Jump to content

Welcome to eMastercam

Register now to participate in the forums, access the download area, buy Mastercam training materials, post processors and more. This message will be removed once you have signed in.

Use your display name or email address to sign in:

MotorCityMinion

eMC Learning Group
  • Posts

    1,259
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by MotorCityMinion

  1. "You would be surprised to know what some of their competitors are able to do with copy and paste, and ESPECIALLY, keeping your settings during these events. Easy to the point of simply picking your new orientation plane and everything else is automatically taken, including geometry." 

     

    I'm more thankful than surprised with this concept as I use it all the time with another software package. For the noob with little or no machining experience, it can waste machine spindle time or even be catastrophic. Wrong speeds and feeds, needlessly re-cutting geometry and so on. For the skilled programmer that knows what's needed next or may even be fishing, this ability is priceless.

  2. "you can use Modify sold Features to join mutable faces together ."

     

    Cool new feature?. (I,ve been away for awhile).   Solid Edge does the same thing. Works good. 

     

    His problem may be related to using splines instead of arcs and lines for the extrusion geometry.

    • Like 1
  3. So the powers that be would rather pony up for a seat of CW, which would probably cost considerably more that reinstating your MC license. WTF?

     

    I have limited experience with CAMWORKS. That being said, IMO, it suxx. There's a Solid Edge Blog out there where the author has been fighting with CW for quit some time now.  Google it, it's a decent read. 

  4. I believe no one has mentioned this yet. The 5 axis tool paths are really derived from these people.

     

    http://www.moduleworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/ModuleWorks-Factsheet-5-Axis.pdf

     

    ModuleWorks Partners.  http://www.moduleworks.com/company/partners/?lang=en

     

    What you get are proven and tested strategies used in quite a few different CAM packages. This make it less cumbersome to bring in new programming talent as the nomenclature used in the tool paths parameters is virtually the same from one CAM package to the next. Also worth noting is all the feedback sent to ModuleWorks with regards to bugs and fixes. Their R&D resources are massive relative to that of just one CAM program. 

     

    If I we're to start from scratch again, I would learn as much about these tool paths first. They will cover the bulk of of your machining needs when working with Solids or Surfaces.

     

    Nice videos Mr. Wakeford.

  5. My bad on that Jay. I should have clarified. Expecting a performance boost  from an SLI configuration using Quadro 4000s is not supported. 

     

     

    SLI Modes
    Split Frame Rendering (SFR). This analyzes the rendered image in order to split the workload 50/50 between the two GPUs. To do this, the frame is split horizontally in varying ratios depending on geometry. For example, in a scene where the top half of the frame is mostly empty sky, the dividing line will lower, balancing geometry workload between the two GPUs. This method does not scale geometry or work as well as AFR, however.

     

    Alternate Frame Rendering (AFR). Each GPU renders entire frames in sequence. For example, in a Two-Way setup, one GPU renders the odd frames, the other the even frames, one after the other. Finished outputs are sent to the master for display. Ideally, this would result in the rendering time being cut by the number of GPUs available. In their advertising, NVIDIA claims up to 1.9x the performance of one card with the Two-Way setup. While AFR may produce higher overall framerates than SFR, it also exhibits the temporal artifact known as Micro stuttering, which may affect frame rate perception and input response.

     

    SLI Antialiasing. This is a standalone rendering mode that offers up to double the antialiasing performance by splitting the antialiasing workload between the two graphics cards, offering superior image quality. One GPU performs an antialiasing pattern which is slightly offset to the usual pattern (for example, slightly up and to the right), and the second GPU uses a pattern offset by an equal amount in the opposite direction (down and to the left). Compositing both the results gives higher image quality than is normally possible. This mode is not intended for higher frame rates, and can actually lower performance, but is instead intended for games which are not GPU-bound, offering a clearer image in place of better performance. When enabled, SLI Antialiasing offers advanced antialiasing options: SLI 8X, SLI 16X, and SLI 32x. A Quad SLI system is capable of up to SLI 32x antialiasing.

     

     

    post-18319-0-70627700-1421590112_thumb.jpg

    post-18319-0-28918900-1421590127_thumb.jpg

    post-18319-0-43674600-1421590146_thumb.jpg

  6. 'Both of the systems here have Nvidia Quadro 4200 cards (4Gb) and I was contemplating moving both of those over to one system "

     

    I have 2, Quadro 4000s and thought I would try that.  Scratch that Idea. Nividia does not support SLI on those cards even though the tabs are present. My older HP Worksation also does not support SLI. It has to be supported in the BIOS, I believe.

  7. The allure of the 5X Mikron is hard to resist. They are wicked fast yet gracefull at the same time. The physical size and footprint of the machine with a pallet system is respectably small. Put a part anywhere on the table, probe it, and the "Smart Machine" compensates the deviations from center and adjusts accordingly, on the fly. No mathemajics required when all 5X are moving at the same time. The 3R system coupled with Schunk tooling is excellent. Watching one of these probe then run full speed ahead is impressive. That is what sucks you in.

     

    The Mikron service is not lacking in any way. It appears that they just don't know how to fix this.

  8. "This is the only approach that brings us even close to what we are trying to accomplish. It wastes a lot of time, but we had no other choice. The programmer/operator of our two Mikron's is stressed to the max."

     

    I share programming responsibilities with the owner of the company, as well as occasionally set-up and writing probing routine.  He knows first hand that operator error isn't the issue here. Stressed to the MAX is correct.  We buy the best tool holders and cutting tools we can get our hands on. Climate controlled facility. In house training by their applications engineers, yet we still have to cut 6 parts to sell 5 of them and no two parts are the same. 

     

    "They collected all the data and sent it back to Switzerland, but in keeping with their track record, there is no follow-up. Our problem is easily demonstrated within a matter of minutes, but of course we hear " None of our other customers have complained of issues like this", which we know is BS."

     

    No follow up is correct. Every time they send out a tech, we have to explain again the problems and procedures, show them the CAD/CAM data, then demonstrate it. The last time they were here, two techs were present. It took two full days to convince them to run the same part program on another machine to prove that the first machine cut egg shaped bosses and the second machine does not. They had to pull the same program from the bad machine and upload to the older one before they realized we were not talking BS. Mind you that we run these test on Graphite, which cuts like butter. These techs get flown in from over seas and the US and bring a lot of expensive gear with them. My guess is that they probably have over $50K worth of services call logged in this year. The machine has a 3 year bumper to bumper with it, so its their coin not ours, but the down time associated with all this malarkey can never be retrieved.

  9. "They are wicked fast machines, however, they are not capable of reliably holding "tenths" which makes up the bulk of our work. They are accurate for short term work, but fail on long run times due to the way that they handle spindle temperature. Mikron uses a technology called ITC which stands for Intelligent Thermal Compensation. In a nutshell, it

    uses algorithms to theoretically calculate spindle growth/shrinkage based on rpm and time. To cut to the chase..........it SUCKS !!!!!  We have demonstrated this issue to our dealer and to the Mikron tech people that have visited our facility, and as of yet, they have not been able to address this problem."

     

    The exact same conditions exist with our machines. The latest 5X Mikron is the worst. Our Datums drift as well. We have had the best service guys in from overseas, laser, ballbar test, autofind, and calibrate everything. 24 hours later, the datums are off location again. Its not just a spindle growth issue either. Every axis will lose position to one degree or another. 1 in 20 programs we send to the machine will cut egg shaped bosses, without cutter comp even being on, so software issues have been found as well. Put the part on the other Mikrons and it runs fine. We have to hold tenth's on 62+ rockwell parts and finding the sweet spot for deflection when setting tools is hard enough. Now add in the thermal instabillity and we have to back off on every part we run, gage it, adjust the tool and rerun it, hoping that the tool is still sharp enough to cut and hold size. I'm glad that someone else has spoke up about this. The reality here is that I can warm up our late model Haas and actually get more consitant results with it.

  10. Happy Holidays MC brethren. 

     

    A 10-32 tap with a .050 peck depth in 4140PH is pushing things a bit on our HSM Mikron.  I'm also using a 8-32 tap with a .032 peck (= to pitch) and that seems decent. We use an oil mister on this machine with Cool Lube 2210 EP and it works well.

     

    Zero, we have the full version in our shop but it's time for an update.

     

    Finding data for pecks depths with a tap is proving to be difficult. I'll see if I can pull something more academic from our tooling suppliers.

     

    Keep the tips coming.

     

    MCM.

  11. I'm looking for some data on peck depth settings when rigid tapping. At the moment I'm winging it. The machine has a very low HP/Torque rating and I was wondering if there is a standard / simple formula for calculating the depth of the peck relative to the tap size. Material considerations aside, does anybody have a formula or data they can share?

     

    Thanks in advance, MCM.

Join us!

eMastercam - your online source for all things Mastercam.

Together, we are the strongest Mastercam community on the web with over 56,000 members, and our online store offers a wide selection of training materials for all applications and skill levels.

Follow us

×
×
  • Create New...