cmm programming

[Quickmike]

Is anyone using Mastercam to program their cmm? How is cmm vs. VMC programming? What about posts? We currently program at the cmm with their software (teach learn method). Any input would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

Check out This site.

 

BTW, I am not affiliated with these folks but I know them, I've seen it work and they make an outstanding product.

[MACHINEMASTERG]

have you tried that site www.cmmtalk.com sounds like a site that could help with those ???(

[chris m]

Damn, that's funny, we definitely need a "one-liners" area

[MACHINEMASTERG]

now if we had a one liner area would that be spam or sausage????

[Bullines]

Zing!

[Lucky]

The programming requirements and input formats for CMMs vary widely according the the brand of machine and software used. We use Zeiss CMMs here and I use Mastercam extensively to input nominal data. The Mastercam solid or surface model is imported directly and provides the CMM with all the information needed regarding the part. Click on a part feature, input your tolerances and some other basic information and you are done. The measured data can be output as an iges file and brought back into Mastercam for comparison with the original model or for reverse engineering applications.

[ssibiski]

We have a starret cmm here and we also use MC to get information to the cmm.

The results are varied.

Problems that we have run into are mainly with the cmm software.

Hopefully with a little more time and practice we will be able to get things smoothed out.

 

ssibiski

[TheePres]

MasterCam CMM software??

[Tri-Tech]

Verisurf is the CMM Inspection software for Mastercam, we can interface to all manual CMMs and measure parts within Mastercam.

 

We are working on the new Veriprobe product that creates the CMM toolpath that can be posted to most CMM controls.

 

Let me know if anyone would like a free test copy of Veriprobe?

 

Ernie Husted

Verisurf Software, Inc.

[email protected]

[Greg Williams]

Hi Quickmike,

 

We use another cam software package to program our CMM, We have the holos software but it is so good damn complicated we opt for the cam package.

[chris m]

Watch out for those Starrett CMMs

 

Someone posted a thread about CMM accuracy last week that contained a nice article about Starrett being sued over their CMMs..

[Lucky]

Before upgrading our CMM's software about a year ago, we were using U-Soft on our Zeiss. U-Soft will not accept CAD models directly like our current software. I modified a milling post and used 5-axis drilling toolpaths to generate an ascii text file containing probe points and surface normal vectors. I think many older machines have some ability to accept point data w/ probe direction vectors from a text file. It's a little cumbersome but gives your machine the ability to inspect 3D surfaces.

[Robby GM]

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Verisurf is the CMM Inspection software for Mastercam, we can interface to all manual CMMs and measure parts within Mastercam.

 

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Hi Tri-Tech

who about with a very OLD cordax..

[aberent]

I'm using Pcdmis with the same techniques as Lucky above. I think M/Cam and any CMM package is a perfect marriage. It was over 5 years ago I saw a demo of a Faro Arm scanning a part, and the point cloud going directly into M/Cam. Sweet!

[ssibiski]

Yes I saw the post and read the article about the starret cmm's. Unfortunatly we already have it and it has been paid for. But we are now keeping a close watch on what is going on with that investigation.

 

ssibiski

[McRae]

Mitutoyo has their own propritary software format on the CMM's but the vision machines can be interfaced with CADPAK which is software that interprets a dxf or other type file.

 

Demis is supposed to be a new standard for inspection. Never had the pleasure/gripe to work with it though.

 

James - Never had to worry about a CMM eh??? Why is that, you never had to make anything to specification?? LOL

[Verisurf - Ernie Husted]

Robby GM

 

quote:

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Hi Tri-Tech

how about with a very OLD cordax..

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Yes, Verisurf can interface to Cordax CMMs.

 

Interfacing to any stationary manual CMM requires a computer that can run Mastercam, PCI card and special cables.

 

The PCI card and cables will cost about 3K.

 

The cool thing is, once you upgrade any manual CMM with Verisurf you will find that it outperforms any DCC/CNC CMM when doing one part inspection.

 

The reason is simple, No programming is required.

Verisurf can AutoAign to any part in seconds and have a inspection report in minutes.

 

Ernie

[email protected]