MD/CD question

[ToolMan184]

Is this possible or am I wanting the MD/CD to do more than I think it will.

 

If I have a machine that does ridgid tapping (Machine 1)and one that dont (Machine 2). Within the control I dont have any tapping cycles defined (Machine 2). I have a program that has a tap operation in it programmed for Machine 1 and I want to switch it to Machine 2. Can i get the post to ignore the tapping operation? Or is this possible? I know I can unselect the tap operation from posting but thought maybe the CD would realize I have no tapping definition as it does with recognizing spindle speeds.

[Troy Gossett Indepak Inc.]

Check out these Videos and see if it helps.

 

Machine And Control Def Videos

[ToolMan184]

Troy,

 

No dice, or Im doing something wrong. It works with the spindle speed but i cant get it to work with a tap operation.

 

I have watched these videos about 5 times already.

[crazy^millman]

Toolman the eaisest way I can think of for doing this is to have one post then use one set of caned cycels for one machine and then use another set of canned cycles for the other machine. You can have up to 20 drilling canned cycles so first 8 are for the one machine and the next 8 are for the 2nd. When you set-up the drilling cycles you have one's for the tapping with the machine that does and ones for the 2nd that do not. Might be as easy as not selecting a tapping cycle, but assume this to keep someone from trying to use it to being with so may be a shot in the dark.

 

HTH

[ToolMan184]

Ron,

 

Thats kinda the direction I was going. I have 1 post for Machine 1 and 1 for Machine 2. I also unselected the tap cycle in CD - Machine Cycles - Drill cycles and have nothing in the TEXT - Mill/Drill cycles. But when I post I still get the operation posted out without a drill or tap code. It is straight G0 and G1 moves.

 

N392 S500 M3

N394 G0 X1.

N396 G1 Z-1.

N398 M5

N400 S500 M4

N402 Z.1

N404 M5

N406 S500 M3

N408 G0 Y-1.

N410 G1 Z-1.

 

Maybe just as easy to not select the TAP operation if I need to change Machines. Just looking for the lazy way around it.

[ToolMan184]

Now I found something else. With the tap cycles unchecked all the fields under my operation settings are open for settings. Shouldn't they be grayed out? All the other cycles that are defined with "" in the fields needed are open but the remaining ones are grayed out.

 

Could this be something I set wrong or could it be one of those creepy crawly things "Bug"?

[Paul Decelles]

The check box simply tells MP whether to process the cycles as long hand (i.e G1's and G0's) or canned cycles (via pdrill, ppeck, etc...). They do not disable the output. The only way you could suppress the output would be to modify the post processor itself.

[ToolMan184]

Paul,

 

Will this work like the spindle speed recognition in the CD? Or am I going in the wrong direction and would be better off just unselecting the tap operation to post to Machine 2? No need in me beating a dead horse if it isnt going to work anyways.

[Paul Decelles]

No, the control definition does not know what your post outputs for a given canned cycle. That given "tapping" cycle could be a tapping cycle, or perhaps a probing cycle, or something totally different. The post processor is the thing that decides what comes out in the end. It is certainly possible to remove all output from psof, ptlchg, ptap, ptap_2, pcanceldc and pretract in a given post when a tapping cycle is selected but it hardly seems worth the effort. Far better to simply select the operations you want to run and post them.

[ToolMan184]

Thanks Paul,

 

Off to Bigger and better things.

[Nathan G. Baldwin]

Toolman,

Are you wanting the tap cycle to be ignored completely by machine 2 or simply to be output as a standard tap cycle (as opposed to a rigid tap cycle)? If it's the latter I can certainly help. You would have to modify the post used by the 2nd machine def. As long as you're using two separate posts, you can change the tap cycle output pretty easily and the change will be seen whenever you switch machines. With this method, you wouldn't have to change anything in your toolpath in mastercam, just switch machines and voila, Rigid goes to standard.

 

As Paul was saying, turning off the check box in the CD only disables the canned tap cycles, forcing longhand output. You could, if only using one machine set up two tap cycles as crazy millman mentioned above, in which case going from tapping to rigid tapping would involve only a change in the cycle type within drilling parameters.

 

Either way, I'd be happy to help out. Just drop me a line.

 

HTH

[ToolMan184]

Nathan,

 

I was wanting it to ignore the tap operation. It will be just as easy to unselect the tap operation before posting as Paul suggested. I was just looking for the lazy way around it. But, thanks anyways.

 

Try to keep Jim in line if possible.