Mill Rotate Command

[[email protected]]

Hey all, I am hooking up an aftermarket 4th axis to my HAAS VF-0  Mill and use Mastercam to program it.  What Im missing is how does, or where does Mastercam have a "BUTTON" to initiate the rotation? I have MC2018. 

[Colin Gilchrist]

The rotation is initiated by the Post Processor, when the Post sees a change in the Tool Plane. Or, when settings inside the Operation indicate that other Rotation is taking place.

The WCS is the "orientation" of the Machine Axes. When you program with WCS = Tool Plane (often Top/Top), then there is "no rotation".

Programming any feature of the part, with a Tool Plane that is "rotated" from your WCS, tells the Post Processor to use Vector Math to calculate the correct angle (based on the Z Vector of your current Tool Plane).

The other way to get "rotary" output, is to use one of the "conversion" options. For example, Mastercam has the ability to do both Polar output, and can also "wrap" a flat path around a "cylinder".

I'd suggest getting some basic training from your Reseller, so that you understand all of the Rotary output options that are available...