Agie wire and Mastercam?

[beej]

We are thinking about buying an Agie Wire EDM. But the salesman told us to stay clear of Mastercam Wire. I know him well and he doesn't stand to gain anything one way or the other. In fact he's good friends with our local mastercam reseller here. He recommended ESPRIT. I'm just curious what others thought here. Thanks

 

PS. I'm no wire guru by any stretch. I'll being learning both the machine and the software.

[ToolMan184]

Depending on what your burning I would look at a Fanuc machine. Agie will burn you up in replacement parts. But MC and Agie dont exactly match. If you decide to buy an Agie I would look into PEPS for programming. M2C

[Guest]

i agree with toolman184.fanucs are very accurate and dependable wire edm's.

[gavetta]

I've ran Sodick,Agie,Handsvedt(p.o.s.) and Charmille. Programmed the Sodicks,Handsvedt and Charmille with MC but not Agie (used some plug-in for Autocad...sucked). I liked the Charmille with the Fanuc control the best.

At one place I worked, we had a salesman come in and try to sell us on Esprit. To be honest, I really like their software for wire from what I saw. Easy to use and alot of settings and posts for specific machines. We didn't buy it because we already were using MC wire anyway. Where I'm at now, the toolroom has Mits wires and program with MC. They seem to do a great job. A guy I use to work with that now works for Motorola is using a Fanuc machine and likes it (he also ran the Sodicks too). Just passing on my expriences and opinions.

[edmBosto]

beej,

I am in pretty much the same boat your in except we have our machines (Fanuc, and Mitsubishsi)already. Do you know wire? I'm learning.

I know Mill3 V9 and now I'm getting much better at MCAMX

It takes awhile to get setup as far as burn settings and posts no matter what prog. you use such as Mastercam or Esprit.

I see issues myself with MCAM but we are going to get our supplier to spend a day with us at work and get the posts right and see if there are things I'm doing wrong or if there are bugs.

The transistion is more than we had in mind from Esprit to Mastercam.

So far Esprit is faster, but that could be operator inflicted.

It helps a real lot knowning Mill level 3

as I do from V9 but I'm am having a hard time not knowing wire. I have my op. library set so I can just call things up when needed in X. Time will tell for us.

[des()late]

i love fanuc wires they have never done me wrong.... i would stay with fanuc....

[Rick Henrickson The Boeing Co.]

Fanuc and Mitsu wires!

[ToolMan184]

Not hammering MC but Espirit is far easier for programming a wire. I have Espirit wire and MC wire. We have chosen to stay with Espirit for now to program our wire machine. Maybe its seat time but Espirit is just faster for us.

[Guest]

toolman,what are some of the things about espirit

that is easier or faster than mc.

[Steve Landkamer]

Beej,

What kind of Agie control?

If it is standard Agie they are not bad to program in MC Wire. If it is the Agie Vision control they are a bit painful IMHO. CNC Software has done a nice job to support the Vision control, In place of the Misc Values button there is an Agie Vision Button that brings up a 4 Tab dialog, plus you have to have the stock description done etc.. It is a bit fussy at first but can be gotten used to. Get the guys at QTE to get you a eval Wire system of MC and get Esprit to get you an eval system of their stuff. Let me know what you think.

 

Peace,

Steve

[Steve Landkamer]

ToolMan184,

I just taught a MC Wire class a couple weeks ago and two guys had Esprit also and they liked it. Their company got MC Wire to go along with the MC Mill 3 and that was a couple years ago. They finaly came to training on MC Wire VX MR2 and they were blown away on how easy MC Wire was. The 4-axis in Esprit from what they were saying was painful. They also mention that if they had to switch between the different brand machines they had to start over again. What is your take on their comments?

 

Thanks,

Steve

[Jody]

look here Lucky has good sucess with Agie and Mastercam. We have two Agie wires and one plunge they are awesome.

 

Jody

[edmBosto]

Steve,

Our supplier doesn't teach wire. Your the first I've heard of doing that.

[beej]

thanks for the info, guys.

 

Steve, good advice, I'll give that a shot.

[ToolMan184]

quote:

---

Maybe its seat time but Espirit is just faster for us.

---

Like I said earlier, I am not hammering MC, its just Espirit is easier for us at the moment maybe becasue we have used it much more. Very possible it may be seat time. As far as support, MC would win hands down. Getting info from Espirit is like pulling teeth.

[Lucky]

Beej,

 

I know Fanuc, Mits, Charmilles, etc. are very good machines but rest assured that Agie is the best and you have made a good choice. Also be assured that Mastercam V9 SP2 and Mastercam X MR2 will create error free files that require no editing.

[beej]

quote:

---

I know Fanuc, Mits, Charmilles, etc. are very good machines but rest assured that Agie is the best

---

Keith,

I've been told that a lot. But I'm just curious, what makes agie standout from the others

[Lucky]

Quality - The materials and build quality of an Agie are second to none and are not compromised to hit some arbitrary price target.

 

Technology - The power generator performs consistently over the long haul. Extensive test cuts by the factory result in reliable technology libraries. I can hold 0.0002" using factory default settings. I can cut the same job 1 year later and get the same 0.0002" result without trial cutting. I used to own Fanuc machines and loved them but holding 0.0002" meant performing test cuts to tweak the process and if I had to repeat the part a few months later the test cuts would have to be repeated.

 

AgieVision Control - The concept here is totally different from any other manufacturer. Without writing a book I'll try to explain. MasterCam creates an .ISO file that describes the shape using conventional G-code. MasterCam also creates an .SBL file that contains information regarding workpiece mat'l, wire size and type, accuracy and finish desired, start point location, clearance needed, etc. By making the shape file (.ISO) independent from technology and sequencing, the process becomes more flexible. If a start hole is out of location, simply type new x,y start location without editing the G-Code. If the accuracy or finish requirement is changed, the number of trim cuts may change. This is done automatically without going back to Mastercam to generate new G-Code. Imagine a die plate with several shapes to be cut. If I'm setting up in the morning I would select "early" mode. The machine would automatically sequence the cuts to drop all slugs as quickly as possible while an operator is present. If I'm setting the job up late in the day I would select "late" mode. The machine would sequence the cuts in a way to avoid the need for operator intervention for as long as possible. Slugs would remain attached with a small tab and trim cuts would be performed in the slot. Upon my return in the morning, the tabs would be cut to release the slugs and the tab areas would be trim cut to complete the job. If the job is being setup at midday I would select "early" mode initally then switch to "late" mode as I'm heading out the door. If I have multiple part set up at one time I can establish a priority for each piece. The priority can be changed as often as the phone rings. If you work 3 shifts cutting widgets all the time this feature has no value. In a job shop environment the increase in productivity and customer satisfaction is astounding. Bear in mind that this re-sequencing of events is done automatically by the AgieVision control and does not require going back to Mastercam to generate new files. Try that on a Fanuc, Mits, etc. Oops! Looks like I wrote a book....sorry.

[Guest]

keith,

i have no doubt that agies are very good wire edms.2 of my fanucs are almost 5 yrs. old and they

can still hold a tolerance of less than .00015,but i take the time to keep them in excellent shape.i have never had any downtime due

to part failures.the auto wirethreader is the best i have ever seen.fanucs don't have all the bells and whistles that agies do,but for the price

they can match up against any wire out there.agie has cut their price on their machines due to fanucs, i was told by an agie salesman.anyway, there are a lot of good wire edm's out there and agies and fanucs and charmilles are at the top of the list in my opinion.

[mt]

Hey guys. Buy AGIE, it's a state of the art-machine, but DON'T use MC to program it! The AGIEvision control is 20 years ahead of the japs but it's a mess with a bad camsystem. We used to run mits/mc and for mits mc works well. Now we have 2 new AGIE's, far better machines, but mc didn't work well enough for them. We bought TEBIS 2 weeks ago and I made sharp progs with it within a few hours. As far as I heard it's Peps, Tebis, D-cam, P-cam or Esprit that will work for AGIE's.

[Michael1286490636]

OK,

 

I'll have to stick with the Agies, I have 3 classics and a Progress less than 1 weeek old with the new V generator. Agie sent me to Losone Switzerland in May and the generator is amazing. Also, the agivision now runs on XP and is more user friendly the version 4 . These machines are second to none, I have run mits and sodick and will always prefer agie.

As far as MC goes they have improved over the past 5 years with the agievision control, I learned MC and the agievision in about 8 hours, parts had to get out the door the were no if's, ands, or buts. I had the agie apps w/me and we had it going out of the box. There multiaxis has run excellent and it's seems simple compared to Peps. I had a peps rep in one day and he was trying to compare the two(MC)either he was uneducated w/peps or just plain lost when it came to multiaxis and the agie 3d setup really through him for a loop.

 

Also, apples for apples we ran the Agie up against Sodick, Fanuc, Mits, & Charmille and Agie repeated every time within tolerance +-.00008, when we were looking to get into wire.

 

I need to be surf fishing......

[mikeqes]

Just my 2 cents about switching to MC for

wire. If you need your reseller to help you with a post for your machine,(or to provide you one as ours was) make sure they have wire experience. I will not get into details, but it

can be a very time and money wasting ordeal otherwise.