Curriculum

[Snehal Shah]

Hi All,

 

Wanting the opinions of the industrial customers and teachers. I will be posting the same question on the educational forum.

 

I'm currently teaching Mastercam and SolidWorks at a school here in Toronto, Ontario. We want to add more subjects to our curriculum for Mastercam. I want to know from the industrial users what subject areas are you using on Mastercam these days. As for the instructors, are you focusing on High Speed toolpaths, FBM, ? and if so how many days,weeks are you teaching the students.

 

For instructors : Also I know this is not the forum for SolidWorks but do you interact SolidWorks with Mastercam ?

 

Its nice to be back on this forum

 

Snehal

[Jayson Kramer]

(are you focusing on High Speed toolpaths, FBM, ?) I start with the basics like contour pocket and so on and then later get into the 2D HST in the beggning class but I may spend a few nights in this area as I do not have weeks to spare on it. I talk about Solidworks and how to bring the file in and work with it with the WCS tool to set there part to work from.

 

(We want to add more subjects to our curriculum for Mastercam. ) what do you mean more subjects besides all the tool that are in MC and do you give them projects after the basics and walk thru them or do you use a book for them?

[Snehal Shah]

Hi Jay,

 

We go in depth with the basic 2D toolpaths, Contour,Pocket,Drill and with the standard 3D roughing and finishing surface toolpaths.

 

We create custom projects and test for the students. As well we do have the books from IHS.

 

We want to modify our curriculum to teach more of the 2D and 3D high speed toolpaths and FBM. Therefore, I want to know if teachers/instructors are adding extra classes to teach these "new" toolpaths or are they changing their curriculum to accommodate these "new" subject areas.

[Jayson Kramer]

Guys how long are your class's and is all one class I do two class's one Beg and one Advance both class's are 72 hrs. the school just bought a 5axis haas machine so I can do a 5axis class in Mastercam and have them cut. this will be something new here.

Can't wait.

[Snehal Shah]

Thanks for the input Derek and Jay !

 

The info you have provided is going to be usefull towards tweaking/changing our curriculum.

 

Snehal

[Scott Lundin Shopware Inc.]

Jay,

When I teach evenings at the local college we do one night a week for 16 weeks which covers Intro (2D drawing), and Basic Mill. Each night is 2 hours lecture and 2 hours lab. So that is about 64 hours. Lab time is when I go around and help students on an individual basis. We also offer a Mastercam II class which covers 3D drawing and 3D toolpath cycles. Same time frame for this class. We also just got a 5ax bolt on unit for the Haas super mini-mill. The raw block is 2" square and that allows a max tool length of about 3-1/2" tip to spindle face. We just got it and will be developing a curriculum for it this coming summer. I am going to start out with a sample that just covers 3+2 so students can grasp planes and rotational directions. After that we haven't decided what will be next yet.

[Tom Matuszak from McCann Technical]

Jay,

We have had a Haas 5 axis trunnion for about a two years now. We really just got into it as a full five axis in the last 6 months. Kind of tricky to get at first but we are doing pretty good with it now. We finally purchased all of the "right" tooling and work holding pieces to go with it. It really helped getting a Raptor fixture. For Open House this year we 3D scanned a model of a human head brought it into Solidworks and cut it with Mastercam X5. All of the machine simulation and verification was perfect but when we cut it the tool dove into the part near one of the ears. It was still a great toolpath that got a lot of wow's. I also have created a model of the Raptor and the MCX of the head is up on the FTP. I forgot what I named it though possibly Cyberhead. Dan Newby also has the file as he is looking into the "dive".

Tom

McCann Tech

North Adams, MA

[Jayson Kramer]

Jay,

. I am going to start out with a sample that just covers 3+2 so students can grasp planes and rotational directions. After that we haven't decided what will be next yet.

I start covering the planes in the Beg class as we go into go into WCS and programming Horz machines with a Kurt toombstone vise. and for axis sub stuff to.

Then more gets covered in my advance class as we get into 3+2 and of course for drawing purposes.

I do like doing this I have been teaching at this school sense 2001 and of course at the Cad-Cam Consulting office and the NTMA trainning centers of Cali.

Then I am sure like you on site at customers to.

[Jayson Kramer]

Jay,

We have had a Haas 5 axis trunnion for about a two years now. We really just got into it as a full five axis in the last 6 months. Kind of tricky to get at first but we are doing pretty good with it now. We finally purchased all of the "right" tooling and work holding pieces to go with it. It really helped getting a Raptor fixture. For Open House this year we 3D scanned a model of a human head brought it into Solidworks and cut it with Mastercam X5. All of the machine simulation and verification was perfect but when we cut it the tool dove into the part near one of the ears. It was still a great toolpath that got a lot of wow's. I also have created a model of the Raptor and the MCX of the head is up on the FTP. I forgot what I named it though possibly Cyberhead. Dan Newby also has the file as he is looking into the "dive".

Tom

McCann Tech

North Adams, MA

Tom I was hoping today or tomorrow to review your part files you sent. I have been busy with work and now 3 class a week for this run.Did your school buy the Raptor or did you talk to Brian or David and get it donated?

[Tom Matuszak from McCann Technical]

Tom I was hoping today or tomorrow to review your part files you sent. I have been busy with work and now 3 class a week for this run.Did your school buy the Raptor or did you talk to Brian or David and get it donated?

We bought it. There was a fairly good discount on the fixture and base plate. I must say that since buying it we have been able to do a whole lot more a LOT easier than the chuck we were using before.