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Showing content with the highest reputation on 06/03/2019 in all areas

  1. Something you have to pay for now starting in 2020...so if you're not already using it....and unless willing to pay for it, I wouldn't bother
    2 points
  2. To my way of thinking, I'm asking why isn't it done already? When I started where I am now in 15', they had HMC & VMC posts that required a fair bit of editing after post and had nothing extra for functionality in them...they did have some active reports setup sheets, mostly ironed out but still in need of some minor help...no tool libraries, no holder libraries, no machine sim, nothing else... While I am the only one of 3 programmers here that programs all equipment, VMC, HMC, Mill/Turns & 5 axis, the most focus I end up is on production HMC work...20 spindles alone. about 40 spindles total and move on the way. 1st thing I did was dial in the HMC post to be edit free....as time allowed, I then did the VMC post, again edit free....tool libraries were next....creating specific tools on the fly and saving them into a common library, it really didn't take long before I had a library teeming with defined tooling....holders were next.....from there, tweaking the setup docs.....then finally the machine models and machsim...(we still need a CAV package though, machsim does have some limitations) All of this has made my job easier, it has made it not only more reliable but more consistent as well...make no mistake about it, the setup guys appreciate that...I provide to them complete tool lists, p/n's included, tool assembly information, include holder, tool and stick out values, complete G10 offset output into the code... The time that I have saved by utilizing all that was made available is huge....people are thrilled with how fast a complete job can set turned around from the programming office to the floor...in most cases their experience before all of this was weeks to now in many cases days.... Yes, defining everything single thing that you can, so that it is used over and over and over is nothing but a time savings...
    2 points
  3. I know there are a lot of guys on this forum who I consider 'gurus' and their knowledge about Mastercam is so far beyond anything I have. But about 4 months ago our company's owner asked us to upgrade our abilities in Mastercam after I convinced him NOT to switch to Tebis software. And so we've been doing a ton of work in the stand-alone tool library, changed our posts, begun to use the simulation software and upgraded our use of the verify software. Along the way we had to figure out a lot of work-arounds and/or just figure out the idiosyncrasies of the Mastercam software. I don't know if anyone else has faced a similar task, but it was daunting to say the least. We got help here, from mastercam.com, from our Mastercam reseller and also from an independent contractor, (shout out to Mark R. Fryman) that we hired for a time. If it wasn't for others helping us, we couldn't have made it, and so I just want to throw out the offer to help anyone else who might have questions about doing similar things. We are a proto-type mold and fixture shop: everything we make is one off, but our owner wanted to automate our machining processes as much as possible by stringing together as many tools and operations as possible so that our operators could hit the button and let multiple tools mill our parts and get it right the first time as we ONLY get one chance to get it right. Maybe no one cares, or maybe others would want to offer their own tips and wisdom to this thread, too. I certainly don't know it all, but it's finally coming together after 4+ months of preparation, and it's kind of a good feeling to see it working and actually giving me more confidence in the programming that I do. Scott
    1 point
  4. X+ is a C-Hook that allows you to create libraries of fixtures and also does setup sheets. I dont really know much about the setup sheet side but I use it for fixtures. Very helpful add-in. EDIT: Apparently not free as i said before https://www.gmccs.de/downloads_x+.php
    1 point
  5. I had a similar thought a couple years back. I spent about a week customizing my Operation Defaults, setting up my tool libraries with speeds and feeds, and creating every single holder we use in my shop (some tooling assemblies as well). It was a gradual process improvement, I didn't just stop programming to do it, but I would say about 35 hours or so of work is how long it took. Customizing my Post Processors took a good while as well, working with the reseller as well as Postability. I save SO MUCH TIME not having to change every damn parameter in my operation manager for each Op. Like, a lot of time. Also a lot less air cutting. I save so much time not having to modify speeds and feeds for high-speed operations, or any operation, really. So while there is a good bit of legwork up front, the dividends start to pay off almost immediately. Do you use X+ for fixtures, etc? There are many many tools to help the Mastercam programmer's job easier and more fluid.
    1 point
  6. It was for me at one time as well the other option is do like above, bring in people to get it done...it really does pay for itself.
    1 point
  7. Reading your post really got me thinking. I started at this shop in April, and was my first time using Mastercam. The posts (or lack thereof) are a mess. Pretty much just using the generic posts for everything. I've since pretty much nailed down a Matsuura HMC post, and a Matsuura VMC post. Well, nailed down enough to be usable without making hand edits. We have no tool libraries setup, no proper machine solids. We are more or less just building each tool, with speeds and feeds from scratch each time. The shop where I first started programming, used Esprit, and while the posts were better, we didn't have tool libraries, setup sheets, machine solids, etc there either, so I assumed that kind of thing was just a luxury that only the HUGE, super lean, corporate type shops took advantage of. What I'm wondering about, is at what point is that necessary? Would we benefit? It seems as though somebody would need to almost make it their full-time job for a period of time, until things are ironed out, which i would imagine, in the end, would pay off with the increase in efficiency. We are a shop of 2 shifts, about 25-30 mills, and maybe 15-20 lathes. We do small runs of parts. Most often under 100 at a time. We have 5 Mastercam mill programmers, and I believe only 1 or 2 for turning. Would fine-tuning these things benefit us, or am I getting carried away?
    1 point
  8. 1 point
  9. You have always been able to do this. Take a copy of your part model and a gnomon at the WCS for your first operation, rotate and translate them both together until the part is positioned for your next operation, and use the gnomon to define a new plane. Then make a new copy of your stock model, referencing no operations, and set it to use the new plane. I do this frequently in X9.
    1 point
  10. We had had very good luck with these machines Boxx Computers S Class If you build your own you can build a machine like this for about 60% of what they are charging We have about 10 of these of various vintages, from 5 years to 1 year old and have yet to have any kind of failure I also bought one for myself for home use, but I lowballed the memory and storage and upgraded that myself which saved about a grand
    1 point
  11. I like to create custom tool geometry on a level in the program itself, and then link the custom tool to that. Makes for accurate verification.
    1 point
  12. Ok think we got it. Amazing what a # can do
    1 point
  13. 1st, make a backup of your post. In the ptooltable postblock, change this: ptooltable # Write tool table, scans entire file, null tools are negative tnote = t$ toffnote = tloffno$ tlngnote = tlngno$ spaces$=0 if t$ >= zero, [ if tcr$>0, scomm_str, *t$, ptspace, " - ", plistcomm, " - ", *tlngno$, phspace, " - ", *tloffno$, pdspace, " - ", *tldia$, punit, pdiamspc, " - ", *tcr$, punit, scomm_end, e$ if tcr$=0, scomm_str, *t$, ptspace, " - ", plistcomm, " - ", *tlngno$, phspace, " - ", *tloffno$, pdspace, " - ", *tldia$, punit, pdiamspc, scomm_end, e$ ] to this: ptooltable # Write tool table, scans entire file, null tools are negative tnote = t$ toffnote = tloffno$ tlngnote = tlngno$ spaces$=0 if t$ >= zero, [ #if tcr$>0, scomm_str, *t$, ptspace, " - ", plistcomm, " - ", *tlngno$, phspace, " - ", *tloffno$, pdspace, " - ", *tldia$, punit, pdiamspc, " - ", *tcr$, punit, scomm_end, e$ #if tcr$=0, scomm_str, *t$, ptspace, " - ", plistcomm, " - ", *tlngno$, phspace, " - ", *tloffno$, pdspace, " - ", *tldia$, punit, pdiamspc, scomm_end, e$ if tcr$>0, scomm_str, *t$, ptspace, " - ", plistcomm, " - ", *tldia$, punit, pdiamspc, " - ", punit, scomm_end, e$ if tcr$=0, scomm_str, *t$, ptspace, " - ", plistcomm, " - ", *tldia$, punit, pdiamspc, scomm_end, e$ ]
    1 point
  14. I just got off the phone with mcam tech support. He remoted into my pc and migrated in my RMB and keymapping. This is what he did: 1) Renamed my mcam2019 to my mcam2019.old 2) Went into the advanced configuration and reset dialog positions. 3) Went back through the migration wizard (Advanced) and checked only the Configuration files and the Workspace files. 4) Unchecked all but Mastercam 2018 5) Chose Update and Replace When the migration was finished, everything was back. ...which was great because I have a lot of custom keyboard commands that take a lot of time to re-map. Hope this helps.
    1 point

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