Gismo you're a star! The tlist is great.

The prog# does not output for drilling and tapping ops in the ncdatasheet. even if nci's are different. I have worked up an excell template and now have a pretty good automatic setupsheet in trial. Many thanks.

Bruce

The ncdatasheet isn't outputting the prog# for all operations. Anyone else have this problem?

Bruce

Gismo

A translation of tlist.dll would be fantastic.

Bruce

We have several Makino A55's as well as a paletech FH800 with pc fusion 640m controller. The controller on the makinos only has "professional 3" above the screen and no other identifying marks. The mob that installed the machines say that the card reader cannot be used for DNC but I don't think they know all there is to know about these machines. Can this trick be used on these Machines? 500k of memory is as useful as xxxx on a bull.

Bruce

[ 10-03-2004, 06:20 PM: Message edited by: BC10146 ]

OneCNC is a great package for those who only do 3-axis work and basic surfacing. Their features and pricing reflect that.

Like I said, the man who wrote the code for the original AusCAD software is a pretty nice bloke. His goal was to have small shops using functional programming software for a fraction of the price of more comprehensive packages like Mastercam. In this he has succeeded. Unfortunately now it seems that the marketing dept have gone a bit too far. What does XR cost compared to MC? I don't know for sure, but the first version not named AusCAD was only 25% the cost of mastercam. My last shop used it quite successfuly. Now I am at a much larger shop with multi axis machines mastercam is the preffered software.

You get what you pay for.

BTW AusCAD was available with a 4-axis addon. It should still be available for OneCNC.

Bruce

We do deep pockets with small corners in Aluminium regularly and only use high helix 2 flute tools. These let you keep the revs quite high compared to a 4 flute standard helix tool.

Bruce

Before it was One CNC ot was AUSCad and the bloke who wrote it works just down the road from me here in Brisbane. A few years ago now he won an award in the US for the best software under $10000. Since then though I think he has partnered up with a few foreign companies in the US and Germany to get his product more recognition. He must have lost a fair bit of control because he is too much of a gentleman to carry on with the rubbish that you fellows are talking about.

I used the software for years and loved it, but that was before I got to use MC.

Bruce

That worked great. The background in the screen shot came out black. I thought the emf generated a white back ground????

Bruce

Gismo,

Sorry, those are the programme numbers. I can get the NCI name from the first operation in each operation group with VB(I think), but I don;t want the whole path.

I have uploaded brucesetupsheet.pdf into the unspecified uploads folder. This is a good sheet but we do it manually in our company database. Ther is also brucesetupsheet.bmp which is a screen shot of the operations manager for this group of programmes. Each operations group is a separate programme. This setupsheet is time consuming and open to human error. The operator at the machine will create a main programme that calls each tool as a subprogramme.

We may also use the one tool 2 or 3 times within an operation so tool list wont give us a breakdown of all the sub programmes. ie if I use a spot drill then a drill and then the same spot drill again I only get the spot drill and the drill once each in the tool list.

Ideally the programme # field in the tool parameters window could be accessed with VB but I have been told that this is not available.

Bruce

[ 09-30-2004, 03:24 PM: Message edited by: BC10146 ]

Gismo,

We use a separate operation group and programme for each tool. These are then called as subs from a main programme. This way an engineering change request or a tooling change will not result in a job needing to be re-proven. What I would like if I could do it is to have something like this:

1010 63mm face mill length diameter tool#

1020 16mm rmr length diameter tool#

1030 6mm spot drill length diameter tool#

I haven't had a lot of time to investigate this because our format may change shortly. Will the datasheet use the template if it is in the same folder?

Thanks,

Bruce

Do I need a separate programme to re-configure this sheet? The settings available do not suit the way we do things here although it is still a great way to get some quick data for the tool setters.

Bruce

Thanks john, I will have another go at it soon.

Bruce

I haven't made any drastic changes yet. This post was done well before I arrived here and I am just trying to iron out a few bugs. I might just start again from the generic mazak post.

Thanks anyway

Jimmy,

thanks for the reply. My post does not have a block called ptap2

It has the following

I think that the problem is somewhere else because if the pitch is a feedrate as per the makino post there is no problem. However if the pitch is the actual pitch then a feedrate is added after. It is as if the post must use a feedrate before it will move to a second point. I am wondering if it somewhere in the motion output section:-

 prapidout       #Output to NC of linear movement - rapid               

Bruce

I have a mazak post for a palatech system that outputs a feedrate on the line after a tapping cycle

 (M3 FORM TAP TOOL - 73)

How do I get rid of the feedrate? I thought I got around it when I altered a Makino post to output pitch insted of feedrate on the G84 line but lo and behold, the feedrate popped up on the next line again.

Any help appreciated.

Bruce

I have put a file called wcs5axis on the ftp under mc9 files.

From wcs top I have machined the red and blue faces

From wcs op2 I have machined the yellow and purple face.

Bruce

James

If you have the top wcs active won't the paths on the bottom post wrong?

I might do a dummy file and post it so I can better explain what I am doing.

Bruce

I do have a file but I would end up in front of a firing squad if I showed it.

What I usually do with a part that has 2 5 axis ops is have an mc9 file for one side and another for the back. This is a pain sometimes because I need to verify, save as stl, xform stl use as stock model for the 2nd op file, get a watertight stl problem blah blah blah.......

What i am doing now is both 5 axis ops in 1 file. That way when I verify I end up with the completed part and I can see if any of the first op processes have interfered with the second op. Our 5 axis post uses a single datum so when I create a view I must set the origin for that view as 0,0,0. If i am in a wcs other than #1 top and I set a new view I select the origin on the screen as the view origin the x,y,z values are different for each new view. If I create views while in wcs#1 and select the origin on the screen I get 0,0,0 no matter what.

I have been ploding away on this for a couple of hours and it all looks good. I was just wondering if anybody else had used a combination of wcs and custom views in the same file before.

I have posted some of the toolpaths and they look alright. I will continue this and see if it is successful as it will be a big help on complex 5 axis parts that we currently do in multiple mc9 files.

Bruce

I have had a look at the vb setup sheet that is on the ftp. It appears to be trying to add an emf file to a text box but this is not working. Anyone know how to fix this?

Bruce

Can a wcs be used together with 5 axis machining using defined views?

To save time and allow checking between op1 and op2 I have started programming a job from both sides.

Let me clarify.

WCS top: machine part from top face and front and back using single datum set at top and centre of bounding box

WCS #: wcs set as top and centre of bounding box as seen if part was flipped over. I have then had to create 3 different views to allow machining on angled faces. When I select the origin for these views as the origin of the "bottom" wcs, I get a different x,y,z value for each one. I would have thought that they would be the same.

Will this effect anything when I post the programmes?

Bruce

I know i could just post it and check but I don't have the machine time available. MC is a deckel dmu50

[ 09-24-2004, 03:53 AM: Message edited by: BC10146 ]

I think it can be converted using mazak's camware.

Bruce

I get you. I am only new to VB but there appear to be commands that allow you to read values from an external source, generate geometry, generate toolpaths and post. I wouldn't know where to begin if it was actually possible but you now have me thinking................

BTW this is where heidenhain controllers are good. Programme everything with a Q variable and labels and you end up with a parametric programme that is similar to what morbidelli use.

Bruce

Do you have a tapered threadmill?

1:35 first

20sec second time, but I get a no leftover found error.

twin 3gig xeon

1 gig ram

The twin processors don't seem to do much unless a lot of sessions are open.

Thanks all. I will try a different approach.

Bruce