Hey Dtm, I use Gibbs at my day job and MasterCam at my part time job.

cool, I guess it's safe to say you are busy.

Thanks Hardmill, I don't really use mastercam much for solids so I'm starting to play around with it now. Thanks for all your replies.

Dylskee your back to M.C.? I thought you went back to gibbscam.

We are using a 5-axis flowline toolpath and it seems to be generating a lot of extra code. I was wondering if there is a way to filter it. It seems like it's spitting out a lot of unneccesary A-axis moves. Here is a sample of the code.

 

N44150 G94 X-13.3292 F60.

N44160 G93 A-61.2 F1000.

N44170 A-59.357 F1000.

N44180 A-57.48 F1000.

N44190 A-55.568 F1000.

N44200 A-53.622 F1000.

N44210 A-51.642 F1000.

N44220 A-49.628 F1000.

N44230 A-47.582 F1000.

N44240 A-45.502 F1000.

N44250 A-43.39 F1000.

N44260 A-41.247 F1000.

N44270 A-39.073 F1000.

N44280 A-36.87 F1000.

N44290 A-34.638 F1000.

N44300 A-32.378 F1000.

N44310 A-30.093 F1000.

N44320 A-27.782 F1000.

N44330 A-25.449 F1000.

N44340 A-23.093 F1000.

N44350 A-20.718 F1000.

N44360 A-18.325 F1000.

N44370 A-15.915 F1000.

N44380 A-13.491 F1000.

N44390 A-11.055 F1000.

N44400 A-8.609 F1000.

N44410 A-6.155 F1000.

N44420 A-3.695 F1000.

N44430 A-1.232 F1000.

N44440 A-358.768 F1000.

N44450 A-356.305 F1000.

N44460 A-354.279 F1000.

N44470 G94 X-13.3173 F60.

 

I'm wondering if there is a way to make all the A-axis moves just one A-axis move.

Using MCX4 with a custom Fadal Post from In House Solutions.

 

Thanks in advance.

All of the 5-axis work I have done has alot of code as well and I never could filter my program. I was using a custom post from in house as well, and was also using inverse time. If you figure out how to do it without a post mod. please let me know.

Hi Guys.

 

I'm having trouble creating a user defined tool using a sketch or file for that matter.

 

The tool is a double angle 45 deg cutter mounted on a sub arbour. Attached is a .jpg of the cutter created in Solidworks.

 

We use MasterCam for Solidworks.

 

Any thoughts?

 

regards

 

Wayne.

In mastercam you must only draw 1/2 of the tool. I always draw the right side, but I'm not sure if it matters. There also must not be any other geometry on the level. When you select undefined tool select the level your geometry is on.

I created a form tool and it shows up in backplot, but not in verify. Anyone had this problem?

I used Gibbs for 3 years before I even touched Mastercam and I hated every moment of it. I would take a buggy version of Mastercam over GibbSCAM any day!

That's ok. Everyone has there preference, my hole point is that is does what you tell it to do without any B.S. workarounds.

And you should start contributing helping before you start criticizing... Daniel.

Your right. I haven't done much helping. Why do you have to get all personal and use my name? I'm not sure who you. It's apparent you know who I am.

You should wait until noon to begin drinking.

 

I use fixtures all the time in Gibbs, it does not slow anything down for me. You are right with the CS planes being convoluted though.Like I said there are goofy things in gibbs, but stil overall I prefer it, mostly because It runs solid and does not have hundreds of bugs. I ROFL at the circle boys and all the glitches they get everyday, I sit back and have my .

+1

My crappy laptop handles large part files with multiple solid models, fixture clamps, ect...no problem, I tried to run verify on one single small impeller and mastercam took like 3 hours to verify. There is no comparison when it comes to solids or assemblies for that matter. I use both systems on a daily basis. I know people have preferences, but mastercam is so far behined in the solid world it's not even funny

I forgot to mention I did the same impeller in gibbs with fixtures on the same crappy laptop out of curiosity. The toolpaths being generated were much faster and the verify which shows RAPID MOVES only took 20 minutes.

The rason you won't see a thread lke this in GibbSCAM's forrum because they alLow such a thing.

Fixture rcognition... BAHHHH! WTF gis t if he fixture brings your Rocket Sled of a SyStem to a crawl...

Just bringing it up cause it's relevant o the ole bug issue.

My crappy laptop handles large part files with multiple solid models, fixture clamps, ect...no problem, I tried to run verify on one single small impeller and mastercam took like 3 hours to verify. There is no comparison when it comes to solids or assemblies for that matter. I use both systems on a daily basis. I know people have preferences, but mastercam is so far behined in the solid world it's not even funny

Can anyone supply a link on the GibbsCam treading-water/financial-problems issue?

 

My owner has a buddy that has convinced him GibbsCam is the best and he's wanting to buy it for our new 5-Axis Gantry mill.

 

While I don't have a problem using and learning new software in general, I got a 30 day trial of GibbsCam and it didn't impress me one bit.

 

I kind of consider myself a power-user and GibbsCam didn't really offer me a way to set up the system the way I wanted... you really have to jump through the hoops of the system, while MasterCam allows me to tweak just about anything I can dream up.

 

Anyway, a link on GibbsCam financial problems would lend weight to my side to show my owner.

You can do the same in gibbscam. You just need to know were to look. In the advanced settings you can do anything you can in MC. The best part is it works with no glitches. It has fixture recognition in rendering. I still can't believe MC doesn't have this.

Keep shaking you pom poms James, your such a good cheer leader. We are all proud of you

Thanks for all your help guys. I finally got a 5-axis curve toolpath and just dry ran it and it looks good.

Send me a file and I will run it though my Intregex Post and let you see if the code if different.

It's on the ftp site, x5 folder called e420.

I assume you are trying to mill this because it is a round thread with a certain start and end place in relation to something else on the part? You could use a 5 axis toolpath, but would just need to call ti correctly. You are trying a 3d toolpath not going ot work and neither is G68 IMHO. I think an Axis Sub or a 4 axis toolpath might be your better bet. The G68 could come into play at that point, but not really getting what you are trying to accomplish looking at it. Mind explaining it a little further?

Yes this is a thread and has to start at certain spot. Just run the verify and you can see what I'm doing ( It takes a few minutes due to the thread ). Mazak confirmed this is a post issue. I couldn't get a five axis toolpath to work, but I didn't spend to much time due to all my other projects. The boss just wants the post fixed. I have a bit of time now so I will try to run a few more 5-axis tool paths.

Forgive me if I am wrong.....didn't you change to Gibbs?

I bought gibbs for contract work, but I still use mastercam at my day job.

Inverse time feed and G91 dont get along together. Put a G94 with the G91 line. and dont use G43.4 with that path.

If I don't use G43.4 the machine doesn't know the B-axis rotated. So, should I make it G43 and manually add the G68 and then do as you say?

What are you trying to do, follow the helix around the part? you only need G43.4 for 5 axis tooltip comp. your paths are only 2d contour.And yes, any 2d work not using the right toolplane needs the G68 rotation

Yes I want to follow the helix around the part. The file I posted is what I want. It looks like the feed rate calculation in the G91 is incorrect.

I just put the Jpeg of the program in the ftp with the file. I'm not sure how many are using the multi-axis E420 if any, but I thought I would take a stab in the dark.

I have this part that is hot. Friday when I went to run it the machine didn't recognize the plane change and was lost. I figured out that problem. The post was not putting a G68 which I turned on in the mis. values. I made the G43 a G43.4 and now the machine accounts for the plane rotation. When I run the program everything looks good until I hit the G91 incremental mode. The postion page on the machine shows all axis moving, but the machine doesn't appear to be moving. I know this is a post problem but In house solutions is closed and my machine is setting. Could someone post the last two ops of the file? Any suggestions of a work around? I tried a 5-axis curve tool path and had no luck I put the file on the ftp site in the x5 files called E420. For some reason I saying my jpeg of the program is to large to upload ( 215 KB ) not sure about that.

I have almost done the same myself. You really get a sense of how poorly it does the job when you are used to a different CAM package that is light years ahead.

Absolutely dude. Half of the people on this forum have no idea.

That's when you really realize the problems we have been accustomed to. I'm training an individual for the trode department. He is more frustrated than me cuz he doesn't know all the work arounds yet!

I know how he feels. I'm at 1 year with M.C. so I have learned alot of the workarounds. However, I was ready to quit this job due to my frustrations with this software.

Rotate WCS to create a new WCS and use that for your operation. I have not looked at the file, so maybe there's more involved here?

Thanks. I just created a new view for hole three, then had to reverse holes 1 and 2, and 4 and five in the toolpath planes. It wasn't as bad as I thought. My boss wants to run this today and I kinda panicked since there is 40 something toolpaths. I got it.

Good morning. I have this part I just finished programming and the boss decided to change how he wants to fixture the part. Op#5 on the rotary he wants to rotate the part 180 deg. Basically I want the left side of the part on the right side. However, I have 8 different planes created is there an easy way to do this? I can't just rotate the geometry 180 an regen because all of the plane will be backwards. I uploaded the file to the ftp site called planes.

I just do a quick launch of my X+ setup sheet that shows my H and D numbers along with other info on my tool sheet:

 

Thanks. That works great. I don't use X+ much and didn't see you can add these iteams. This is going to save me alot of time.