Couple WCS questions

[Rstewart]

I'm happy to say that I finally sat down and figured out how to correctly use the WCS!

 

Say I have a block of material that gets drilled on all sides. I use the view mgr to orient my t/c plane to drill a pattern on all sides, Then verify and everything looks great. Can I post the whole program using a pgm stop to orient the part in the vise between each side?

Or does it have to be multiple programs in the machine control?

 

Do I have to change tool length offset between sides? I'm thinking not.....

 

I'm learning more and more things sloooowwwly but surely. Trial and error kinda deal. I know that you guys can give me a direct answer, Thanks in advance!!

[Newbeeee™]

You could add a Manual Entry at each orientation.

 

M00

(ROTATE PART 90 DEGREES)

M00

[Rstewart]

Ok that will work. My post outputs a M01 before a tool change; Op stop would work for that. Not so well if im using the same tool.....

 

There is a different drill pattern on each side of the matl, but using the same tool.

 

There may not be a way of doing this without manual entry, other than a post edit.....

(you are talking about keying that in after its posted correct?) Am I missing something else?

 

Didn't state this earlier, but this is a 3 axis vert.

Sorry for my ignorance.

[Newbeeee™]

Nope, go to Toolpaths pull down menu and use the Manual Entry there.

 

If you're using the same tool between rotations, you can put the manual entry where required (between operations), and select 'Force tool Change' in the operation.

This should then stop the spindle etc, the Manual Entry should then post out the M00 etc, and then the next operation should start the spindle again and continue.

 

Note: There are a lot of *should's* in the above...

[Mike S @ S4A]

even if your tools are used in multiple ops you can still force a tool change at each op...look for the checkbox "force tool change" -

it's on tab one of the legacy style interface, topic two in the tree style menus.

 

sure you can call the same H &/or D offsets, but I think you want to call different work offsets on each face to accomodate changes in Z

[robh]

1+ to Mike S. the first op, G54, you can leave X and Y the same for all ops if your up against a stop on your fixed jaw, op2 G55 if you need to move your Z up or down to accomodate for your part being taller or shorter, you can, X and Y being against a stop are the same, and so on for each side G56 thru G59, if there is no difference i.e. you have a perfect cube, you can do it all with only one work offset G54 or whatever and M00 between all your ops so you can reposition your piece..HTH

[DavidJackson]

surely manual entry m00 would be 1000% safer than relying on force tool change m01?

[Thad]

quote:

---

I'm happy to say that I finally sat down and figured out how to

correctly

use the WCS!

---

I hate to burst your bubble, but...

 

 

quote:

---

Can I post the whole program using a pgm stop to

orient the part in the vise between each side?

---

If you are putting the part in a vise and each setup require you to remove the part and put it back in the vise a different way to drill holes in another face, the you should be using a new WCS (or view), not Tool planes. Tool planes are used when you mount the part to a tombstone, for example, and it does the rotations for you.

 

Check out the examples and videos in this thread to give you an idea of how you should be doing it. This is why you're running into your program stop issue.

 

There may be some circumstances (small, simple parts) where robh's instruction will work, but I wouldn't label it as being the "correct" way of using WCS.

 

Thad

[Rstewart]

Wow! Thanks for all the answers guys. Yeah I know I titled that incorrectly stating: using WCS "correctly" but I'm getting there.

 

Maybe my terminology got mixed up on a few things. First - I am using View Mgr located in the WCS Tab.

 

Say I highlight the Front View in View Mgr, then hit the "=" sign to make the tool relative to that side of the work piece.

I then pick my points to drill, then on to the next side.

 

Everything Verified good. just wanted to know If I am at least half-@ss doing it correctly LOL.

 

I appreciate all the help from everyone!!

[Thad]

Sounds like you've got the hang of it. I think you'll find the best way is to post them out by setup.

 

Thad

[robh]

forgot to say in my previous post, it'll only work if your WCS is, for example, left or right rear or front corner on "each" op "it must be the same point" whatever is against your fixed vise jaw and stop, for my example to work, that's huge to leave out,sorry

[Rstewart]

Ok cool, so the datum (WCS) has to stay in the same position on the part on all operations?

 

what about those three yellow boxes(x,y,z) that lets you change a "new" datum position?

 

Its not a big deal if I have to leave it in the same spot, just curious.....

 

and again Thanks!

[robh]

the WCS doesn't "have" to stay in the same place for each op, that was only "one way" to do it,if your WCS is in a different place on your part,say op4, then that work offset (g54,g55,g56 or whatever)would have it's own XYZ position.Anyway you're on the right track hpoe I didn't confuse ya..