Hey Rusty, Siemens 840d user here, although all the machines I currently work on are single channel. I did a little searching and found this video, which fully describes program structure, how the code should look, and a little bit about how the CAM system should output. TL:DR you need a couple of different programs. First is a .JOB which will contain a CYCLE208 and the master program names for each channel. Next will be the master program with the synch codes (which should look like this, WAITM(1,1,2)) and other relevant data. Last will be the .spf programs, which should contain all the cutting data. This is fairly similar to my preferred output method of programs, even on single channel machines. However, CAM software wasn't quiet able to get me all the way there with posting out. I ended up making a python script to handle building of the master program, which works pretty well. Feel free to DM me if you want to see how that works. A couple of notes, it looks like there is a pass option in the WAIT for individual channels. This should allow single channel operation, but without a machine to test it on I can't confirm. This YouTube channel has a lot of really good information on the 840d control, I would highly recommend watching to figure out some of the more powerful options on the Siemens control. Also, there is a machine simulator for the 840d called Sinutrain, this allows some basic simulation on your computer. Really helps when trying to diagnose problems like this with complex cycles, or macro programming.

Something to note with the approach you're looking at. It's going to create a lot of straw like chips in the part that will be very hard to remove with flood coolant. If you have it use TSC, chip clearing can be a real nightmare on cavity work in Ti.

I use Sublime Text, which would be able to do this. It would take some programming knowledge, but shouldn't be to much of a hassle. It's also free and open source.

Something else, be very careful making threads in this material. You can tap it, but it requires tapping fluid, and peck tapping most of the time. It's generally a lot safer to threadmill, if you only have a couple parts to make, I would suggest it over trying to figure out tapping. (unless you have a sacrificial piece to figure out how the tapping works.)

Something of note when working with S class materials. Be very careful about your first passes against raw stock. If the stock is oversized you can over engage your tool. Which will break the tool instantaneously. I generally always drew my stock .02"-.05" larger then what I measured to help with this issue. The material wants to soak heat, even blipping the coolant off for a second while it's touching material can end the tools life. If you have TSC use it!

Check all fluids. Had a similar issue once on a Mazak I300 with a smooth control where the fluid had just gotten low on the thermal compensation tank.

Do a search for "DPAS rating chart" you should come up with a .pdf made by DCMA. Almost everything everyone has posted falls under this document, which lines up with the verbiage you're using. "Title 1 of the Defense Production Act (DPA) of 1950 is the statutory basis for the Defense Priorities and Allocations System (DPAS). Title 1 is also one of the non-permanent provisions of the DPA that needs to be periodically reauthorized, which Congress has done in the past for periods of 1 to 5 years. The DPA provides the President with the authority to require acceptance and priority performance on contracts and orders, and to allocate materials, services, and facilities to support national defense and emergency preparedness requirements. The President has delegated his priority and allocation authority to the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Energy according to resource required." As you can see from the above excerpt, they can do a lot more then force you to start making a part you bid/won on. They can force historic parts on you if they can't source them from another shop(s) for some reason. DO and DX are ratings that fall under DPAS, with sub categories for different types of equipment under them. The person you talked to previously was most likely referring to a sub category under the DPAS umbrella. Hopefully the document provides some clarity.

DPAS rating is probably what you're looking for.

@Slick Not using MC for this. Running another CAM software at the moment. Time to run was about 6 minutes. I know from previous experience that Mastercam was pretty good with times. If you removed tool changes and other ancillary actions from the machine, the time would be about +-5% of the predicted time. (At least for the machines and posts I was using.) This would change significantly for the 5 axis paths if you were running something not COR as the machine would have much further to travel for each move.

Sorry I missed the responses to this. I did get it working. @Greg Williams Program isn't built with Mcam, so I can't share a file. @?Mark FGroup alone wasn't fixing the issue. I did every combination I could think of for this. FGroup (X,Y,Z,C) still made the C axis very slow during C only moves (probably around 20% of what it should have been moving). @Slick The machine does have TRAORI and it is commanded during machining. Fix I found for this with Mark's help was to add FGref[C]=1.000 where 1 is the radial distance from center of the cylinder. Of note that both FGroup and FGref needed to be below the CYCLE832 line in order to function.

Like the title says, I'm seeing issues with feedrates on a DMG Mori DMU-40 with a Siemens 840d control. Issue is during a 5x path (simple pocket routine wrapped on a cylinder and locked to 4th axis.) the machine feed during Y (or X) only moves is moving drastically faster then when C is commanded as well. The machine is running G94, I did already try FGROUP commands, but with little success. Time estimation in CAM for cycle is around 5 minutes, on machine it takes about an hour. Uncertain where the issue is. Any help would be appreciated.

Hi all, trying to get a custom cycle up and working on a siemens 840d DMU 40 FD. But, I'm having some troubles with the tools orientation when running at anything that's not 0. on the B axis. The custom cycle is designed to interpolation cut a groove into the face of a part at any size and location. However, when the machine rotates the part to the angle desired, the spindle SPOS (or SP) commands don't track to cycle 800. They rotate to the absolute machine coordinates. Is there anyway to get the spindle to clock against the cycle 800 without doing the math for each rotation?

It's been awhile since I used Mastercam. But I believe this has to do with whether the post supports it. You could add it to the post if you really wanted it as an option. Video on Youtube shows how it is done here. If you just need it once, the machine should support it and you can just edit the G84 line with a 'Q' telling it how deep you want per cycle.

That's pretty deep for that size tap. I would switch to peck tapping. Most taps at that size only have 7mm of flute. So the odds are high that the upper portion of the tap is blocking the coolant from doing it's job. As well as the chips from escaping (on the spiral tap.) If you have tapping fluid, use it. Normally at this size I would use a roll tap to avoid the issue of chip pack, and peck tap to depth. Takes a bit longer, but better then breaking taps constantly.

What material, depth, and machine are you running this on? Peck tapping may help out with this issue, as well as using a better lubricant (such as Moly tapping fluid.)