UG vs Mastercam

When I started at current job they didn't have a Mastercam post for a Sharnoa Tiger 5. It cost $900 dollars to get one, they initially quoted $1200. Then after finding out the hard way that arcs in the XZ and YZ planes can only be programmed using polar coordinates, our VAR wanted to charge another $900 for a post written to output code in polar coordinates. I wish I was privy to the phone conversation my boss made to them after he found that out as we did get that post free of charge.

Which begs a question I never asked here.

Are any CAM systems capable of switching between absolute and polar positioning in the same posted program?

Back in the "day" Mscam & Cimatron came with a standard library of posts. Scam had photo copied doc.s on how to modify it that I got from our new VAR when he got all of the old "quicksilver" customers combining into the "new" mastercam. WTF? is this. Oh ya were going to do a total re-write from the ground up. It will be true 3D & very powerfull! That was 90ish -ver4.1, still waiting...................... Cimatron came with an editor GPP program ($option$) to compile post's it when done. I never learned it. I just worked / negotiated it out with their post "guru" & he modified it for me. Wonder what ever happened to Ogen Goldstein? Smart guy. Anyway I had a "white elephant" Mistubishi V55 tool change sequence problem. If multiple tools were used, it had to leave the spindle empty at the end of the program with T99 listed- if not the MF'er would grab the wrong tool next time around & also every toolchange had to be preceded with the next tool prep. Sweet machine for doing moldbase work. 30hp. gear head

-- \|||/ (o o) ______.oOO-(_)-OOo.____________________ ~ Gil ~ the self proclaimed IT13=A9=AE king

I just got done modeling up a core, puting a plastic part in it, gates, etc... And just like you said, I'm all done and I have all kinds of lines and geometry left over on all kinds of levels. The solids seem relatively stable, but the editing is where it seems like it falls short? It doesn't supress very well, or reorder, etc... It's not solidworks, but it works none the less.

In NX if I needed to switch to polar (or any other oddity) for certain operations I create a User Defined Event - meaning a special word that when my post sees it, do the magic till another word tells it not to. In the post I create an Event Handler that just like its name... handles it. Not a big problem. I would think most posts have this type of functionality?

-- Bill

I would say they give you a bunch of posts to start with. Most will work. But the rub is some folks have some real anal habits when it comes to how the posted code should look. And they will give you a hundred reasons why it has to be that way. I have a post for a dead simple 3ax Haas I did ten years ago that outputs subroutines for any Z-level milling purely because that shop had Gibbs that output that way had nothing to do with memory limits. Some want the Dx on the initial Z rapid line, others like it at the G41/42. Some want a variable and not literals for things like toolnos, feeds, and speeds - just in case...

Then things get a lot deeper when outputting the shop docs with the post. NX does it quite well as does Mastercam. Currently, the new trend is to output HTML docs but only a couple folks will accept them. NX will output a complete shop book with snapshots of the part after each tool has cut on a separate page with the tool descriptions and operator messages captured. No one accepts that yet. They like Excel, so I'm writing a macro to output to Excel to keep Microsoft in business.

-- Bill

Exactly but my friends in Europe have a real driver training school to get their licenses. Like my analogy, take your average button pusher give them Cimitron, MC, NX, or ... and the results are purely dependent on the default outputs that day.

Btw, the newbie driver on the Autobahn will be needing the xanax if not prepared!

-- Bill

It's pre staging the next tool Vinny.

yep its "tool prep" g-code code has only T# on one line - the machine tool loads that tool. next code line is M6 T# (prep's/ stages next tool)

Oh man your reaching for the stars! How would that be selectable or determinable whilst programming? Maybe a toggle within each toolpath?

ah taxation w/o rep. is happening right now. It aint cheaper for us common folk. but may not be the case with the special interest groups they do represent?

-- ~o~~o~~o~~o~~o~~o~~o~~o~~o~~~o~~ Some people make things happen.... Some watch things happen... While others complain it can=92t happen ~o~~o~~o~~o~~o~~o~~o~~o~~o~~~o~~ ~g~

yep its "tool prep" g-code code has only T# on one line - the machine tool loads that tool. next code line is M6 T# (prep's/ stages next tool)

~g~

I was told by the local VAR Mastercam can not do it.

Vinny, we call it like this to minimize potential disasters:

T25M06 T13 BLAH BLAH BLAH T13M06 T77 BLAH BLAH BLAH T77M06 T64

Some machines with poorly written toolchange macros will alarm if you have call "T13M06" after you've already staged T13.

The mastercam post can do that stuff, but instead of a switch, you use if then logic. If mastercam can post in polar, than it's post can be setup to switch back and forth at will.

Apparently the local Mastercam VAR and CNC Software don't know what they're talking about then.

::shrug::

$15k For Mill3+solids. DAMN!

$5K for VX "end to end".

The Solids and surfacing are so far beyond that of Mastercam, it's not even a fair comparison, and for 1/3rd the cost of Mastercam.