Do you write it MANUALLY or plot it with gibbscam or mastercam?
I can't even imagine beyond A,X,Y and Z .
Hell, editnc even gets lost. :grin-square:
Gibbscam primarily,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
I think Don told me that machine has its own programming platform. I couldn't even begin to imagine what it would take to program that engine block manually. Although pretty impressive, I would look at each section individually when programming it. Even then, I wonder how long I'd have to sit and think about it before actually starting.
More than likely they do it like my buddy does, import from Autocad into the CAM software to do the Posting. So the engineers would actually have a lot of the work done for you.
Work like the engine block in the video is programmed with solid models anymore,,,,,,,,,,autocad is pretty much useless for that in comparison to Pro E, Unigraphics, Solidworks, etc,,,,,,,,we can get some of the models from OEM (Boeing, McDonnell, Sikorsky, Bell), but most we make ourselves,,,,sometime by reverse engineering with our laser scanner/Faro Arm. The Toolpaths and Cutting Strategies are all created by us, in CNC Programming.
I thought A was the 4th axis?! I guess it depends on the machine.
Its been close to 30 years but I remember a bunch of the G cdes. the 0*s were rapid, feed and cutter direction, 40's were cutter comp, 50's work coord., 70s and 80s were drilling, tapping, and boring cucles, 90 abs & incr. Don't think they was anything over 100 but there might be now. Not sure how many I'd remember the exact code for though but thats what books are for
I was helping out a friend in his shop not long ago and was surprised how many things I remembered.... and forgot
Not much use for remembering codes for this type of programming honestly,,,,,,way too much code to do manual edits anyway. The Post processor writes all the code, based on cutting process established in the cam software. Also, when doing this type of work, we do not use work offsets, G54 etc,,,,,,,We use what we call dynamic work offset, which really means program the part exactly where it is within the work envelope of the machine on the machines pallet, pedestal, fixture, etc,,,,,,this way, no matter where the part rotates, tilts, slides, etc,,,,,the software and machine are in sync. All axis limits, tilt angles, Tilt fulcrum points, centers of rotation, etc. must be defined exactly in what is called an MDD file, or Machine description dialog file,,,,,,,so that if when posting, a process must exceed a physical tilt or stroke limit to complete, the post will output code to revert the part to it's opposite vector so that the machine can reach all of the cut. That's what causes all the extreme rotations and tilts. This machining is usually done in the G93 mode, which is Inverse Time Feedrates, instead of inches per minute.
Simple stuff,,,,,,,,,,
