Bridgeport interact Cad CAM Advice

[micky316]

HI
I have just taken delivery of an Interact 1 series 2 with Heidehein TNC 2500 CONTROL I have been programing sliding head and fixed head CNCs with Fanuc and citizen controls for 20+ years but think Im going to struggle with this mill ,I have a good mate /customer that showed me a few basics and reckons I wont have any bother.I havnt got any specific jobs for it but Im sure my regular customers will require me to do the ocassional job for them and I do want to learn it as well,iI dont want to spend mega-bucks on software and a mate recomended a software program called Onecnc XR4 that looks perfect for not a lot of money I would need some training and can get that with this program which also helps,I dare say Im going to get shot down in flames but be gentle, I dont want to spend £thousands if I can get round it
cheers in advance
Mick

[RalphWilson]

did a simple google search for
"Heidehein TNC 2500 CONTROL"
DNC software. CNC and DNC settings for Heidenhain-TNC 2500.

I did not read it but , please share you thoughts on this page.

I have done some really cool things on the bridgeport eztract, if it is anything like that I would consider just doing it at the machine, the programing.

you really dont need to draw the print again, just input it into a program and put it on the disk drive, it should have one of them.
early bridgeports did not have much of a conversational programing, later ones had some kick to them.
The helix is your friend, you can do so much with a helix tool path, any plain.
I was playing with other tool paths as well.
maybe you don't need;Cad software to program the CNC.

But my guess is if you want to try something you can try simplycam.
you can draw and write simple to complex if you buy it.

The free version is a limit of 100 lines of code.
But I have rendered tool paths of 50k of code to a drawing file , from nc code.
And viewed it in mastercam.

That is cool.
anyway thats my input