How to capture your machining knowledge ??

[Kurt]

I am a mastercam newbie.

The Mastercam v8.0 pdf brochure mentions

about 'capture your machining knowledge'

wherein you capture/build your machining strategies and apply them to similar parts.

Could somebody explain to me, how to go about doing this, in detail?

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

In a nutshell,

You have "Part X", it works exactly the way you like it, Tool DOC's and WOC's.

Now "Part Y" comes in the door. You draw (or import) Part Y, then you go to the Job Setup page, click "Import". Select from a file and select "Part X". It will ask yopu if you want to import the geomerty as well. Select the Operations and/or Geometry you want to import then "OK". It will tell you that "Operations have been Imported Successfully".

Now you go to your Operations manager, and start Applying Geometry to the operations and the parameters that worked before will be applied to the new part.

Post, Done!

Hope that helped.

James Meyette

 

[Allan Brown]

Furthermore, if you've finished 'Part X' and *anticipate* other parts will use similar operations, you can save operations out to Operation Libraries. These can be imported into new jobs right through the Operations Manager.

An example would be a set of pocketing operations:

1. rough the pocket with stock left on the walls and the floor

2. pick out (remachine) corners

3. finish the walls

4. finish the floor

-whatever you want

If the cutting methods, tools, feeds, speeds, etc. work out, you could save all four operations into one 'good roughing' operation library entry. Bring this in to your job and select the pocket geometry.

[Kurt]

Thanks a lot James and Dave, but how do i save the operations to an 'operation library'?

[JoeyW]

Kurt,

In the operations manager, click the right button on mouse to bring up menu bar. Select 'Save to library...'

Then select the operations you want to save to the library. You can save just the cutting methods (speed, feeds, DOC), with or without the geometry. I recomend you have each part into a different library file name (the .OP8) file. That way you can keep track of all your files.

To call up the saved operations library, open your new part file, go to operstions manager, right click and select 'Get from library...' Easy as pie.

[Luther Heggs]

The geometry used in the toolpath can also be saved off to and retrieved from an operation library. Good for families of parts, start models, etc. Only surface and wire frame geoemtry - NOT solids.

 

Another handy dandy tip:

In addition to copying geometry from one operation to another (drag & drop) in the Operation Manager, you can also copy geometry to an operation GROUP. Any 'compatible' operation in the operation group will accept the new geoemtry.

Example: copying chains from a contour operation into an operation group that contains a rough pocket, finish pocket, facing and a drill operations. The new chain will be added to all the compatible operations (i.e. operations that CAN contain chains - a chain will not be added into the drill operation).

So - if you import a group of previously stored operation parameters, add some geoemtry to one of them, you can simply drag the newly added from the one operation into many.

Luther