How can I reduce the plunge rate for each waterline in X9. When I choose a certain plunge feed MC ignores it most of the time. Only when the tool is going to reposition to another location do I get my reduced plunge feed. If there is no reposition the plunge feed is unchanged from the XY feed and the tool fires down to the next level.

I have my machines DNCed with RS232 and fiber optic links because TIG welding aluminum(high freq) in our shop was giving wired RS232 problems. I'll call Cimco and see what they say. Thanks to all you guys.

I wasn't looking for a hard quote. There must be someone who has Cimco for 4 or 5 CNC's, no?

Thanks for the non-answer.

How much is Cimco DNC for 4 CNC's? Did I see $35k or $35000???

Thanks, Thad! I sent you the PM.

Can we get a copy?

I would hope that it allows saving the current probed point. In a Fagor control you manipulate the probe to the touch point and then you issue a Nxxxx G76 XYZ command. Those coordinates are then written to a predefined file block by block each on it’s own line.

I don’t know too much about it other than I would like to digitize surfaces with the Fadal. Maybe carryinwood could enlighten us as to what was/is available.

I could use it too. Just bought an old Fadal.

Thanks for all the input, guys. Very helpful. skyking01x

Ok, thanks for your input. What does SpaceClaim do? I've heard good reports about it on editing surfaces, etc.

No data like that is available. All we have is the castings, all different sizes and shapes!

Thanks for the math lesson but you still didn't answer my question. First of all, I'm a one man band and my cnc's are all running while I'm writing programs, etc. The question was, specifically now, what equipment and software would I need to do this? Am I looking to find the most expensive route to get this done? No! I didn't say I don't have any wherewithal just not the scratch that Lockheed-Martin has.

I'm doing it often and I'm always editing and changing the toolpath. My process is somewhat proprietary so I wouldn't want stuff outside my shop.

My part envelope could be 30" x 24" x 15". +-.025" accuracy is all I need. My process is that I get a random casting from a customer. It takes me weeks to measure and check by hand to get a model. I generate a toolpath and step over the whole complex casting with a ball or bull mill basically resurfacing the whole thing. I just watched a video where the guy took 50 pictures of a big rock with his cell phone. Then, using VisualSFM, CMMVS, and MeshForm, all freeware(I think), he had the rock mesh on his screen in a couple of hours. Most of that time was computer processing time. I'm dreaming of something like this to help me getting a model into MCX without an aerospace budget so I can generate a toolpath! Can any of you MCX experts think of a similar process to speed up my work?

I would like to assess the possibilities of using photogrammetry to quickly scan complex castings, create a model, bring the scanned data into Mastercam, edit and alter the data, then produce a toolpath to resurface the model. Can anybody point me in the least expensive direction to do this? Super accuracy is not necessary.

MasterCam has the "Jumpup disease". It does this all the time, no rhyme or reason.

Can someone explain “associated to the avoidance surfaces” and “control surfaces” referenced in previous replies?

I have tried and tried to stop this but I can’t make it stop. I’ve used containments spaced off the wall the tool radius plus an amount to no avail. I’ve tried making the walls check surfaces with varying amounts of check distances all without success. I use waterline for my walls and raster for my floors and just edit the gcode, a real PITA!

Forget depress the wheel, just move then spin contract view to put the detail in the center then spin to expand.

The only way I found is to use the expand/contract view with the mouse wheel. Depress the wheel spin contract, release the wheel, move the mouse to where there is room, depress the wheel spin expand. PITA but better than using the keyboard.

What is easiest way to pan using only the mouse, no keyboard?

We had the same kind of problem drip feeding programs to 3 machines. We have a lot of aluminum heliarc welding in our shop and it was getting into RS232 links and you can imagine what happened, crash city! My solution was to use fiber optic converters to send the RS232 back and forth, problem solved. B&B Electronics makes the stuff I used. www.bb-elec.com/‎

So, CimcoEdit should expand to whatever screen it's displayed on if video card is capable? How can I find out for sure?