Programming methods?

[Diedesigner]

Hi all,

Let me introduce myself. My name is Chris, and I work for a progressive stamping die manufacturer in the suburbs of Chicago. We have V8.1, but haven't fully migrated over to Mastercam because our programmers are more productive with our highly customized Smartcam, using macros.

I am more familiar with Mastercam than anyone else in our company, however my familiarity comes from what I've taught myself, and also through some interaction with our reseller. Our application is 2-1/2 axis drilling/tapping/boring and 2-1/2 axis milling; about 60% drilling ops and 40% mill ops. All of our work is in steel plates of varying thickness, with everything being "one-off". I find that using macros in Smartcam seems to be much more productive than the drilling functionality in Mastercam, but the milling is better in Mastercam rather than in Smartcam.

It seems that MC requires more user input to accomplish the same tasks than in SC. I've built tool and op libraries, but even using the op libraries seems to require a lot of user input. In SC, all I have to do is an arc selection (similar to "mask on arc" function in MC), press a menu button which calls out a macro, and presto! , all the selected arcs are programmed with all the tools particular to the chosen macro. All this is accomplished in (3) mouse clicks combined with some user input typing in the menus. The same macros will work on any thickness plate, all I have to do is type in the plate thickness on the menu. To import an operation in MC seems to be much more tedious and user input demanding, on top of which you would have to open each tool in the operation and edit the depths if the plate thickness varies from that which was specified in the op library.

I write all this so that you can see the programming environment I come from, so that you may hopefully be able to advise me on how I can get MC to be more productive for us. Any input from you users who do similar work? Any different methods you can recommend? I thought of recording a macro in MC where I could select my arcs, press the macro-assigned icon bar button, and have the macro automatically do the desired operation import. This would approach the functionality I have with SC. But the macro function is too limited in MC. And who has time to learn C++?

Because all of our programming is for unique parts where the programs will be used once, and then discarded, our programming has to be as quick as possible for fast throughput.

I look forward to reading your responses. I want to move our programmers onto MC as soon as possible, but they have to be productive also.

 

Chris

[gary dunn]

i am planning to move up there in probably

early august. most likely right over there in indiana close to hammond. do you have a mailing addy where i can send resume to ?

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

Well, if you, in your Ops library have the depths set to Incremental 0, then when you pick the arc your depth is recorded. Also, you only need to make the settings changes in one operation, you can then drag the parameters from one operation to another and you can drag the geometry from one operation to another, regen all, Post, Done!

 

Not quite as fast as a SmartCAM (gee, Mastercam is still around and they are not, they must really be smart - sorry I could not resist ) macros. Really though, I must tip my hat to SmartCAM, they were the force behind the drive for associtivity. Props to the folks at Point Control for that stuff. They were way ahead of their time with that one.

 

BTW I hope I was of some help not just a pest.(Not a word Jay.... )

 

JM2C

[cadcam]

But James!!! Ok NOT a word.

(James taking my fun away)

[Tony]

Chris

I Drop and drag drilling operations from my library.But hey,

I Lived in Elk Grove for 25 year's.

I heard the Industrial park is a Record low 40%

Vacant?

Tony

EGHS '82

[P_Scott]

Chris,

 

There is an Auto drill toolpath that became available in V8. That toolpath is found in the Toolpaths-Next Menu-Circle toolpaths-Auto Drill. When you select your geometry to drill, the Auto Drill function will spot, drill and tap or ream or bore all arcs and points that you have selected after filling in the necessary parameters for your operations. It is also improved upon in V9 with the addition of a depth diagram similar to the ones in the regular drill ops as well as the new Clearance plane at the beginning and end of your ops instead of between each of your holes. HTH

 

[ 04-12-2002, 09:15 AM: Message edited by: Peter Scott, Services 4 Automation ]