Mastercam Wire EDM input

[LansB]

Good morning guys. I am a long time user of Mastercam mill and lathe but don't have any experinace with wire.

 

We just purchased a Agie Charmilles FI 440CC and I am going to be trying out Mastercam Wire on it. Is there anything I need to know? How does it compare to mill?

 

Thanks,

[Lars Christensen]

Are you planing on taking any training from Charmilles and you Mastercam reseller?

[LansB]

I haven't decided the training on the Mastercam part of it yet. I'll have to see what I think about it when I start to use it.

 

I am going to get a crash course, more or less, on the Charmilles and we have a guy here that has run the same machine.

 

All that I usually do is the programming for all of our machines. About once a month I go out on the floor and set-up/run the lathes and mills as needed. I have a good knowledge of those and they would like me to have the same amount of knowledge about the wire as well.

[Guest]

lans, it is my understanding from some of the post here that agies and mastercam wire may take some work to be compatable .

[LansB]

hmmmm, that sounds believable since Agies supposedly is in some kind of joint deal with PEPS software.

 

Our Agies guy said that they are owned by the same people so they strongly recommend PEPS with the machine.

 

He also said that He hears a lot of people using Mastercam and if that is what I am used to it might be better to stick with one software.

 

I would like to do that if possible but if it takes too much to make it happen efficiently then maybe not...

[Chipmakr]

We use MC with our Agie machines with no problems. The stuff that del is refering to only applys to the Agievision control. I would guess your machine is coming in the the CT control or the Fanuc control. So you should be somewaht at home if you have a Fanuc background. Do you know what you are getting?

[LansB]

Hmmmm. It is definately not Fanuc so I am hoping it is CT. It has a windows based touch screen and runs on G-code. What is the easiest way to find out?

 

I have the book in front of me right now checking into it.

[LansB]

The stuff I am seeing in the program manual says CT-graphic preview...CT-Expert. So it looks to be CT.

 

Thanks Dwain,

[LansB]

WOOT! It's Fanuc. That is relief!

 

I was starting to get worried when you mentioned that Dwain!

 

Thanks again,

[mikeqes]

Lans,

I have Charmilles 240 here with Charmilles Millennium

control..which I think is pretty close if not the same as yours. The hardest time I had was finding a good post, but after that I have had few problems running it with MC. If your control is like mine,you will have to tweak your wire library so it puts out the right power setting (S501.S502 ETC) and that it outputs the correct "D" setting (always D0 for my control) so that it kicks in the cutter comp.

If you are used to MC mill, you will pick it up

in no time.

 

Mike

[Chipmakr]

Sounds like your in good shape there Lans.

[ToolMan184]

quote:

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Our Agies guy said that they are owned by the same people so they strongly recommend PEPS with the machine.

---

That is true. PEPS used to be (havent seen it in a while)the best software for Agie machnes. ESPRIT used to very good as well. Esprit for the wire side is not as good as it used to be IMHO. PEPS is good depending on the AGIE machine. Not sure about any other machine but MasterCam does a good job with Fanuc controlled machines. Roger Martin is the man when it comes to POSTS for a wire machine. I would say they have post for about anything now days. The older Agies used to be a PITA when it came to post. But I havent messed with an AGIE for a few years now and HOPE I never have to again.

[Jerry_P]

I would definitely suggest some training from Mastercam on the Wire end running wires is a completely different than mills. Also you will have to make some minor changes on the standard post that they give you to make it work on Charmilles. Just eliminate the D value in the post. Charmilles tec files will put their own offset in the tec file. I have been using Mastercam with Charmilles 240cc and 440 for 4 years. and it works OK

[MAKINOPAT]

I am using MC to run our makino wire. the installer highly recommended peps, but we didn't want to buy another software after just buying MC. you have to do things a little diffrently using MC versus peps but is very easy once you set it up.If you are fluent with mill you should have no problem programming with MC.