new machine coming

[Bob W.]

A 5-axis crash on a Haas could EASILY cost $15k and you will have to send the trunnion back to Haas for a complete rebuild. That would pay for most of Vericut right there. 5-axis machining is not something where you want to go the cheap route to save a buck. Do it right and pay once.

 

It is not uncommon to have a tool holder within 1/4" of the fixture with the work tilted away from you and out of view. I almost have a coronary many times even after running the NC verification. I laugh to think of trying that without NC verification :-)

 

As a small shop owner the only purchases I have ever regretted were when I didn't buy the best software, tooling, equipment available.

[Bob W.]

For 5-axis the Mastercam machine sim is just a bunch of pretty animations. I modeled up my machine completely but the sim rarely matched what happened on the machine. With a trunnion there are two ways to get to any position, a positive A-axis move or a negative A-axis move. Machine sim got it wrong most of the time... If you want to be sure a program is safe to run machine machine sim is NOT the way to go.

[Alvaro Gil - Cimquest-inc.com]

Rob, if the machine sim is driven by the post processor it will show the actual movement of the machine. Multiple solutions, and instabilities when near 0 0 1 will be shown because the simulation code is being posted by the .PST file.

 

 

In my opinion a well set up Machine sim is all that is needed. Vericut simulates a machine by interpreting the NC code. Although one step more direct, if there is an error in vericut, it will not work correctly. Similarly if there is an error in the machine sim code, it will not work correctly either. The gap has been tightened quite a bit between vericut and machine sim with the ability to drive the sim file from the PST file.

I'd ask your dealer about hooking up the post to the machine sim if the budget is not large enough for vericut.

 

The ultimate use of the machine sim would be NC verification with the CAMAIX product.

[Robert Ouellette]

i will ask inhouse to show me how to hook up post to machine sim. thanks all for your help. i will be showing this thread to the boss next week when he gets back from vacation. maybe he will change his mind.