Drill Point Sorting

[Guest]

How do I turn off drill point sorting and get the toolpath to be the same as the order I picked the entities?

[Chiang Chin Hock]

At the Toolpath, Drill, Options, Click one more time on the sort method that was ativated. This will turn the sorting "OFF".

[Guest]

To all:

I uploaded a file drill point sort.mc8 to the FTP site. I picked the arcs in the order they are numbered. How do you get them to drill in the picked ordered. I tried Chiang Chin Hock's suggestion but was unable to get it to work. What am I doing wrong. Thanks in advance.

[bryan.davis]

Did you repick all the points after turning the sorting off?

[Guest]

Bryan:

No. I never picked a sorting method. Unless MC has one by default.

[Chiang Chin Hock]

Hello Marc,

Which version of the Mastercam are you using? I'm using ver 8.1.1

I've upload the modified file at the FTP site. drill point sort-modified.MC8

Good luck

[JAMMAN]

Marc,I drill maybe 100 holes a day, and it always sorts in the order I pick. I think the trick is- NC UTILITIES/DEFINE OPS/DEFAULTS. Go into the operation for the particular drill sequence you are having problems with and click on the green chain icon. A menu will appear on the left. Click OPTIONS and make sure all options on all 3 tabs of sorting are off. Save the file when it asks. It won't work on your current project but each subsequential project should drill in the order you choose. Good luck-

Jim

[kathy]

Hello,

 

I'm having problems with the point sorting. Jamman, I tried your method, and I still couldn't force the points to sort in the order chosen. To compound the problem, the poins sorting is still erratic on the C'plane #4 vs the sorting on C'plane #1. (see http://www.emastercam.com/cgi-bin/ultimate...ic;f=1;t=000906 )

 

I had a alum. tool proof rejected off the CMM recently because the point sorting was too erratic for the machine backlash. The holes were true position of .014 which is pretty wide open.

 

Could someone at CNC look into this for me??

 

Kathy

Version 9, Mill Level 3

[cadcam]

Kathy are you saying that you can't just pick the point in the order you want and have them drill this way or are we talking automaticaly in an order you want?

 

[ 03-28-2002, 07:31 PM: Message edited by: cadcam ]

[JAMMAN]

quote:

---

Could someone at CNC look into this for me??

 

---

Someone should look into your CNC for you if it can't hold .014" true position with any sorting method!! I'm sorry I cannot duplicate the problem being I do not have V9.

I did some close work one time on a cheap Acer mill with tons of backlash and I ended up manually editing the program to put an incrimental move X-.100 and Y+.100 to each hole prior to the actual positioning. being it was a rapid move it didn't add hardly any run time and the parts came out all holes no more than .006 out from datum. Most of them were within .003. Just a way around..........

 

BTW, isn't this a really old thread?

[Guest]

Kathy:

 

My V9 right out of the box has no point sorting method. It does it the way I picked them. But old file will always use some sorting method. It seems that once you sort the points there is no going back. I have had mixed results using JAMMAN's recommendations. It works on one computer but not on the next.

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

quote:

---

I had a alum. tool proof rejected off the CMM recently because the point sorting was too erratic for the machine backlash. The holes were true position of .014 which is pretty wide open.

 

Could someone at CNC look into this for me??

---

I know there is a former Boston Digital AE there at Mastercam and I'm sure he'd be glad to come and look at your CNC for around $150 an hour plus expenses. (I'd have to check with him before quoting a firm price) Machine tool problems are not fixable in software unless the problems are repeatable. If they are repeatable, then I know someone who writes posts for machines using a Volumetric Error Map then compensates for the error in the posted code. The error MUST be repeatable though.

 

If memory serves me correctly, the guaranteed accuracy for most routers is in the neighborhood of .010 so at worst case you're close to being out already. You may want to think about getting scales if the backlash is that bad, but then again, it is a router.

 

JM2C

[kathy]

James, and all...

 

I would like the programmer guys at CNC to look at Mastercam's point sorting method to allow me to choose the sort order each and every time. And have the sort order be consistent on both the #1 & #4 C'planes.

 

The accuracy of the machine is also at issue, and one that we are dealing with internally. We have our Komo's laser compensated regularly. The last report was that the machine was holding .002. There is also some tool deflection against the alum that we won’t see on the panel.

 

My responsibility is to optimize the Mastercam output. The sorting on the particular hole pattern was pretty ugly.

 

Didn’t the CNC guys get their California field trip @ Westec? Now that we finally have beautiful weather, do they want come to beautiful Stockton also?? (Going Sailing Saturday)

 

Thanks all, Kathy

 

And yes this is an old thread, but you can see the problem still exists.

[Simtech]

I may be wrong here but in the Options menu under the Drill toolpath, the sorting method Point to Point is available and permits the points to be sequences in the order of creation or selection.

 

Is this what you are all talking about?

 

Luc

[JAMMAN]

Kathy (and all!),

I had a problem with drill sorting some time way prior to my 11/2/2001 post. On the 3 tabs I described above- the first one has 17 buttons, the second 12 and the third 16. It is DIFFICULT to see if these buttons are pressed in or out. I also thought because when you pressed one the other came out that one allways had to be selected, but this is untrue because pressing on the one that is in brings it out and you can only do what you want if all 45 buttons are out. I'm not trying to insult your obvious intellegence, but I'm no dummy and I missed this for weeks!

Please look in to it very deep. Pleeze?

[tm311]

The way i do this is to toolpath-drill-manual and

select the entities.If you go toolpath-drill-point

,arc etc,it will use the sorting method,the important thing is to select manual.Im using ver 8.1.1.I hope this helps.

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

quote:

---

There is also some tool deflection against the alum that we won’t see on the panel.

---

We have Thermwoods (lower class than Komo I'm sure) and the table will flex .010 !!!!!

[Smit]

To select holes in the order I want them drilled I will right click in the window and turn off autocursor. Then Toolpaths/drill/manual/center and select the holes in the order I want them drilled. When autocursor is deselected the point entry will remain on center selection. Otherwise you need to be careful that an end point, mid point or quad point is not selected.

[kathy]

Okay - The Drill/Manual/Center method works (& all the time as far as I can see). More important, it also keeps the drill point @ the center of the arc if the arc is moved or modified.

 

Jamman - I went back thru and varified that all the options in Point Sorting were unchecked, and I still couldn't get the sorting to work.

 

James - we used to have two Thermwoods; the 'old thermwood' was incremental, .0025 stepper motors and a controller taht req'd an Osborn Frommatted Diskette. This machine we affectionatly nick-named the 'driftwood'. It is long gone from our shop. The 'new thermwood' is a little better; the 'shiftwood' is machining parts with a tolerance of +/-.06.!!

 

Kathy

[kathy]

We are almost out of the woods...

 

The points sort great, the posted code looks great, but............ the backplot moves are verrrrrrrrry strange. Sort of rapids over 1/4 of the way, than ffeeds down at a ramp, and some of the tool path doesn't even show up!

 

Kathy

Mill Level 3, Version 9

[Randy Maynard]

I think this can be fixed by changing your backplot settings. On the display page, change interpolate to endpoints. This should fix it.

[TheePres]

A word of caution, when selecting drill points, please disable auto-cursor. I had an expensive experience when first migrating to V8. Darn thing went back to sketch after first hole center.

[Guest]

Try using the entity selection method. If you pick an arc it will only pick the center of the arc.

[Travis_Buchanan]

Kathy,

 

We also had a copule of Thermwoods which we refered to as the "Firewood" and the "Thermwouldn't". Thanks for the laugh.

 

Buzz

[kathy]

Boy - Changing the backplot settings did it!!

 

Okay - root check....

 

Kathy