Mill/Turn in Edgecam 12

[Ortho]

Hi guys. New to the forum. We have an Emco 332 Mill turn with a sinumerik 840D. Its my 1st exposure to such a machine and Ive run into some major hurdles trying to develop some sort of CAM process to work with this machine. I used edgecam about 10 years ago but became a surfcam guy for many years after that. Ive started a new job and we use edgecam here, and its been a major source of frustration. The logic behind edgecam is somewhat foreign to me and it seems to be filled with bugs. I believe Ive come up with a post that can at least get me started with this machine, but the issue is getting edgecam to actually do any mill features around a c axis. (radial machining with driven tools) Theres no Y axis with this machine. Just X, Z and C. I have no need yet to use the sub spindle and turret for anything. Theres 1 example tutorial for mill turn with only these axes, but the tutorial shows them using "planar profile", which is something that doesnt seem to exist in the actual software. Im setting up the center of rotation as my datum, selecting the tools for radial and driven, selecting rotary mode, and then Ive tried to use every profiling or roughing process available and I cant get anything to select or actually do anything. Only thing that can actually create a toolpath and give me a simulation is "four axis rotary operation"..but it creates paths that are obviously using the Y axis. If theres anyone out there to help walk me through this labryinth of confusion, please help.

[Ortho]

ok...Im sure theres someone out there to help but its probably too much to teach online. Whats lousy is that the post and code constructors and all this need to be perfectly set up before you can do anything. This is a challenge to set up since I have no simple XZ arc plane to define (the option doesnt exist) and when going through the code constructor, theres a ton of CY "tokens" but no simple C tokens. I have the Y axis defeated in the best way I can figure out, but this code constructor which uses tokens is extremely involved, and I cant really figure out what to do. There is simply too much left to the end user to figure out. The sinumerik 840 template for mill turn seems almost incompatible with what this machine actually wants. But regardless of what the machine wants, Id like to at least get to the point I can machine say, flats on bar stock, with a ball using only x,z and c, on the screen. Ill select the flat but it always ends up machining an arc. It cant seem to use C and Z alone to machine what I need.
If anyone out there has mill/turn and the sinumerik 840 template, can you see if theres a way to defeat the Y axis? The boss is getting tired of me getting nowhere.

[Mike Mattera]

Welcome to the forum.

Yes! It's to much to teach on line. You might want to consider something like this...
http://www.tipsforcadcam.com/product/TFM-EC-T1-CD

Mike Mattera