don't use the wcs for five axis work.

[justind]

i use the wcs all the time on 4 and 5 axis part, no matter how big they are or complicated - I found if you associate your cordinate system with an entity, there should be no troubles. I've had files with 8-10 different cord systems all sorts of jacked up with the world and no probelm - I do every part I program, no matter how many ops or how much tooling is required to build on the same cam file - I have to, all this new work coming out with these young engineers revs up all the time - to much hasle putn a new model on individual cam files.

[Mike Whitten CAD/CAM Contractors]

Justin,

 

I have tried this numerous times without success. Here is what happens to me. I create my WCS (associated to a point) and then create named views from there. At this point I select the named view and start to create ops. What happens now is that my named view does not stick. IOW, it forces me to re-select my named view on every op! So..it will work but for me this is to much hassle.

 

Does this happen to you?

 

Thanks,

Mike

[mayday]

quote:

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I create my WCS (associated to a point) and then create named views from there.

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I do it the opposite way. create a named view then create a WCS by copying the named view. I also turn off the WCS in the T/C box in the opps. I use named view only

 

just reading these posts to see what everyone does diferently

[Mike Whitten CAD/CAM Contractors]

I do just as you say Mayday. I was just saying how it does't work for me.

 

Thanks

[MIL-TFP-41]

looks like we are all on the same page...I do it the same as MayDay & Michael.....MayDay just explained it much better than I did.

 

guess the question is...is the WCS "supposed" to work with 5 ax work???

[mayday]

I only use it for simple 2d vice work with improted models when I dont have time to import and set up the named planes. and just to say (yes I use the WCS)

[Mike Whitten CAD/CAM Contractors]

My guess is that it was originally intended to work but it never panned out. I think we must wait until future versions.

 

Thanks

[Tinny]

ok,

I think I know what you are trying to acheive. What you have done is correct, however you must tie everything into a common datum. Go into each toolpaths parameters page and click the tool parameters tab, then the t/c plane button. On the right is the wcs plane selection button. Press this button and select your common wcs ( use a top view looking down on the m/c table as it would be on the table that the operator can datum up on the machine. ) You then get a box come up asking if you want to keep the t/c planes as they are, or move them with the new wcs. Select keep them as they are ( default i think ) and the t/c planes move to a silly number, ignore this its ok. Do this for all strategies, and when you post out to the machine all will be fine. I do this every day and it works for me on a Mazak Variaxis 500 attacking the workpiece from a multitude of different angles.

 

I hope you can understand this, I had the advantage of seeing it first hand and still took time to get my head around it.

[gcode]

quote:

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What happens now is that my named view does not stick

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This happens to me also.

Try creating the Named view, but don't use it!!

Save the file and exit Mastercam.

Open the file again and use the named view.

It should "stick"

[Bruce Caulley]

I do 5 axis with the wcs every day. I treat the wcs as a datum. creat a view from entities and set that as my active wcs. Then forget about wcs and just use tplanes. Each op will have a unique wcs. I have all operations and even fixture ops in the one file.

 

In the beginning I had a heap of trouble but when I made myself forget about the fact that the numbers of a tplane change depending on what wcs you have, I now have no worries.

 

ATB

 

Bruce