Hi Keith,
Got your wallet handy? Prepare to be sold!
You made me go back and fire up the Mill2000 so I could see what the interface looked like.
Oh yeah, now I remember: the main diff is that in Mill 2000, you construct your entire program in the NC editor window, one process at a time. So, there is no easy way to isolate one machining process in the middle of your program, should you decide you want to change some parameters about it. You'll be busy cutting and pasting, carefully
So to parallel what you are doing now, but in the new NC manager, when you create a machining process, you go through pretty well all the same functions as you experience right now, where you set up your tool, and select a set of roughing or finishing parameters. Then the toolpath is created. However, the programs diverge at this stage, because in Mill2000, you get NC code output immediately into the editor, whether you're ready for it or not.
In the NC manager, a folder tree is created, and the process you just set up is stored there, but no nc code is output at this stage. It is all ready to post whenever you command it to happen, and it could post to any number of different machines, because the process information is relatively independent of the post you will use.
So an example? Today, I was machining a profile around a cast rubber mold and drilling some large holes in the mold face. This is a pretty crude part, because of shrinkage when it comes out of the molding process, plus the molders try to compensate for the shrinkage by pouring a little extra on two sides. Its a nightmare to set up because its soft, and there are no features I can dial on to locate the holes, or the profile. Abstract machining, I hate it
So, I set up the original program (a week before) ,assuming that I would have good reference points, in this order:
rough profile
finish profile
drill 3/4" holes in face.
After machining one, I was not happy, the centering of my profile was not very good. However, if the hole pattern was correct, the profile would also be correct.
Then I took the idea of drilling a sub-sized hole pattern first, to get a visual reference for the proper placement of all the machined features, relative to the molded features.
So, I went back and created one more process, drilling a 1/2" hole pattern in the face this time, then I would stop the machine and look at the hole pattern and see if the centering looked okay. If not, make adjustments and continue. The 3/4 inch tool now cleans out the 1/2" holes, even if I have re-adjusted my home position to improve the overall centering.
So, I created one new process and then I dragged my existing processes around to do it this way:
Drill 1/2" holes in face
Drill 3/4" holes in face
rough profile
finish profile.
So, without mucking around with cutting and pasting my old program, I simply rearrange the sequence, and hit the "Post" button and get a new program. I call this "zero editing" because I don't have to touch what gets posted in the NC editor.
This is what I like about the NC manager, is that you get a clear and concise understanding of what your nc program is going to be doing, whereas, you'd have to poke through your nc code in Mill 2000 to see what procedures are involved, and how you had them set up.
Also, I am interested in documenting what I have done, so that I can do it again, easily. The NC manager is where you gain this ability to store
your CAM procedures independent of a given nc program. Its a lot easier to click on "Edit this process" and run through it to see how you had it set up, than to rummage through some 60 day old nc program to see what worked.