ordinate dimensions

[Laz]

We are using Mastercam Design w/ Solids 8 & 9 at my workplace. We need to obtain ordinate dimensions for the nc work in the shop ( they have been using Ezcam for that ). But we are getting files and need to extract that infomation more quickly.

I am researching the software Help and the tutorials; but without much sucess. Maybe I am forgetting something basic here- but so be it.

How can I extract co-ordinate info and provide i, j and k values in Mastercam ?

[Jack Mitchell]

Laz,

 

“But we are getting files and need to extract that information more quickly.”

 

From which source?

 

“How can I extract co-ordinate info and provide i, j and k values in Mastercam ?”

 

Mastercam will take care of these things for you – Why would you need to pose this question?

 

I am not picking on you – please don’t get me wrong.

 

Please be more specific with your question.

 

Regards Jack

[Laz]

Thank-you for your response.

The files we are getting are from our customers requiring their parts for us to make. Faxed drawings are often very poor quality. The files are sent in many different formats ( dwg. cdl. iges. etc. ). I just started there; as the only guy with formal mc training and prior experience, it seems that I should try to see if we can extract this info directly from MC ( instead of re-creating the geometry on other software to provide this info ). We have Mc design and solids; milling, lathe, and wire were not purchased. We have a fairly large production run in the shop on many different machines- what I do is provide the drawings for the machinists in the shop. I, J and K values are for them to enter in the NC machines and canned routines ( production ). I've been playing around trying to move the part origin etc. but so far to no avail and besides I can't really be seen to waste time at my job either.

[Glenn Bouman]

Did you try Create, Drafting, Dimension, Ordinate, Window?

[McRae]

Interesting,

 

You need to find ordinate dimensions so that the shop floor guys can enter data into another form of a CAM package... Wait a minute,

 

Run over to you manager and slap him/her in the head and say "Andrew thinks your a moron - Buy Mastercam so I can do my job!"

[Jim Whipple]

quote:

---

Interesting,

 

You need to find ordinate dimensions so that the shop floor guys can enter data into another form of a CAM package... Wait a minute,

 

Run over to you manager and slap him/her in the head and say "Andrew thinks your a moron - Buy Mastercam so I can do my job!"

 

---

Andrew Andrew Andrew!!!

Play nice

Ah LOVE it!

Jim

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

Analyze Chain????

[P_Scott]

Laz,

 

Glenn and James have suggested a couple of tools you can use to give you the information you are looking for. Andrew has a point, even though he says some unnecessary things along with it. The code file, with IJK ouput, can be produced with very little effort if you had the Milling aspect of MasterCAM included with your seat of Design. You could save the company much time and increase their production a thousand fold with an investment, on their part, of upgrading your seat to Milling. For them to waste their time by manually typing the code is no reflection on your experience. They are also wasting your talents by doing so. If the Operators are concerned with their job security, ask them how secure they will be when the jobs go to someone else, using Mastercam to produce the code 100's of times faster and without errors. JMHO Good Luck Laz. HTH

[Laz]

thanx fellows; i will try a few of the more practical suggestions you have given me. hopefully there will be something there; ( or I might wind up having to learn ez-cam !)

[Scott Bond]

Hi Laz Welcome to the forum

 

The company will benefit from a mill purchase that will do the ijk code in seconds effortlessly. The company will loose time and new work waiting for -any- human to type the many ijk's into the control.If the company is willing to pay your seat time to learn Ezcam , They must be willing to here your sales pitch on MasterCam. So Laz I am wondering if you are running a pirate mill seat, and because of that you are afraid to ask the question's you should be asking here. If I am wrong --- I totally apologize

If I am Wright please get your team to register a Mastercam seat.

[Laz]

no we are not running any pirate mc seats; the sim hasp that was installed on the back of my cpu is white in color; if you further doubt then i can provide the serial no. too, ok? mastercam.com has my email.

 

i have no fear of asking questions that need to be asked; i am very self-reliant and will endeavor to answer my questions 1st than ask. as i stated above, i am the only person there with mc training and being the new guy i will try to estabish my value to the company with my knowledge of mc than hazard that.

 

i don't think much of know-it-alls who waste my time with pretensions

 

the shop has quite a few machines; edm, lathes, mills, grinders ( we are manufacturing punches and dies ). as it is it is perhaps better that the fanuc routines be left to the team leaders and shop guys who are actually working with the machines-( note too that there are a lot of NC machines there too ).

 

but you see; i ask a simple question here and suddenly have to defend my right to ask....

perhaps that answers your question best mr bond.

[McRae]

Laz fires up his 5ax Lazer Trimmer with Scott clamped to the table...

 

"Do you expect me to answer your questions Goldfinger?"

 

"No, I expect you to die Mr Bond..."

[Scott Bond]

Ok,Ok

I got lost when you wrote::::

quote:

---

We have Mc design and solids; milling, lathe, and wire were not purchased.

---

I miss-under stood (((milling, lathe, and wire were not purchased.)))

Then you also wrote::::

quote:

---

as the only guy with formal mc training and prior experience

---

It was hard for me to comprehend your unique situation, I made my statements based on my

interpretation of what you wrote, you are perfectly welcome to lash out at me . However you will

be better off directing any of this misdirected anger towards who ever told you that you received

formal Mastercam training .

 

Here is an answer-

In Mill------ , Chain ,Post ,Send

 

Or

In Design, it will be possible to create points at the end points of your print geometry

Maybe geometry that has been drawn on the center of the tool.

Then print it out .

Take the print to the machine, Stand at the Machine and type all the code in.

In My Humble Opinion

Righting CNC code in Design will waste your valuable intellect .

 

( or I might wind up having to learn ez-cam !)

I am not convinced that this is a step forward.

 

To Andrew

Laz fires up his 5ax Lazer Trimmer with Scott clamped to the table...

Bond escapes when the ""EZcam programmed lazer"" goes hay-wire

and cuts threw the clamps.

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

Laz, yes the best scenario for you would be to cinvince management to upgrade your Design seat to even a Mill Level 1. Your programming throughput would increase a minimum of 100%. But als I live in the real world too so I understand that may not be possible. That is why I sugggested Analyze, Chain. This will give you all of the andpoints in a chain and bring them up in a text box for you to edit, copy, or save to a file. Whatever you want to do.

 

Ez-Cam???? Yeeeeeeeeccccccckkkkkkkk!!!!!!!!!!

Sucks to be you.

 

Good Luck.

 

HTH

 

[ 10-31-2002, 10:44 AM: Message edited by: James Meyette ]

[McRae]

Scott - I have never laughed out loud reading the forum. Until now.

[johns]

If you check your machine parameter list, you may find that you don't need IJK and can use "R" instead. Fanuc controls accept either and other controls need to set the parameter. Don't forget that any angle over 180 deg. requires a "-" sign.

Eg... x1.0 y2.0 r-.75

You can also analyze "contour" and hand over a printed copy.

Purchase the Mill level 1, if thats all you need, and be much more productive.

[Laz]

i do appeciate the help. i tried analyze chain, which gives me some useful co-ordinate info.

 

to help clarify matters;

I don't do any programming; what i do is take the drawings/ files given by our customers and verify the dimensions; ensure there is adequate info to make the part/ determine the geometry and make a hardcopy for the shop in the back. i am the middle-man between the customer and the shop.

 

so if i am asked to provide i j k co-ords on my drawings how can i do this with mc design ?

 

i would say that i can't with mastercam.

[Scott Bond]

Hi Laz, maybe you could try this.

 

Starting with a basic 2-d "cookie cutter" shape that you received from the customer.

Then assuming we want the points, arcs , and lines to the center of the tool, you could use offset contour,this is done by chaining the 2-d geometry and offsetting it to the desired left or right of the existing geometry. Once you have this I would use SCREEN endpoints --Save yes-. Go to Create Drafting, and dimension each (point) as a point or an end point including the origin (X=0,Y=0). Then use Create Drafting to I.D the arcs. Bring it out to the shop floor and ask a seasoned veteran to review it and find out what other things he might like, or like to change.

If you could post a test file on the ftp , We could all look at it(maybe alter it a little ) and send back some examples.

Good luck

 

[ 10-31-2002, 07:12 PM: Message edited by: Scott Bond ]

[Jack Mitchell]

I sort of figured that I could lay low for a day on this issue and the forum would sort of satisfy this unusual situation.

 

“From Laszlo after I attempted clarity with the first response”

 

quote:

---

hey buddy, you asked me questions which i answered at length; now would you care to give me a hand in return here?

---

My name is Jack – not buddy; – most of us use our first names when asking and answering questions from other members.

 

There are no Prima Donna experts here, otherwise there would be many, many Professors & Doctors teaching this stuff at MIT- We are all one big happy family with lots and lots of experiences; in fact, I believe this forum to be the envy of many other competing products.

 

I don't believe $985.00 for Ezcam to be quite in the same ballpark when it comes to the sheer number of people actually earning a living using Mastercam.

 

I’m not angry with you, but alas I can’t say the same for the other members.

 

quote:

---

I don't think much of know-it-alls who waste my time with pretensions

---

Careful what you wish for – you might actually get it.

 

Welcome to the forum.

 

Regards, Jack

[McRae]

Laz -

 

Believe it or not, I am a middle man between the Customer and the Shop as well, I verify prints to see that there is sufficient infomation to manufacture a part and if there is not - to seek out and determine the information required.

(Contract Review - Non Value Added)

 

I also create Manufacturing Plans, generate, verify, and optimize tool paths offline with Mastercam (Value Added).

 

One of my core functions is Continuous Improvement - Eliminating waste in the value stream. Not just accepting how it is, but also researching and implementing systems for "How it could - or should Be". (Extreme value added - we keep this extra profit!)

 

You have a responsibility to your employer to educate them that there is waste in their value stream by having duplication of effort (between you and the shop floor). Get a hold of a demo copy of Mastercam and show your company how it could be - sure you could go on calculating I,J,K

by hand with an analyse function and a calculator, but so could someone else. Help the company grow and gain market share.

 

Otherwise - See you at the Auction...

 

BTW - These other fellows "Know it alls... Primadonnas... or what ever..." they are your competitors! To survive, know more than the next guy. "Purchase or be Purchased".

 

[ 11-01-2002, 12:30 PM: Message edited by: Andrew McRae ]

[cadcam]

Laz I like to say it, yes Mastercam can give IJK values that are in the gcode when posting a program from at least an entry Level of mc.other wise it will give you the points need to create the IJK Gcode output.

 

The options have been given to by the members and the dealers of this forum.

If there are other questions feel free to ask.

 

Have a good weekend.

[McRae]

Jay,

 

The root question is - Will mastercam give IJK values in Draft/Design. The answer we have given him should be - No! Not without analysing the centrepoint and the start point and then punching into the calculator to find the ordinates.

 

The greater help would be to give him information to upgrade to Mill Entry.

[Smit]

If you were to analyze between the start point of an arc and the center point of the arc, the X dimension should be I, the Y dimension should be J and Z should be K. For instance, X-.414 Y-.38 will be I-.414 J-.38. I tried it on a 2D part so there was no Z, but that should work too. That is if you're programming with cutter comp in the control, which is the easiest method if you're programming by hand.

My two cents.

Smit

[McRae]

Excellent, Between points will give the incremental distance between the startpoint and the centerpoint as required. So there Laz - Larry has just solved your problem.

 

Sorry for typing with my mouth full, anyone have a good recipe for Crow?

 

Best Regards,

 

[ 11-01-2002, 02:52 PM: Message edited by: Andrew McRae ]

[pactec]

Hello all...

 

All you have to do is create the endpoints and save them( as mentioned earlier). When you create the dimensions( or is that dimentions, wait that's just me) you create horizontal and vertical dim.s between the endpoint of the arc and it's centre. Edit the dim's text to show I's and J's instead of just the values. The operator will have all the info they need.

This is what you can do to help them even further: X-form, offset contour, chain, offset it the radius of the tool - this helps you see where there will be overlaps or fishtails. Next do the dimensioning on the offset chain and give the hardcopy to the operator. Then go to your boss and tell him in the time it took you to do this you could have had a program without having to type all the positions in again.

One last thing to consider is the possibility of the operator typing in wrong values as they try to speed through the process.

Get your dealer into the shop to prove out the system, there are so many options that it will make the demo at least worthwhile.

 

Hope this helps...