How do you set up?

[Greg_J]

Rick,

What would the name of the setting be?

 

Kennebec,

Thats exactly what I've done but when it post it post A0 and it should be A270, I also have and extra setup other then the 4 "normal" sides. I have two holes on a 20 degree angle (290 degrees) and when I post those programs it gives me A0 as well.

 

Greg

[mtnflyr]

Greg,

It sounds like you may not have your WCS set correct. If you've drawn your part so that it is aligned with the X axis, Y and Z the center of the part. All your T/C planes should have the WCS set to TOP. Check your Planes in your cut parameters to see what your Work Cooridinate System, Tool Plane, and Comp/Construction Plane settings are. The Work Coordinate System setting should be the same on all your views. The Tool Plane and Comp/Construction Plane will be relative to the side you're working on.

The Display relative to WCS should also be turned off.

[Greg_J]

All my WCS are set to TOP and my T/C Plane and C Plane are set to the coresponding side. Also my display relative to WCS is off. All my X0 and Y0 are set the same but my Z is set to the top of the part and all the values are the same Z+1.75 does that matter?

 

Greg

[kennebec]

Greg

 

have you looked in your toolpath Planes tab to see that for "but when it post it post A0 and it should be A270, " toolpath your planes are 1)WCS Top 2)Tool Plane A270 and 3)Comp/Construction Plane A270

 

Kennebec

[Mcam Nut]

If your wcs is top, your c&t planes are set to the corisponding view (A270.0), and it is posting at A0.0, then it is not your program that is the problem. take a look in the machine def that your rotory axis is set up on the correct axis, if that is not the problem, look at the post, to make sure it is not set to hmc.

you said your z is set to the top of the part, you may want to set z to the center of the part(center of rotation) I never tried using the top of the part, this may be the problem.

[Greg_J]

I am assuming it is my Machine def. that needs work. I think it is generic and hasn't been edited to suit this machine. I will play with it and if I have any questions I will post them here. I have a MC supplier that I can bring in here and show him. Or I could put my file on the FTP site and you could look at it (Zip-to-Go).

 

Greg

[Jim at Gentex]

Greg,

 

Yes, you do need to set up your machine def to match the actual machine. Otherwise you will never know if the problem is in the plane orientation or the post.

 

After that is done, your problems should decrease significantly.

 

One thing I always rely on when doing 4 or 5 axis programming is using the alt+F9 function to show the Cplane and Tplane indicators in the upper corners of the screen. These will show the orientation of those planes in relation to your WCS indicator which is always displayed in the lower left corner of the screen.

 

I have found that keeping the Cplane and Tplane indicators turned on all the time helps me to keep the proper orientation with a quick visual check. Once you get accustomed to looking at those indicators, it will become second nature and you will be able to spot orientation problems long before you post your code.

 

HTH

[Greg_J]

Thanks for the tip, acctually use the F9 button I have never tried the Alt+F9. F9 brings up cross hairs in the 3 axis and shows me where my part orgin (brown) is and where my T-plane orgin (blue) is. It is very helpfull.

 

I am working on my machine def but it might take some time, we only have one Mill Level 3 license and it is tied up most of the time. I am trying to convince my manager that another license would be very helpfull, being that we have two mills that use it all the time.

 

Greg

 

Greg

[RDub]

Greg, a quick way to create a plane on the bottom that will give you the correct "A" output is to create a bounding box and then select the appropriate lines to give you the bottom plane with the X axis pointing the same direction as the Top plane. If it isnt creating a new plane, you may be accidentally re-selecting the bottom plane which as we noted earlier will not give you the correct X or Y Values