On 9/17/2021 at 9:29 AM, SlaveCam said:

Don't forget to set control to "free cutting mode" instead of "accurate cutting mode". It could make a huge difference. Unless, of course, there is surface tolerance.

Where are these parameters located? Also, why choose free cutting mode over accurate cutting mode?

Thanks

On 9/11/2021 at 8:25 PM, Colin Gilchrist said:

(It was a Yasda machine, with a Fanuc 31iB5 Control...)

A Yasnac isn't a control that I have a lot of experience with.

I do however, know a bit about kinematics, motion control, high-speed modes, and NURBS processing. Add in the correct Dynamic Codes for Tilted Work Plane, Tool Center Point Control, and Workpiece Setting Error Correction, in addition to properly calibrated kinematic values, and the machines work like magic.

Parameter Settings and Proper Kinematic Calibration. Both of these are the real Boundary Conditions of making accurate components on any CNC Equipment. Repeating buzzwords like "Industry 4.0" won't overcome the real-world obstacles everyone encounters when they try and build software that solves a hardware problem. 

Don't get me wrong; I'm all for progress and technological innovation, but I don't hear anything new in the offer being made here. 

You can write NC code to query a lot of functions on the three major brands of control: Siemens, Heidenhain, and Fanuc. But without some kind of understanding of how all the equipment was configured and calibrated, good luck with trying to solve something in a novel way.

I was just finishing up some 5 axis surfacing toolpaths and went really deep into attempting to get the best surface finish. I was very impressed with my little Hurco VM10Ui machine throughout the process...very capable controller. It does get hung up on some really small interpolation moves but that is manageable. Here is an example of a Unified Parallel Morph surface finish.

As far as surface finishes go, how much can servo tuning play a role? The machines run Yaskawa Sigma 5(?) servo drives, which from my understanding are very capable little units. I believe they can be tuned. Now, is that something the machine tool builder does when building a machine? Or is that something the end user can do? I am falling into the rabbit hole of what is "good enough" but if tuning servos can make for smoother motion, I am all for it.

When you start smoothing a 5-axis finishing toolpath, are there methods and techniques to help create smoother motion that don't just say, shorten segment length? Our controllers do offer G05.2 and G05.3 misc. parameters, which from my reading are similar to Fanuc AINano smoothing and the like.

Just curious to get others' opinions on developing a process that leads to the BEST surface finishes, but also at reasonable feed rates.

Yea they got it fixed on Mastercam's end, no idea what it was but now it is working.

Later!

Any reason why I might be getting this error when accessing the tech exchange? is the exchange only for industrial licenses? Our education maintenance is current and everything shoudl be fine.

hanks

1 hour ago, gcode said:

I never drag /drop in the ops manager

I position the Red Arrow of Doom where I want the op to go, then cut/paste

I have my mouse sensitivity set high and it's too easy to screw things up dragging and dropping

Correct me if I am wrong but was this always a feature? I seem to remember the right click/hold/drag/drop was the only way to move toolpaths until recently. Or maybe I am misremembering.

I do a combination of both in terms of copy/pasting and drag/dropping. I have had a few hiccups here and there and I can say that it is definitely annoying, but not that big of a deal.

I personally kinda like the toolpath manager and in fact, I am not even sure what they could do to make it more intuitive. I am sure there are many things but I am not a UX designer so I dunno. It packs a lot of functionality into that little strip of pixels!

Is there a way yet to dock the toolpath manager, and the other managers OUTSIDE of your main mastercam window? Say I want to have a huge graphics window and I want to "mount" my managers on my other monitor somewhere so I can expand it in size and open it up a bit more?

On 9/19/2021 at 12:51 AM, Shiva.aero said:

Is it possible to "define" a point for entry?

I have a condition where more than one hole exists. The extra holes are for corner relief in Inconel machining. Is it possible to select the hole for entry, just like in the case 2D Pocketing by defining points?

You Can select "hole geometry" for using things like 2D Highspeed roughing operations where the hole geometry is the air region. You can also tell it to only do a plunge entry on those specific locations by choosing the point as your 'center on point' geometry with entry motion set to 'plunge only'

Still with OptiRough, you need to use stock models to define where and where not to cut. I just made a program like this and using stock models was still the best way

Turning off arc filter works well. Turning up the tolerance also works well.

The main thing I think was outputting the High Feed rates though...it fixed the issue.

One thing I need to fix now is the plunge rate - plunge rate IS used when retracting and approaching a new cut - just in case you didn't know that. I didnt. SO bumping that up to like 300 should speed it up.

Thanks for the help

15 hours ago, crazy^millman said:

Those look like rapids not feed moves. How much stock are you leaving for finish? Trying kicking up the tolerance to 1/10 to 1/5 of that amount and see how your machine handles it and how the quality of the part comes out.

Have you tried not filtering the toolpath and running it that way?

Leaving 0.03 stock for finishing. So yea bumping tolerance up is very easy to do.

12 hours ago, gcode said:

 

95% of that linking motion is point to point.  You need to loosen up the machine's look ahead tolerance.

 

 

Interesting...I assume this is going to be some parameter within the controller?

I will also try outputting that as feed moves and maxxing it out to see if I can get the kind of smooth motion I want. At the end of the day doing a minimum vertical retract might be fine as well, I just want to get this figured out.

Thanks!

Good afternoon,

My machine appears to be choking on 3D arc links between cuts during Optirest operations using the "minimum distance" linking parameter style. I'm sure there is a way to tighten this up so the machine doesn't choke on these moves but I am curious if you have any tips for making sure the machine is outputting clean 3 axis arc moves between cuts at the same feedrates as when it is in-cut. The controller is new and there is plenty of lookahead.

Control Definition:

Arc Filter settings:

Toolpath links:

On 9/10/2021 at 1:29 PM, cncappsjames said:

Circle mill most likely will not recieve much attention especially considering there is a viable alternative.

Agreed, also I have found that 2D dynamic is just faster many times.

With that being said, I use Helix Bore operations quite a bit these days. You can basically do the same with a 2D ramp but this toolpath makes it mindlessly easy. Helix down, you can have multipasses if necessary and then you can have a fully customized finish pass all within the same toolpath. I feel like Helix Bore doesn't get the love it deserves.

A Circle Toolpath "refresh" from CNC software sure would be a nice thing tho....

On 9/10/2021 at 6:11 PM, JoshC said:

Thats great! If you machine one and can post a pic of it that would be cool

Since we're in education that is the idea...students will love that stuff so I will certainly post a photo/video if and when I get around to machining one.

9 hours ago, Zaffin_D said:

Can you use json or xml, or do you need a csv?

For fun, I took a quick look at exporting a csv this weekend (importing from a csv doesn’t seem  practical), and this proof of concept is what I came up with.

It does not explicitly need to be CSV, I fundamentally only want a few basic datapoints that I can EASILY use in a text format to build out an Excel or Google Sheets tooling list without having to define each tool manually within the spreadsheet. I've already got a massive tool library I have made within Mastercam, I just want to extract the text data.

Examples of those factors = tool number, name, diameter, LOC, reach, description, MFG, speeds/feeds, etc...

Your solution looks perfect! Care to share the add-in?

9 hours ago, Zaffin_D said:

Can you use json or xml, or do you need a csv?

For fun, I took a quick look at exporting a csv this weekend (importing from a csv doesn’t seem  practical), and this proof of concept is what I came up with.

I am definitely not concerned with importing a CSV into mastercam...I don't see a value-add there and sounds like it would be messy! I build the tools in ToolManager but that data is only captured in Tool Manager and I want to manage that data effectively outside of Mastercam in shop planning and management.

Hello,

Im working on some blisks and compressor wheels for fun. I have done this in the past without using Blade Expert. Takes forever!

Blade Expert is spitting out some crazy good results with very little effort. It is quite amazingly powerful.

That is all!

15 hours ago, Bob W. said:

I haven't read the entire thread but I'll add my input.  We bought a NTX2000 over a year ago and the Mori AEs were begging me to buy Esprit and now I know why.  They have had to help deal with all of the pain and headaches of why the machine isn't running correctly and 95% of it is because Mastercam isn't posting the code correctly.  As the one who wrote the check for the machine AND a few thousand $$ for Mastercam's NTX machine environment I am pissed off and frustrated that they still don't have it figured out.  They made no mention of this before I placed the order and made it sound like it was pretty well developed.  Heck, the product has been out for years so I figured it would be dialed in by now but I was wrong.  With all that said, expect to spend a few months trying to get the post working correctly or doing half a dozen hand edits every time you post.  I have an email into Postability to see what they have to offer but I would be very skeptical of what Mastercam says.

I would agree that anytime you're standing up a new multitasking center that itll be a few months of dialing in the post. I had the same thing with postability getting a 5x post dialed in as well. Relatively painless compared to what you're describing!

Although that sucks, surely there are other NTX users that program with Mastercam? I can't imagine there aren't.

1 hour ago, cncchristalsco said:

alt+F9 (show gnomons) 

click on down arrow next to it and select "selected planes"

on your planes tab you can choose what plane you want to display under "display"

Thanks, i know that. I want it to remain OFF without having to manually do it each program I have open. Not sure if that is possible

31 minutes ago, gcode said:

The SolidCam sales guy really pissed me off

I told them ahead of time what I was looking for and what I wanted to see.

He launched straight into his canned sales pitch and despite my best efforts he could not be diverted from that.

Wouldn't this family of parts be an ideal application for the BladeExpert add-in for Mastercam? I know it aint cheap but it also ain't cheap to sit around for 8 hours programming a roughing blade op when the add-in could do it in 20 minutes.

That is my beef with the company I was referring to getting HyperMill. They bought Hypermill strictly for 3+2 work....which I am like "okay cool but that is better for 5x simultaneous". Saying Mastercam is a slouch in 5x is disingenuous and that is the narrative they are pushing. Especially considering they aren't doing much simultaneous, almost any CAM package out there could handle 3+2 roughing and finishing

I did have a Hypermill rep in my shop a few months ago and was very interested in it for some of our 5x stuff...the quote was astronomical to say the least. But I am still considering it for future if I stay in my current role.

Could this be a bug then?

Another side note someone might know - turning OFF these plane names as a default rather than having to do it each time? I know that you can disable that manually in the View tab but was curious if there was a default setting

1 hour ago, Colin Gilchrist said:

There should be a Renishaw Programming Manual, somewhere in those boxes. Lately, the great folks at Renishaw have been shipping a "plastic clamshell case", which looks like it holds a DVD (if your Probes were bought a while ago, it still might!), but now is fitted with a USB Memory Stick. The manual will be available on the Memory Stick.

In addition, depending on what software you bought, there will often be a "Macro Configuration Program". This is an "executable program", which displays a configuration page. You answer the questions by either selecting a drop-down menu option, or enabling a Checkbox. Also, there are some areas to enter M-Codes, if your machine uses M-Codes to turn the Probe on/off.

By going through that configuration page, you can then press the "save" button, which will either generate a bunch of separate Macro Programs, or a "single Program", which can be loaded into the Fanuc through the I/O panel. When loading the "single program", your Control will actually break up the incoming file into separate Macro Programs on your control. (using a 'single file' just makes the Data I/O part easier. The end result is exactly the same; Macro Programs loaded on your control, that end up being called as 'Subroutines'.)

You'll need a Gauge Block (I like 50mm or 2") of high-precision (for measuring the Probe Length), and a Ring Gauge (ID = 2" or 50mm, for best results), to calibrate the Spindle Probe. (If you also have a "Tool Probe", you should look to see if there was a "Master Gauge Tool" included with the Probe hardware. If not; https://igstool.com/cnc/cat40-tool-probe-calibrator-calibration-gage-tool/)

Thanks for that info Colin, super helpful. Luckily for us I do have all the calibration equipment needed. Last year I decided to learn how to configure and modify centerline rotation points and all that so we wouldn't need service to come out and work on our machines. Much cheaper that way in the long run. Master gauge length tool, Z axis gauge, etc etc.

Ill take a look through what docs I have from Renishaw to see if I can find what I need.

Cheers

6 hours ago, Chally72 said:

I made a little video to talk about creating, linking, and associating planes. There's a much better video coming on our official channel later this year, but this gives you all the important info about the cool stuff you can do with plane linking in 2022:

 

 

Dylan I feel like i should be paying you, great video. You're going above and beyond! The videos and the added presence on the forum from several of the Mastercam application engineers has really been a nice breath of fresh air. I'm continuing to learn a ton just by reading through the documentation and the videos

5 minutes ago, huskermcdoogle said:

Short Answer:  No

Long Answer:

What I had done was more to compensate for lack of high quality surface models.  At the time I did some modeling of the features I was cutting to create more accurate surfaces to drive with that would have better continuity overall, but by no means perfect, as the shapes were out of my league to model perfectly with the time I had.  Those efforts helped immensely, but as I was using a tool that was larger than the minimum curvature (very very very very small ripples in places) this fault caused me to have some "extra" points here and there.  You know, those pesky zigs and zags, or that extra point between two points that you don't understand why the toolpath generated it, and lack of a filter won't allow us to remove it?  Those were what I was removing.  I must stress that I didn't correct any point to point data.  I was just evaluating the motion of the toolpath and deleting any points that exceeded a certain vector difference over a moving average based on a number of points in front and behind of where we were.  I had played around with filtering posture changes as well, but given that I was using a guide curve with the tool path, it wasn't really needed on that job, filtering the translational points in space was more than enough to make a better program.  I wish I had before and after pictures of the parts.  The before part looked like it had pock marks from ball bearings being dropped all over it, and the after looked nice and smooth without so much as a divot.  Mind you this was cutting wood on a large gantry router.  I'd say we might have been successful at moving around 120IPM at the fastest with the original program and the filtered program was moving constantly around 300.  I had other jobs where the combination of translational and rotational filtering would have helped, but never had time to refine the algorithm to the point where I was going to cut parts with it.  Not to mention it was a pain in the butt to get the import NCI function activated in MC after 2017, so I didn't bother.  I think that function is back on by default now.  AFIAK it never totally disappeared before, but was just left out of the GUI for us to use.

As for the functions you highlighted in the pictures above.  Yes, combinations of those settings will have a huge effect on the quality/capability of the program to generate a good surface finish, and/or move at decent feedrates.  But the most important thing for getting good results is good input geometry.  Constant curvature continuity of the base drive surfaces will yield the best results by far if you need to drive posture using the drive surface.  Otherwise, if using surfaces without constant curvature continuity, using points or lines from whatever logical distance from or through the surface will yield the smoothest posture control.  Smoothing of added tilt collision controls, such as shown above are there to smooth from the normal tilt strategy into the added, and back again.  I haven't played with the smoothing feature on the unified toolpath yet, but will at some point to see how and what it does.  Maybe there is some hope. 

Some sort of filter function on the Moduleworks paths would be great......

That is a great explanation thank you. I agree, your output is only as good as your input.

Last year I was trying to do a complex toolpath using Geodesic with several stitched surfaces. No matter what I did the output sucked majorly. Surfaces were bad.

Back on topic, if anyone has a QUICK way to grab CSV tooling data from either standalone Tool Manager or Mastercam 2022 I would be eternally grateful. The export tool data switch that used to live in Advanced Config apparently doesnt exist there anymore. I'm sorry if i sound dumb but I really don't know scripting (want to learn) and don't understand exactly what that example above was describing exactly

43 minutes ago, bd41612 said:

It's done in the control definition. Select the post from the dropdown.

We have Productivity+ but I don't use it.  Didn't make a whole lot of sense to add 1500 lines of code to the program and some dozen or more sub programs just to pick up an offset.  I scrapped it and did it the old fashioned way that I've been doing it since V9.  I use the Renishaw macros that are part of the probe install.

So I have 2 renishaw probes. Can you point me where I might find these macros. I have the documentation and boxes that they came in but I confess I am not sure where that info might be. THank you!

On 4/21/2020 at 2:20 PM, gcode said:

I'm working with X21 PB4

Enabling the saves of tool libraries as test is no longer in Advanced Config... does anyone

know where it went.. or is it just gone now.

 

I am bumping this as well! Need this option enabled

35 minutes ago, bd41612 said:

Mastercam Generic Fanuc 3X Mill.pst  It can also be done with Mpmaster.  The rest is up to your imagination.

So can I ask as question as it relates to getting the misc reals/int descriptors....How do yo change what each field says, I assume that is all done within the Control Definition. How do you link the CD to the post with something like that?

AND are you using Productivity+ for those macro probing routines or are those custom developed?

On 9/5/2021 at 9:19 PM, huskermcdoogle said:

Many Many Things.  But I guess the two most complicated things I ever did were:

Filtering points and postures of full 5ax NCI files, so I could import them back in and post them.  This resulted in a lot of time saved.  Roughly 30-40% improvement.  Drastically better surface finish.  This was done via VBA.  Excel was just a vehicle to graphically see areas where changes were made.

The other was to make end to end size compensation on some rotary surfacing ops.  I wrote a routine that could rotate G1 and G0 points about any point in space.  Never got around to adding further functionality, but it wouldn't have been too hard to at least give it that ability to do drill cycles and G2/G3 moves as well.  I just didn't need it, so I never bothered.  It was far faster to write that routine than it would have been to correct the geometry issues on the machine or in CAM as everything was an organic surface.  Never figured out if I could have used WSEC or coordinate rotation to correct the issue as we were running G43.4, but for H/H and were rotating an added table that was not compensated, which is where the error was...  Worked like a charm.  I could compensate out .002" or so over 15" in about 30 seconds, with just a few clicks.  Generate the new program and run it.  I had excel on the machine control computer so I didn't have to go back to the desk.

I would be interested in this if you are willing to share more info.

However I wonder if it is needed with the moduleworks toolpaths as far as filtering. For a recent project I was messing around with Surface Finish using the Unified toolpath. I came out with several locations with fields to change that resulted in dramatically better surfacing quality by "filtering". In addition to that my controller does use a Smoothing Parameter using Misc Reals/Int. that seems to help as well (from the machine side). Let me know if these achieve the same thing:

I'd like to kinda revive this...a shop I am in talks with is trying to decide on CAM. They have a millturn coming and want to use esprit....I just can't understand it. Using both Hypermill and Esprit on their floor. What do you guys think of this? Is this as crazy as I think it is? Not only would I have to learn Hypermill, I would have to learn esprit. The guy thinks Mastercam 5-axis is 'entry level' and I about laughed in his face. Either way regardless of what they choose it seems having multiple CAM systems would be utterly awful to get up to speed with.

Just how good (or not) is Mastercam at Millturn on say an Integrex or a DMG NTX? As I have the Mastercam experience I would like to steer them in that direction...