HAAS toolroom TM-2 link to pc Confused

[adamsaiyad]

Hello everyone,
I hope i can relay this information correctly and hopefully get some advise on here.
We have a Haas toolroom Mill TM-2 please forgive me i am a it consultant....
I have a little knowledge in tooling and CNC machinery.
Any ways here goes.
We have a drawing guy that makes up drawings in 3D on Autocad 2007.
Now when these are done they are printed out and then entered manually into our TM-2. This can take up to three days.....

So the owner of this small company has asked me for help in making this whole process faster.
Firstly we have ordered a comport cable from Southern africa and it never arrived so i have made a cable to suite and has been tested and is working .

Secondly we need some form of program to get the information off the Drawing machine to the TM-2 Machine how and what can we use?????

This machine is a windows Xp based computer with Service pack 3..
It has a com port onboard
It also has Autocad 2007

But thats about as far as my head can go in terms of joining these two computer driven devices ?

How do i get the computer to talk to the TM-2
How do we relay the drawing file to The TM-2 Haas machine

please can any one help.

We dont need the lastest software that costs alot we just need a simple and possibly cheap solution that can facilitate this whole process saving us three days of data entry into the machine via the control panel on the right hand side??

Hope to hear your responses.

Kind regards
Adam Saiyad
Email : Adam@yoafrica.com

[Donkey Hotey]

Originally Posted by adamsaiyad Secondly we need some form of program to get the information off the Drawing machine to the TM-2 Machine how and what can we use?????

What you are missing is a type of software called CAM software (Computer Aided Manufacturing). Mastercam, BobCAM, SurfCAM, Esprit and others are common types of software and most of them have forums on this site.

Unfortunately, it is not an automatic process. You don't just convert the Autocad drawing and send it to the machine. A programmer will have to import the Autocad file, then program each setup that will be run on the machine. They won't be programming every little point move but, they will still have to tell it which tool to use, what lines to cut, how deep, how fast, how many RPM.

It is much faster than hand programming but it is not automatic and does take some time.

The next problem is going to be learning the software. There is a lot of learning associated with CAM software. It is more difficult to use than Autocad. Not only does the user need to be familiar with using the software but they also have to have the knowledge of a machinist. You can't just take a guy who is good with Autocad but, knows nothing about machining and expect to get good programs.

The last concern is price. CAM software is very expensive compared to what the company is probably used to with Autocad. BobCAM is the only inexpensive program that I listed and from everything I've heard, it is terrible software. I think it is $1500 US. Mastercam is the most common piece of CAM software. It sells for around $16000 US.

That should get you started with a bunch more questions.

[adamsaiyad]

this is brilliant just what i needed .
right so that cam software is the first step.
the programmer knows tool speeds and can plot so i can only presume he and the autocad specialist should work hand in hand to try figure out the tool path, tool speed and tool depth.
is there specialist courses out there for this type of thing ??
its really interesting and because ive always loved engineering this really inspires me.
i need to ask what type of program does the conversion for the drawing tool path and speed etc that thhe user has to plot in ??

i know mastercam can talk to the haas machine but is this all thats need to complete the process ??

[Donkey Hotey]

The Autocad file goes right into Mastercam. In Mastercam, the user creates all of the toolpaths that they want to run. When they are done, Mastercam creates standard G-code instructions that load directly into the Haas. Other CAM programs are similar.

[winey]

Hi Adam

Have u a usb port on ure controller , if so convert ure drawings from dwg to dxf in normal 2D drawings. Then u can do the neccessary programming on the controller.