Tool priorities.

[Hugh.Venables]

In Mazatrol (yes James, Mazak CRAP) it is easy to set tool priorities. For example a spot or centre drill once selected will drill in all places required at different z-levels and to different depths as specified in many operations rather than be tool changed for every operation. Can we do this in MC?

Thanks Hugh Venables.

[cadcam]

If you are saying can i spot drill many holes say at .065 deep but the diffrent holes are at diffrent z plains?

if so yes.

[Hugh.Venables]

Sorry about that guys, kind of a dumb question. In Mazatrol, if a tapping cycle is selected, the system selects, displays and assigns appropriate (but over-rideable) speeds, feeds and depths for a spot drill, a minor drill and a tap. The co-ords of the hole are then keyed in, that's the tedious bit although grid, line, circle, etc. and some group translations are available. If several arrays of tapped holes of different sizes are assembled, the spot drill can be prioritised to do all the spot drilling before the minor drills are called. In MC, we have to assemble a separate operation for each array for spot drilling, minor drilling and tapping. I guess the best solution would be to save these groups of operations to library (for each thread designation) as was suggested on this forum. But I think then we would get back to my original question of needing to prioritise the tools to avoid too many tool changes. Is there a solution?

Hugh Venables.

[Kenneth Potter]

Hugh

Maybe /Toolpath /drill /automatic/ is what ya need?????

[Hugh.Venables]

Yes maybe but what if I have many different size holes on the job to drill or tap. I would want to spot drill them to different depths to leave a chamfer after drilling. Can I make one operation to spot drill all the holes or do I have to have a separate operation for each group with a different Z target?

Hugh Venables

[Will Slota]

there is a c-hook called c-sink that calculates a point given the diameter and the angle. if you use that and an incremental drill depth then you could drill all the points with one operation.

[Glenn Bouman]

The function to do what Hugh wants is Toolpath, Next Menu, Circ tlpths, Autodrill. It also chamfers the hole with the spot drill. Works based on the arc diameter.