machining multiple sides of a part

[pivatic1]

i have had bobcad ver23 for a month now but im not sure how to machine more than one side of a part. I want to machine a hole in the top then move the part 90deg to machine another. Do i have to write two programs for this?
Seems like a very simple action that i am overlooking. thanks

[HuFlungDung]

Unless you plan to use a 4th axis indexer to rotate the part, then you'd need two operations so far as your CAM is concerned, because you'd need to rotate the model on screen to the new position for the secondary operation.

Once you have two operations, you can post them as one program (or cut and paste in an editor to make them sequential), provided you put an M0 between the two operations so that the machine will stop and then you can rotate the part in your fixture. I don't know Bobcad, so I don't know the particulars of how you'd do it.

[virdi]

how come u dont call the bobcad guys? dont they help u out. they contacted me last night if i wanna buy their software. and my concern was support. they told me that everything is in the cd's they provide with the package and i can also visit their website if i have some questions or wanna know how to do things. but not sure if what they are saying is true. what do u say about the cd's which they provided, or is it not enough info. there? plz let me know i am not able to decide if i should buy the software or just buy mastercam or gibbs in future. ????

[pivatic1]

ive had no problems with bobcad other than it crashes every now and then on both my laptop and pc. u get 45 days of tech support and u can buy more of course but i like to figure things out unless i get stummped (thanks HuFlungDung that was very helpful). Mastercam is the industry norm and our system was like 13K. Bobcad was @1k. Also bobart and the editor are nice for the price so at this price bobcad has worked out nice. I use alibre but bobcad is growing on me.

[BurrMan]

i have had bobcad ver23 for a month now but im not sure how to machine more than one side of a part. I want to machine a hole in the top then move the part 90deg to machine another. Do i have to write two programs for this?
Seems like a very simple action that i am overlooking. thanks

BobCad will post code from the current UCS. So you would add UCS's where you want the index in the code. Then you dont need a 4th axis to do simple indexing, just rotate the stock and re-zero at the machine. Dont rotate your model in the viewport, just add a UCS to the area to machine, and it will output code as if zero. Before you post, be sure to go into the feature and remove the "Rotation output" from the feature on the posting tab, so it just outputs as a straight UCS.

Set your controller to stop at each op change, then do your manual indexing.

[BurrMan]

Hey pivatic1,
Allen 123 did a screencast of how to do this. You can probably figure it out from this. The point would be to deselect "output rotary angle" in the feature then it will just post as Pockets or profiles. Just setup how your controller will stop at each op, so you can rotate the part on the machine.

http://www.screencast.com/users/Alle...a-d6d26ef14a2c

[universalfab]

how come u dont call the bobcad guys? dont they help u out. they contacted me last night if i wanna buy their software. and my concern was support. they told me that everything is in the cd's they provide with the package and i can also visit their website if i have some questions or wanna know how to do things. but not sure if what they are saying is true. what do u say about the cd's which they provided, or is it not enough info. there? plz let me know i am not able to decide if i should buy the software or just buy mastercam or gibbs in future. ????

Well I don't know you have $10,000.00 + to spend on software? Pretty simple move is to buy bobcad V22 or V23, I have mastercamX and it's good stuff, but I also have bobcad V22 and it is also good. Bobcad is different from mastercam and gibbs I don't know about gibbs I've never used it. I like bobcad though it get alot of put downs just because it works a little differently, but it can do almost everything that I need. I would recommend you buy bobcad but I would also recommend you haggle them crooks at bobcad. I hate their support and I hate their salespeople and I hate most of the techs I pretty much hate everything about their company, but they do have good software once you get the hang of it. Get the price as low as you can and get as much tech support as you can and get everything in writing before you make the purchase. I was supposed to get 72 hours of techsupport with my purchase I haggled and haggled for more techsupport time because at the time I heard some bad stuff about bobcad, but I figgured I'd try for the heck of it. Well I did'nt get it in writing what they said and their recording of our conversation just so happened to never exist, so they told me I only had 45 days of tech support and I complained more and more and got like a month added on. They are big liars and will play games, they call me and litterally harrass me and start yelling at me when I haggle the price on v23 and after it's all done and over I don't buy because they don't go low enough. They start flipping out on me, no joke. There software is good though.

[BurrMan]

how come u dont call the bobcad guys? dont they help u out. they contacted me last night if i wanna buy their software. and my concern was support. they told me that everything is in the cd's they provide with the package and i can also visit their website if i have some questions or wanna know how to do things. but not sure if what they are saying is true.

Well,
pivatic1 had a question regarding how to cut his part in different planes with one program and got his question answered with a cool video visually showing it being done. I guess it's true!

[pivatic1]

yes that was a cool video thank you all for the help i am now machining on multiple sides.