We have 2 CMS Routers both using Fanuc 31i A5 Controllers. CMS routers are made in Italy and are high precision with 1 being a 20' x 20 x' 72 in Z travel. About 4 million Installed and the 10' x 20' x 72 in in Z at half the cost.. Very robust machines and highly precision using scales for feedback. We are machining composite structures also. Mastercam X7 and Catia V5 R21 with ICAM post processors. There is another company out of Colorado Springs, CO (DMS) . So take a look at CMS North America (http://www.cmsna.com/) and DMS(http://www.dmscncrouters.com/ ) We are building the Orion Heatshield and Aeroshell.and other large structures.

Not that much

No I have never tried setting planes for tool control. Always looking for other ways though.

Flowline 5x with angled lines for tool axis control worked well. It locked B and C.

I ended up going to back to 5x flowline creating lines at 30 deg and rotating every 45 deg for a complete circle. Then picking tool axis control-lines and picking thoses lines at the angles needed for tool control. Looks good on backplot. Will run above tooling foam tomorrow.

Thanks for the info. I will create planes at the desired angles and check that out. Running on a 20' x 20' CMS Poseidon 5x router. An awesome and fun machine to work with.

I would like to machine along Z axis direction on a face of a model. Cannot get flowline 5 axis to lock head rotation and tilt of router head. Is there a better Toolpath to use. Can it be done with a 3d surface finish toolpaths.

Thanks

In Catia there is the ability to turn off output cycle syntax by a button on drill dialog box. I more experienced with mastercam but wanted to know if it had a simular capability

Is there the ability to shut drill cycles off in mastercam for 5 axis and just use X,Y,Z,B,andC positioning?

In multiaxis the retract and feed plane allow for safe approach and exit from hardware. Clearence height does not work as it would in 2d and 3d. You would think it would. So on my previous machine, the post was written by Postability. He added something in the post for Safe Z retract allowing a dialog box to come up when posting a toolpath in both multiaxis and 2d 3d. Tried to tell a different post company "Icam" what was needed but they did not add it in or did not understand. I was looking for a way to write it in myself, test it, and send to Icam. Both machines run Fanuc but 1998 tech verses 2012 technology.

Solved this one myself. Was missing the 90 deg sweep

I just installed Mastercam X4 MU3 level to an upgraded computer (Win 7) On my XP computer a true spiral pocket with a finish pass for a circle will show a lead on and off. but my win 7 machine will not do it even though I commanded Mastercam to do so. Is there something I need to check or uncheck in the dialog box or some other area of Mastercam to turn this feature on. I haven't had this issue before.

I used an older drawing with existing tool paths for a new drawing. I "saved as" to a new file name to create a new part. I deleted all tool paths. When I erase entities which used the old tool paths Mastercam asked me if I want to delete tool paths which are now not there. It has a memory of the older tool paths. Is there a way to clear those from the files memory.Mastercam X4

I was doing the offset right just confused Thanks. Here is an issue in swarf 5 axis my cutter at -185 deg limit rapids up and out at the same time hitting the part. In the NC file I added a Z height to clear the part and another Z0 to bring it back to original Z height but I need to create a lead in so it does not damage the hardware. The custom post for the router does not provide this option Does anyone have any suggestions X3.2933 Y38.7265 A184.861 Z5 ADDED This G0 X3.5551 Y41.8054 Z2.2226 (Rapids out) A-175.139 (Head Rotation Correction) Z0 ADDED This but needs a lead in back to part G1 X3.2933 Y38.7265 Z-2.9205 F20.