Newbie- Mastercamx

[rmetzger2]

I got a bridgeport vmc 760 and I am trying to run a program on it that I made in mastercamX. When I export the file onto a floppy drive and put it in my mill, the mill does not recognize the file type. I pulled off an old program that was left behind on the hard drive and found that that file was a text document. So does anyone know how to convert a mastercamX file into a text document with actual machine instructions. Or whether or not the vmc 760 can recognize files of other extension. I have the owners manuals and I haven't found anything about what types of files the machine recognizes. I have also been looking online for days now for some information about mastercamX, but I am not getting any answers. So if anyone could help, that would be great.

[txcncman]

You did not say what type of file MasterCAM X is generating. Do you have the correct post-processor for your machine? Have you used MasterCAM X to make CNC programs for other machines?

[rmetzger2]

Ok I am trying to figure out what type of file my machine will recognize. Right now I have no idea and the default file type for mastercam x is .mcx, but I have also tried to save it as .mc9 and as ascII which is .txt. When I save as a .txt file and open the file it shows this...

Operations List for C:\MCAMX\MCX\TEST MOLD.MCX
Tue Oct 04 07:51:29 2011

*** OPERATION GROUP: Machine Group 1 ***

*** OPERATION GROUP: Toolpath Group 1 ***

TOOL: #1 - 0.5000 ENDMILL1 FLAT - 1/2 FLAT ENDMILL
GEOMETRY: Geometry - (1) chain(s)
TOOL: #2 - 0.1875 ENDMILL1 FLAT - 3/16 FLAT ENDMILL
GEOMETRY: Geometry - (1) chain(s)
TOOL: #3 - 0.2500 DRILL - 1/4 DRILL
GEOMETRY: Geometry - (8) Points

This does not look like any of the old files that were left on the machine so I have not tried it yet.

I don't know what a post processor is, but If I can find it in the manuals I will look and this is my first time doing any sort of cnc programming.

This is some of the one file I took off the machine...

.N0G70G75G90
'MOLD 1-18-96'
'1'
'TOOL NUMBER:1'
'SPINDLE RPM:1200'
N5G0X0.Y0.T1M6
N6S1200M03
N7X3.791Y-3.0377Z0.05
N8G1Z-0.125F1.5
N9G2X3.8193Y-2.7971I6.5833J-3.245F15.0
N10G3X3.6919Y-2.7986I3.85J-10.497
N11G1X3.791Y-3.0377
N12X4.0089Y-3.45
N13X4.037Y-3.3822
N14G2X4.1293Y-2.5519I6.5833J-3.245
N15G3X3.3241Y-2.5644I3.85J-10.497
N16G2X3.3358Y-2.5921I0.9799J-3.5679
N17G1X3.6911Y-3.45

The guy I got the mill from said he also used to do a lot of his programming off of the mill without using any cam software. I don't know if this is from him doing that or from a cam program.

[txcncman]

Well, first off, you have no clue what you are doing with CAM software. After creating your tool path in the CAM software, you have to do an operation that is call "posting" from the CAM software so that it will output a file that is readable by your machine control. A machine control cannot read the MasterCAM file directly. There has to be some kind of conversion process.

[rmetzger2]

Ok so I read up on the post processing and now I need the definition for my bridgeport... There were not any in mastercam for my machine so I if you know where I can get the definition that would solve my problem.

[txcncman]

Did you check here? Mastercam : Teachers & Students

[rmetzger2]

Actually I need the dx-32 controller definition too. Im looking through the help on mastercam and I don't see anywhere to download the definitions.

[txcncman]

What you would download will be a zip file that contains all of the files.

[rmetzger2]

Yeah ok I just saw your link... They didn't have my definitions, but I am going to try to email them. Thanks for your help.

[txcncman]

MasterCAM has a Machine Definition Manager and a Control Definition Manager built in so you can build your own. Then you can take a generic post and modify it to output G-code the way it is needed.

[rmetzger2]

Yeah I saw that you could make your own. I don't really understand how. I have just been looking online to see if anyone has pre-made posts for a dx-32 controller. Once I get the post processor files and set up mastercam with them, how do I get the gcode that it creates. Do I have to save my file in a certain way or export it somewhere?

[txcncman]

Originally Posted by rmetzger2 Yeah I saw that you could make your own. I don't really understand how. I have just been looking online to see if anyone has pre-made posts for a dx-32 controller. Once I get the post processor files and set up mastercam with them, how do I get the gcode that it creates. Do I have to save my file in a certain way or export it somewhere?

Yes. You do.