hurco-max-bobcad

[diemaker]

I recently bought a hurco vm2 and am using bnc code with bobcad21 to program it. I am inexperienced with programing, but have been a tool and die maker for 20 years.At the moment, I prefer bobcad to conversational until I get faster with conv.

The bobcad post for bnc has been a little rough on me.
I get the error of "radius to small" and the max will not run the program until i switch the editor back and forth from conversational to bnc, usually messing up my tool settings in the process.
Does anyone have an edited, customized post for bobcad v21 available?
The one from the bobcad website is clumsy compared to the fanuc post that I am more used to. It even comes complete with typos.My apologies to the author as I tried to edit the program start macro myself and messed it all up .

Also I once did the "geometry from nc option in the cam edit menu and had to reinstall bobcad and the post to get back to where the hurco didnt see the cad data as a huge tangle of arcs.

Is a winmax upgrade worth the cost? Can you just upgrade the operating system without hardware changes? The dos based max seems so dated with file name limitations etc. The pc is only a 233 cpu with 64 meg of ram.

I have the vm2 set up in a local machine shop and I am trying to generate enough income to replace my union toolmaker job (35 minute commute) So far a few mudsets and some low run production type drilling and milling jobs is all i can find locally.

ahhh wish me luck in any event
Thanks

diemaker

[jetski]

I would hold off on the Winmax. It is just a fancier package of what you have. Not any stronger. I do alot with just the conversational on my VM2. I have used MasterCam and AutoCad for years and am now trying to learn BobCad myself. I use to be a Senior Application Engineer for Hurco at one time. I have made a conversational training manual that I sell. I can send you a sample page so you can see how it works. I also do training at your site. Where are you located? here is my direct email. gsilberberg@progressive-plastics.net or call me on my cell 317-408-2684. I can give you a tip on what kind of work to look for and how to charge. We put close to 20,000.00 across ours that was production work. and 80,000.00 of mold work.

[Nortbbgg]

I have a 2003 VM1, and Bobcad version 21. I run 95% of everything I do in conversational. I was first introduced to hurco conversational about 20 yrs ago and fell in love with it. I have run other machines in G code, but never really took to them.
I do use the Bobcad with the Bobart for engraving reliefs, form protrait , pet, landscape photos. I have also run into the mess of radiuses, in no paticular corherent fashion. I did at the time have the Bobcad tech support. They called the radius mess, crop circles.They sent me to the nc side (the Hurco Ultimax BNC set up). Click on "set up" (NC Toolbar), then from the drop down menu click "Driver". There are 3 tabs- General, 4th axis, and ISO. Click on the ISO tab you should have only 3 boxes checked. "G-code modal", "incramental coorodnates arc center I,J,K", and "with R". The code box at the bottom on the page should be 0 and the group should be 1.
The settings discribed took care of my crop circle problems. If my discription makes sense, and you are brave enough to try them, I hope they take care of at least 1 of the issues you are having.

[sluggo]

does your machine have the DFX function? IF not you should look into it. That will allow you to load a DFX on the machine then create tool paths right off of the DFX.

[diemaker]

Nortbbgg
Thanks for your detailed reply... the crop circles are gone , I had no idea how to use the driver function until now. I've been running smoothly. Thanks again.

Sluggo I do not have the DXF function, but bobcad handles that for me well.

For record keeping reasons, I still prefer to avoid the conversational programing, maybe that will change in the future.

diemaker