using 5ax drill on 4 ax horzontal

[SLJ]

Hope someone can explain this to me.

I've got a part on the front of a tombstone on a horizontal mill(A61), I set my planes as top,front,front(center of tombstone=center of rotation). The part is machined as needed in this front position, then moved to the top of the tombstone to drill a series of holes on a contoured wall. The 5 ax drill operation is set to 4 ax output, points/lines for geo. and original point for tip control. The planes are the same as before, staying with the original G54 offset(center of rotation, bottom of tombstone). Backplot shows fine, the tool orients to the vector line and drills where needed. Posting however doesn't come up with a B axis move to align to the hole vector(should be roughly B-100 deg.). I know it has to be in the planes, I'm just not finding the cause.

[john316]

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Time to experiment. Try changing to Top/Top or Front/Front and see what happens. I've done this before but forgot how I got it to output the correct B moves.

 

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[HT]

Try use mill 4 axis horizontal MMD, change your 5ax drill toolpath to WCS-Top C-Front T-Front and see if you get the code you want .

[SLJ]

I've tried about every combination I can think of so far. If I change the view to anything other than top I get error messages when posting. I've always thought of view as rotational axis so leave it as top in all cases on this machine. I'm using a copy of the original front plane as tool and const. plane, but it doesn't work on the original front either. I can force output of rotation with a tool/const. plane change, is there anything in the post or MMD that would preclude use of hole vectors for rotation?

[HT]

Look into HMC-B properties change Axis of rotation to Y+; 0 deg. possition to Z+ to see if it work.

[SLJ]

Won't let me load the other mmd, says it can't run the 5-ax drill operations. Changed the 0 deg position to z+ and it didn't help. Planes are set to top, front, front.

Forgot to add, this is a mpmaster post, modified by Inhouse for our Makino A61

[HT]

Well, SlJ i don't know if i can help without look at your .MMD and .PST file, i think you may have program your B0.0 at WCS-top C-top and t-top. good luck. HT

[john316]

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Without using a 5-axis post you might have to use a different toolpath.

 

Try a regular drill cycle with "Rotary Axis Positioning" and "Rotate About Y Axis" selected on the "Rotary Axis Control" page of your drilling parameters.

 

I haven't used that function in a while so you'll have to read the Mcam help file but that should give you what you want with the MpMaster style post.

 

WCS/Cplane/Tplane set to Top/Front/Front

 

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[gcode]

This is something that worked great

in V9 and got totally broken in X.

Kevin.. do you remember the shrouds

on the big horizontal I did in V9..

5 axis city .. all day long..no problem..

I have never successfully used 5 axis toolpaths

on a 4 axis horizontal on any version of X

and I've trashed a couple of posts and machine defs trying.

4X vertical machines are no problem..

4X horizontal.. forget it.

[SLJ]

Thanks guys, I'll give it some more thought.

[SLJ]

gcode, what do you use in x? currently running x3mr1.

[gcode]

quote:

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gcode, what do you use in x? currently running x3mr1.

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I don't.. My current job doesn't require a lot of 5X toolpaths on our 4X horizontals..

It would be nice to have, especially 5X drill.

I've spent a lot of time trying to get a machine

def /post combination that will do 5X and still

runs Front=B0 like a traditional 4X post.

When I get 5X drill posting right, I've broken something else..

The couple of times I've really needed 5X code,

I used a vertical mill machine def and hacked it together.

 

It wouldn't be too hard to build a

gen5X post to do this.. but then I'd loose

all the fine tuning I've done with my

4X mpmaster posts.

[SLJ]

John, I'm not seeing the rotary axis positioning you're talking about. I'm on X3MR1. What drill cycle are you talking about? About the only way I see to do this right now is to build a seperate wcs for each hole. don't really want to do that but the machine is waiting!

[john316]

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I'm using X4mu1. The rotary drill settings are in a different location because they've changed the look of it but they're in the toolpath parameters in the Ops Manager.

 

I've been looking for a sample file but haven't been able to locate one yet.

 

I did find one that has a wcs for one hole and translate rotate for the rest. They're in equal incremental angles from each other so it was a simple operation.

 

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[Nick Eaton]

We manage to get 4 axis output using 5 axis toolpaths on both VMCs and HMCs.

Clearly the .MMD is important but it is equally important how you derive your vectors.

For drilling 5x holes in 4x I first untrim the surfaces inside the hole. If it untrims as one surface then create an edge curve at both ends of the cylinder. This might create splines so you need to simplify to arcs.If it untrims as two surfaces then choose one and use "entity properties" to convert to a full arc.

Then go into back or front C-view and set to 2D.

Set z depth at bottom of hole and select lower arc center and pass the vector through the upper arc center.

This process locks your vectors normal to the rotation plane you are using and prevents rotations in a direction that the machine does not support. Vector will pass through the center of upper arc when viewed from front /back but not neccessarily when viewed from left/right or top.

What you want to see is perpendicular lines when viewed from right or left.

If you have this condition already, then it is either .MMD or .PST file problems.

For 5x vector driven toolpaths I would again use C plane front/back and project to the z value at the base of the vector in 2D. Again you are looking for perpendicular lines when viewed from left/right.

All this works much better and is more stable if you are using Mastercam origin. Can be done with your own constructed WCS but you have to be careful if you edit anything as it has a habit of loosing the origin.

Have done this now in all X versions

Hope this helps.

[Reece L Gibson]

Wow,never heard of this issue before......

[SLJ]

Hey Reece, you want to come down and play with it this weekend? I'm heading to Texas for my son's wedding in the morning and Nick will be here by himself with several other parts in the lineup.

[Reece L Gibson]

I would come down,but I have to travel to the middle of the state for some onsite stuff. But I'll tell you what I will do, is show you the fix for it.

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