Multichannel Programming

[hobbles]

Our company recently purchased a Star ECAS-32T Swiss Lathe, and as many of you know unlike the older style machines it has mutlichannel programming for it's multiple axis'. I spoke with our Mastercam rep (CAD/CAM Tech out of IN) and we were pointed into the direction of Partmaker for swiss style turning. Our rep stated that Mastercam is not capable of using the turning features that this machine is capable of, also being new to CAD/CAM systems I would like to know how much truth there is to this statement. Also, does anyone here know that if it is a true statement, does CNC Technologies plan on added this feature to any upcoming versions of Mastercam. Thanks!

[mmonica]

Being a long time Mastercam programmer, I had to switch to Partmaker to program Citizen multi-axis, multi-spindle swiss machines. Partmaker is no Mastercam, but it is very effective for programming swiss machines. There is a lot going on in a swiss machine. Partmakers graphic module has saved me many times! The geometry creation side of Partmaker is outdated, but it gets the job done.

[Watcher]

Sprit CAM is a great solution as well, allowing the programming from 2 up to 22 axis, in multi-task machines and is very suitable for your machine. IMO is not good for milling, but for Mill-turn applications/Swiss lathes, it´s an outstanding software. If I´m not wrong (Guys, please correct me if I´m wrong OK?), CNC software started in the past the developing of a program called MATIS or something like that, that will give to Mastercam these capabilities. I´m not sure if this project was stoped (Because they have started to develop X - the priority) and they don´t have intend to retake it, or if was retake already. I believe that one of the abilities that the software must have in order to program this kind of machines is accomplish and calculate the synchronism between the tools and operations performed at the same time. At this moment, I believe that Mastercam is not able to do it.

 

Gurus, please, give us your sagacity.

 

And hobbles, welcome to the forum!

[Guest]

Hello

 

Multi Channel is the same as multi stream and multiple dollar($$$ Citizen) programming. Almost all the major machine tool and control manufacturers have this capabitlity today. The need for Synchronization that is stated above is accurate especially for the multi axis swiss market but also for multiple turret Multi task machines (Mori & Integrex B axis type). Mastercam is developing a product for this market. Please do not ask for specific details yet, when we are prepared we will make a public announcement.

 

Thank you for using Mastercam.

 

Matt

[hobbles]

Thanks for the great replies to my question! It is greatly appreciated. For the time being we are going to sit tight and continue to program this machine manually. We currently are running large quantity production items on it, so we can get away with it for right now. We'll keep an eye out for an announcement from the marketing department at CNC Technologies. Thanks again!

[Kyle Waters]

So for those of us with a Mori MT machine, how do we go about setting upour configs in X?

[Post dept]

Slavetothemetal,

 

Again, you should e-mail me.

 

Brett

[Post dept]

From what I understand, Matt and some of the other guys have given up sleeping in favour of working on MATSS. Hang in there because it will be awesome!

 

Brett

[Zoober]

[crazy^millman]

 

Did I miss something???? :laughing: :scooter:

[Zoober]

Was using search to look into multi channel editors and came across this blast from the past! ROR!

[Guest]

Code Expert has been doing this for several years(6+) now.....

[gcode]

Did I miss something???? :laughing: :scooter:

you're only 10 years later to the party

[Zoober]

Code Expert has been doing this for several years(6+) now.....

I've been unable to set it up for 3 channels with about 8 different wait combinations. Siemens doesn't just use M200's as wait codes. The follow and pinch and spindle synced all wait for each other also. But maybe I haven't tried hard enough to find reasonable documentation on it. Cause I want full compare also. With Regex based ignores. The next version of exam diff will do what I want though.

Edit:

I just remembered the reason I don't use code expert...

The way it aligns wait codes is lame. The little red arrow pointing from one to another instead of aligning them. I tried it a while back on a 2 channel easy peasy, and it was not good.

[AMCNitro]

Doesnt MC have MC Swiss now?

[YoDoug®]

I am pretty deep into a big project using Mastercam MT for lower turret, b axis upper head, twin spindle machine. So far I have been able to get most of what I need out of Code editor syncing. I have been working with CNC and some of the enhancements I have been asking for are slated for development in the future. That will definitely help. 

[Zoober]

Doug, can you point me to some documentation for regular expressions that code editor accepts?

I have snippets that I use in exam diff, that work perfectly. But code Expert rejects them:

Can you ask them to line up the wait states instead of the goofy markers?

[YoDoug®]

Doug, can you point me to some documentation for regular expressions that code editor accepts?

I have snippets that I use in exam diff, that work perfectly. But code Expert rejects them:

ce-error.JPG

Can you ask them to line up the wait states instead of the goofy markers?

CODE EXPERT.png

 

I'm not sure about regular expressions. In a two channel Okuma the waits are just simple P counts. I have not even asked if they have a three channel Okuma yet. Those use different sync commands. As far as documentation they are definitely keeping the .machine stuff under lock and key. That is my big complaint with Esprit as well. If as a customer I pay big bucks for a software and post/machine def I want to be able to edit and customize it as I need to. 

 

Yeah the markers lining up would be nice for viewing. i will suggest it. 

 

The big enhancement I asked for was the ability to add sync points to manual entry tool paths. We have a lot of variable checks, etc. that we like to use manual entry tool paths for and being able to sync them would help.

[Zoober]

I got a regex that works... Kind of...

(waitm)|(M8[2-3])|(M5[0-7])|(M13[1-3])|(M14[1-3])

If I click on the Syncs Next icon, it will move from sync to sync and highlights them as I go (only in the active channel tho). But the red hover alignment is completely gone now.

That doesn't help at all. When editing a multichannel, you want to see the channels line up by the waits (syncs). Just being able to click thru them in a single channel is worthless.

[robk]

This is what our turning dpt. uses for their twin turret lathes.

 

http://www.i-logic.com/inplot.htm

[crazy^millman]

You are aware CIMCO editor supports channels?

[Zoober]

You are aware CIMCO editor supports channels?

Only two as far as I can tell. Please tell me I'm wrong.

I like Cimco. That's all I use for mill programs. But I still use ExamDiff for compare, because Cimco is limited in the number of differences. But I don't mind subbing out for compare with no wait states.

[crazy^millman]

Only two as far as I can tell. Please tell me I'm wrong.

I like Cimco. That's all I use for mill programs. But I still use ExamDiff for compare, because Cimco is limited in the number of differences. But I don't mind subbing out for compare with no wait states.

 

Yes it is limited to 2 channels any more than that and yes you need to use something else.

[Zoober]

I've got ExamDiff working perfectly for 2 channel perfect alignment of as many wait states I want, color coded and with full, unlimited compare. Next update should handle 3 channels.

So I will prolly stick with it so we can standardize.

I was looking to make sure I haven't overlooked something right in front of my eyes.

[BenK]

Cimco is able to sync three channels. If you dig into the multi channel options you should be able to get it working.

 

 

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