So anyway, I'm pretty comfortable with using solidworks. I use it every damn day at work, and seem to find a reason to use it at home every freakin day. So I've been taking a lot of my models to my machinist friend locally. Anyway, he bought a HAAS milling maching, but doesn't know how to do CAM. I need to learn how to use Mastercam. I have a copy of Mastercam X at home. I just need help learning how to use it so I can start playing around with the HAAS machine.

Are there any good tutorials about importing solidworks models into Mastercam X and making tools paths? I believe my solidworks models with import right into Mastercam, but I dont' know where to even get started from there.

Thanks for the help

Here's a picture of the HAAS machine:




Regards,
Justin


Modified by Justin Olson at 4:13 PM 12/15/2007

 

CAM and CAD are two completely different animals...it would be pretty difficult to teach cam via a message forum like this... it isn't something you learn in a couple hours, even in a sit down training session.

to get your cad into mastercam, you can do it a few different ways. mcx has a built in translator, you just need to save your solidworks file as an extension to match one of the options on mcx to open it. something like an .iges file will work, but i find they are often sloppy and have a lot of extra crap you don't need. i haven't used x in a while, but it should have a direct parasolid translation option.

start with simple drilling cycles and 2d toolpaths and go from there. you are going to have to even learn basic things like the difference between conventional and climb milling.

then there is the post processor... that is a whole different ball of wax... if you only have the student version of mcx, you probably don't have the post processor, so you might as well forget trying to post anything to the machine.

to be honest, i don't think your machinist friend bought the right machine if he has no cam experience... he must have gotten a good deal on it. a hurco vm would have been a better choice, because you can do the programming right on the control. any general machinist can have it up and running in a few hours.

good luck!

 

I can go speak with the teachers at my school who teach the cnc class...there might be a book.

If you want to learn quickly... come up here over winterbreak. We have a VF-2 that is being run non-stop by our Baja and FSAE teams.

 

This is interesting I just got into an apprenticeship to be a CNC machine operator it's a 4 year program.

 

so his expeirences with solidworks wont help him with using cam?

i dont know ANYTHING about this stuff, so im here to learn.

good stuff

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 93supercoupe &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">so his expeirences with solidworks wont help him with using cam?

i dont know ANYTHING about this stuff, so im here to learn.

good stuff </TD></TR></TABLE>

Na cam you really can't learn online.

 

ooooo you're going to crash that sucker

Is that machine missing the outside shell, or is it not fully enclosed on purpose? You almost never see open machines anymore. 10k rpms + 100 psi coolant = oil cloud.

 

F that, I found a really good PDF for Mastercam. You can learn anything with enough patience. I'll learn it

Copy and paste this into google. Theres lots of information out there:

"mastercam tutorial filetype:pdf"

Regards,
Justin

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 2kjettaguy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">ooooo you're going to crash that sucker

Is that machine missing the outside shell, or is it not fully enclosed on purpose? You almost never see open machines anymore. 10k rpms + 100 psi coolant = oil cloud. </TD></TR></TABLE>

I don't think he's ever used it. Once I learn cam he said he'd fire it up and we'd play around

There are a bunch of CAM programmers here at my work. I'm going to work on CAM over the weekend and go bug them for tips

Regards,
Justin

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Justin Olson &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">F that, I found a really good PDF for Mastercam. You can learn anything with enough patience. I'll learn it

</TD></TR></TABLE>

Of course .

 

Oh trust me, I have learned everything I know on my own. I've only been machining for 6 years and I learn something new every day. The parts I make look like I've been doing it 25 years.

Read read read!

Make sure you study tool height compensation and work offsets. MasterCam takes care of most of that stuff, but you still need to know it. Keep the rapids on 0% or 25% when you're testing so that you don't crash it. Run everything in the air! You also need to know what tools to use and speeds/feeds/DOC.

I can give you alot of tips and some sample code, commented. Shoot me an email at evan@42draftdesigns.com. I'd rather not teach the whole forums

 

Thanks for the help 2kjettaguy. I'll shoot you an e-mail.

Regards,
Justin

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Justin Olson &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> You can learn anything with enough patience. I'll learn it

</TD></TR></TABLE>




ken

 

Anyone here ever use "SolidCam"? I know we started using it on our CNC roughly a year ago. I dont personally use it, but from what I've been explained it simplifies alot of things and generally just needs the basic part files and one of the main things that the operator has to do is just pick the "insertion points". I'm sure the head speed and feed rate is also a factor as well. I use Solidworks most of the time at work also. Anyone have experiences w/ this or like it better than the other CAM programs?

 

I am actually doing an evaluation of solid cam right now. Been working on some tutorials with a guy from SolidCam. I am a mastercam 9 user, and know the in's and out's of the software pretty well. So making the switch to a much nicer program is interesting, but I am really pushing the limits of what the 3 axis machine can do right now.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by MidShipCivic &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">This is interesting I just got into an apprenticeship to be a CNC machine operator it's a 4 year program. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Hopefully you mean "CNC Machine Programmer", because it doesn't take much more than a few days to learn how to operate the machine.. Ask me how I know, haha..

The operator basically does setups, tool loading, part changing, and cleaning of the machine. It is almost mindless work after you do it a few times..

 

Your not going to just jump into mastercam, program a part, load it on the machine and everything will be alright. You really need to operate a machine, feel comfortable with and most importantly know what its going to do. The perfect example is if you program a rapid move "G00" on a HAAS, it will rapid at a 45 degree angle when in mastercam you have it programmed as a stright line. So even though everything looks fine sitting behind a monitor you just drove your spindle through a fixture because HAAS' axis interpolation defines a rapid as the shortest distance to the next point.

Just becuase you can draw some lines and surfaces in a CAD program doesn't mean CAM is just as easy. Remember, when you mess up in programming, your going to destroy things, usually expensive things. Its the same principal as someone trying to program a standalone on an 1000hp Supra saying he had experience using a VAFC.

My best advice is to use the HAAS cycles built into the controller. HAAS's are really good for programming at the machine. You just need to know how to define geometry using X, Y, Z's R's and J's. The only difference for programming in the controller, you won't be able to do surfacing, but I doubt that version of Mastercam does.


HAAS's are good machines. I have a VF-4, EC-1600 5-axis, and a VF6-SS, 5-axis with a TR310 trunion.

 

Thanks for all the information. I'm just trying to learn more and more about cam. I'm not saying I'm some CAM genious. I'm just trying to learn more and more. Its just frustrating when people say how hard it is to do something. The hardest thing for me is just getting myself started on stuff. Once I'm going I can figure things out with enough time and trial and error.

I'm going to work on programming the machine at the control panel first. That will help me get more familiar with the machine.

I'm also going to take up a member on here on his offer of sending me sample NC files to run and see how the machine works.

Thanks for all the input everyone

Regards,
Justin

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by The Original Whitey &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Your not going to just jump into mastercam, program a part, load it on the machine and everything will be alright. You really need to operate a machine, feel comfortable with and most importantly know what its going to do. The perfect example is if you program a rapid move "G00" on a HAAS, it will rapid at a 45 degree angle when in mastercam you have it programmed as a stright line. So even though everything looks fine sitting behind a monitor you just drove your spindle through a fixture because HAAS' axis interpolation defines a rapid as the shortest distance to the next point.

Just becuase you can draw some lines and surfaces in a CAD program doesn't mean CAM is just as easy. Remember, when you mess up in programming, your going to destroy things, usually expensive things. Its the same principal as someone trying to program a standalone on an 1000hp Supra saying he had experience using a VAFC.

My best advice is to use the HAAS cycles built into the controller. HAAS's are really good for programming at the machine. You just need to know how to define geometry using X, Y, Z's R's and J's. The only difference for programming in the controller, you won't be able to do surfacing, but I doubt that version of Mastercam does.


HAAS's are good machines. I have a VF-4, EC-1600 5-axis, and a VF6-SS, 5-axis with a TR310 trunion. </TD></TR></TABLE>

 

When I started at the last machine shop I worked at I had absolutely no previous experience on operating or programming a CNC mill. I did however have an associates degree in CAD which really came in handy once I started to actually program the machines. The first 6 months I was only allowed to do setups, install new tooling and program part and toolng offsets. When I finally started to actually do some programming it was pretty easy to learn IMO. After about 1yr I was able to programm, fixture and run a complete part from start to finish with minimal help.
So I guess you could say it took me about a year to get to that point.
BTW we used Feature CAM for programming our HAAS mills.
VF4, VF0E, Mini Mill, we also had a Haas live tooling lathe.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by PPLH8R &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">When I started at the last machine shop I worked at I had absolutely no previous experience on operating or programming a CNC mill. I did however have an associates degree in CAD which really came in handy once I started to actually program the machines. The first 6 months I was only allowed to do setups, install new tooling and program part and toolng offsets. When I finally started to actually do some programming it was pretty easy to learn IMO. After about 1yr I was able to programm, fixture and run a complete part from start to finish with minimal help.
So I guess you could say it took me about a year to get to that point.
BTW we used Feature CAM for programming our HAAS mills.
VF4, VF0E, Mini Mill, we also had a Haas live tooling lathe.

</TD></TR></TABLE>

thats about the same thing i did...i had done CNC laser/punch programming for a couple years when i moved over to the machine shop to do the programming...i started at the bottom and put setups together, indicated offsets in, and just basically was a button pusher for the first month or two...then i got into changing the code at the machine (wasnt hard to figure out as the code is very similar to laser/punch code) and then i got on the computer with GibbsCAM. starting at the machine and seeing what code does what, learning speeds and feeds, and learning about the materials and tools your cutting with, will play out 10fold when you sit down at the computer to program it....knowing what you want the machine to do, and figuring out how to make the software do it, was the best plan of attack for me.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Justin Olson &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Thanks for all the information. I'm just trying to learn more and more about cam. I'm not saying I'm some CAM genious. I'm just trying to learn more and more. Its just frustrating when people say how hard it is to do something. The hardest thing for me is just getting myself started on stuff. Once I'm going I can figure things out with enough time and trial and error.

I'm going to work on programming the machine at the control panel first. That will help me get more familiar with the machine.

I'm also going to take up a member on here on his offer of sending me sample NC files to run and see how the machine works.

Thanks for all the input everyone

Regards,
Justin

</TD></TR></TABLE>


Read the HAAS manual that came with the machine. It will seriously tell you everything you need to know and teach you how to use G-code. Its a really good manual. Eventually, you'll get the the point where you can just look at the code and see the geometry.
Someone who know G-code would be able to read this and draw me the exact geometry of the part. This is part of a program for a pretty simple geometry:

N2 G40 G49 G17 G80 G20 G90
N3 G121
N4 G91 G28 Z0
N5 G90
N6 G00 X0. Y0.
N7 M01
N8 M05
N10 T8 M06
N11 G90
N13 S10000 M03
N14 X1.1888 Y10.5
N15 G43 Z2.6 H08
N16 G00 Z0.7
N17 G01 G94 Y9. F30.
N18 Y1. F30.
N19 Y0.
N20 G00 Z2.6
N21 Z3.01
N14 X1.1388 Y10.5
N15 Z2.6
N16 Z0.625
N17 G01 G94 Y9. F20.
N18 Y1. F30.
N19 Y0.
N20 G00 Z2.6
N21 Z3.01
N22 X0.375 Y0.875
N23 Z0.1
N24 G01 X0.375 F15.
N25 X0.8724
N26 X1.5
N28 G00 Z3.01
N29 X0.375 Y9.125
N30 Z0.1
N31 G01 X0.375 F15.
N32 X0.8724
N33 X1.5
N35 G00 Z3.01
N36 X0.3724
N37 Z2.6575
N38 Z-0.3425
N39 G01 X1.5 F15.
N40 X18.5599 F30.
N41 G02 X18.9349 Y8.75 I0 J-0.375
N42 G01 Y1.25
N43 G02 X18.5599 Y0.875 I-0.375 J0
N44 G01 X1.5
N45 X0.3724 F15.
N46 G00 Z2.6575
N47 Z3.
N48 X2.4349 Y5.
N49 G41 Z0.0394 D08
N50 G01 Z-0.3425 F30.
N51 X2.4563 Y5.128
N52 G03 X2.2901 Y5.068 I-0.0531 J-0.1131
N53 X2.5949 Y4.9967 I0.1448 J-0.068
N54 X2.2901 Y4.9321 I-0.16 J0.0033
N55 X2.4563 Y4.872 I0.1131 J0.053
N56 G01 X2.4349 Y5.
N57 G40 Z0.0394
N58 G00 Z3.