Matweb is good. Just beware on some material properties there will be an asterisk with "TYPICAL - NOT FOR DESIGN" next to it. Its an approximate value. Moreso with aluminum than steel though.

Ditch autocad

Why cant CNC software just release some full, high res shots of the X Mill interface for us to drool over? Its pretty well along in dev, gotta be well past code freeze. What's there to lose?

Being an engineering student, I started working with Solidworks and Inventor and then a few months later started working with MasterCAM. Personally I don't use Mastercam for any sort of design or drawing, only toolpaths. Mastercam is primarily an NC package. Solidworks is primarily a design package, and for me its much much easier to do design in Solidworks. But its a personal preference thing.

I haven't heard anything about large companies all learning towards one CAD system. A lot use Pro/E 2001 and Wildfire...a lot use CATIA...a lot use Unigraphics. If you're looking for jobs on monster.com or what not, those will be the smaller, more local companies I'd imagine. I don't see why Lockheed Martin or Raytheon or Boeing would be posting there. Like I said. If you learn one system very well, the rest will come that much easier. And a lot of companies recognize that and put you through training.

Incredibly, CATIA student licenses are $100. Includes design, drafting, some FEA, and even (simple, 2d) NC machining!! However, your university has to already have some sort of licensing deal set up with them. And then you essentially can buy the same software available at the university machines to continue your schoolwork at home. It's something I'm looking in to.

Personally I much prefer Inventor as a streamlined design package over Solidworks. Functionality is pretty much the same as SW, but the interface is laid out much better. It seems to handle large assemblies much better, and its native analysis package is from ANSYS and is pretty solid, whereas CosmosXPress is kinda sketchy. Just defending.. And yea the way SW does the co-ordinate system differently is annoying. SW defines "Y" as being vertical. Crazy people. There are ways around that though. In your part template file you can just rename the primary datum planes, or when you have the part already modelled you can insert a reference geometry system and export your parasolid or iges or what have you, using that.

Depends on what kind if industry you want to go in to, to a certain extent. Around here most engineering firms use Solidworks, so for me, knowing it, working with it, and having taught a Solidworks class works well for me. It also has a very easy learning curve and is fairly powerful, and if you're a student, educational licenses are dirt cheap (~$89). Unigraphics is a much higher-end design system. = Bigger price tag = out of reach for many companies. But if you want to go to a larger design company that uses UG, you're that much better off. Also depends on how much time you have to learn these. Once you know one 3d, parametric-driven CAD package learning others falls into place very quickly. Ideally, learn them both. I'd lean towards UG, just because its a more 'prestigious' system.

What type of operation? Type of tool? Size? Number of inserts? Type of stainless?

We us Lyndex collet chucks for just about everything, including milling, drilling, and tapping. No problems.

Think I'll give programming it a shot anyway. Good excercise in least-error squared curve fitting and flow quality control.

Because why? Is X not shipping with the Girls Gone Wild HSM edition DVD I was promised???

Pretty sure. If I'm right... You take a part that's been made. Do some co-ordinate measuring on it to pick up the XY locations of holes on a bolt pattern. You enter what the position tolerance should be according to the print. Computer calculates the true diameter and angle of the physical holes, and then can tell you whether or not the whole pattern is OK, if just one hole is off, or if the whole thing is shot. Correct?

Ohhh man thats corny hahaha

I don't have anything like that, but I could probably program it. Though it would be in MATLAB or something similiar which I doubt is all that common in machine shops. Or maybe over a weekend I could just write all the math down.

Thats nuts man. No tolerancing. Around here its "no drawing, no part." And 99.9% of the stuff we do is also in house, sent over by engineering. Make it to the print and there's no way they can nail us for the part not working of it meets spec.

No standard for the actual solid model. Shouldn't all that good stuff...thread callouts, tolerances, etc, be on the drawing?

Thanks so much!! This is gonna rock. Now I just gotta get the post to do that. Time to get the CD.

Err scratch the staging tools thing. Was pretty tired (and still am). Wouldnt work too good...

Ok. So at work we have our '99 Fadal 3016L with the 88HS controller. We run it format 2. I've become familiar enough with M-Cam and the controller that I'm on the verge of being "let loose" on the machine...which is huge given that I can run other CNCs on campus but this is by far the nicest and our senior machinist is SUPER protective of it. Anyway. He's kinda set in his ways of running the thing. While he just lets the coolant drool fairly low pressure on the tool and part, I want to use the higher pressure programmable servo coolant spray. First - how do you even get this set on the machine? The manual seems kinda vague. It didn't give an example of what the line of code should look like, only that it will need to have M8.1 rather than M8 and something about using the H command. Does it calculate the spray angle based off the tool length offset? Or is it some angle you have to dink around with when you're setting your tools and enter in the program? Is there anything I have to do on the SETP page? Second - What do I have to change in the post? (I guess this will be more apparent when I know the answer to #1). If its an angle you have to set in the program then it would be super cool if it could be assigned as a misc value. Right now we only use one, mi1 = work offset (E0, E1, E2...). He's convinced you have to add all the stuff to the code manually and it cant be done from Mastercam. I'm convinced otherwise. And I really gotta go pick up that post CD Any help is appreciated, guys. PS - While I'm at it, is this machine/controller configuration capable of staging tools? We have the 21-tool carousel ATC. I dont see PHYSICALLY why it wouldnt be possble, and it sure would save some time. [ 06-10-2005, 01:55 AM: Message edited by: Tom Szelag ]

Solidworks and Inventor both have very similar functionality. I use SW2005 at work and we have SW2004 in the design computer labs. Haven't played with Inventor since v9 beta. SolidEdge, from what I've heard, is crappy. What I liked about Inventor more than Solidworks is the Inventor interface is slightly more streamlined, and is hotkeyed nicely for high productivity without having to manually set a key for everything. Things are grouped a bit better IMO, for example there's only one extrude command and from there you can specify boss or cut, same with revolve, etc. Whereas Solidworks has a separate button/command for each. Less crap in your toolbars. In addition, the SW releases seem to get more cartoony and maybe a bit too user friendly. '06 ships in June I believe, we'll see how that turns out. With regard to importing, we do all our work as DXF or translate to parasolid first before bringing it into Mastercam. Can't really think of why. In any case, having worked a fair amount with Iv8 and Iv9 on some NASA payload stuff, and having TA'd a Solidworks class, I lean towards Inventor.

Sharp tool? Sufficiently cooled?

Double chipload I can do. But I'm not gettin near 4000rpm on a Bridgeport! When I run our Fadal I'll keep that in mind though. It was the first stainless piece that I had ever done (after much aluminum and some alloy steel) so I was a little intimidated at first. The 416 stuff ain't bad though I must say. Thanks guys.

Yea I was thinking maybe it was the low chipload, but I didn't know you could take up to .002 on a quarter inch tool in stainless. I'll give it a shot..

This is probably a newbie question, but... So the other day I'm cutting some 416SS. Had a .250 3 flute carbide endmill. Brand new, plenty sharp. Was doing some edge profiling as well as full slot cutting. 1700rpm, 2.2ipm, .100 DOC. This was on a Bridgeport EZ-TRAK 2-axis, no flood coolant, just Moly-dee dabbed on. From time to time depending on where the tool was in the path, id get this high-pitched singing/chirping sound (a high pitched chirp every time the cutting edge engaged, which at that frequency turned into a continuous squeel kinda). Part came out fine, great finish, and the tool was in great shape afterward. What the hell causes that sound though? How do I get rid of it?