.NC program question

[cinci5]

I deleted a .MCX but still have . NC program, can I run .NC program inside of mastercam to regenerate toolpaths and then modify or do I have to redraw everything

[Boots]

Yes you can. Open your NC program with a text editor. At the very top of the program type the word START all by its' self on it's own line. Save it and close. Then in Mastercam bring in the file and run it using either open or input NC file. It should generate the part for you. But keep in mind you will have to verify that your geometry is the correct size. What you will probably see is the tool path so you can offset your geometry to the inside using Mastercam. Then the geometry will be correct and you won't have to redraw it. But you still may have to edit corners to get rid of the radius there. Just use the Fillet function set on Zero Radius and pick the 2 lines to bring the corner back to sq. Hope this helps you.

[cinci5]

I did what you said but it would not open using (file - open) it said not reconized and there is no input NC file that I can find I have X3.

[Boots]

Is your file extention (file name here).NC ? Just a few years ago I could open .NC files with mastercam V9. I hope they haven't removed the feature because it was a handy thing to have. I used to type the code and have mastercam draw it for me. mmmmm Could you post your .NC file so I can look at it? I can input .NC code into Alphacam.

[cadcam]

You are talking about the opton to reverse posting. this option is no longer there as there were to many varibles for diffrent machines. and this only gave you center of tool path only.

[Boots]

Yes it did only give you the tool path to center of tool. So I would just off-set the tool path to the inside 1/2 the dia. of the tool and change the tool path into geometry. From there I could make a "To Scale" print and also retool path it etc. I'm glad alphcam still has the feature. I can take some else's G code and get a part.

[cadcam]

You will not be able anyone code as you would need a different reverse post to be able to know the codes. simple 2d may work but allot of the multiaxis and 3d you will have a bad time. I believe that companys should back up there Cad files to save these issues in the future.

[Boots]

It would be impossible to get a part DXF from an NC program that was generated to do work on a casting or parts held in fixtures etc. What I would do is look at the code and see what's going on. You can tell if there is a table rotation or an index on an indexer these won't work either. But if you can glean from the code the tools that actually shape the part. You can cut the NC code up into single tool operations. Then just run each operation to see what happens, rather than running the entire code and just getting a bunch of lines that are meaningless. The use of sub routines will not work either unless you have the sub so you can also convert that to see what it makes/does.

[cadcam]

Well there is a good example but having some thing like Predator Editor that has allot of reverse editors built in you can backplot the paths and see what they do.

[laszlozoltan]

Originally Posted by Boots Yes you can. Open your NC program with a text editor. At the very top of the program type the word START all by its' self on it's own line. Save it and close. Then in Mastercam bring in the file and run it using either open or input NC file. It should generate the part for you. But keep in mind you will have to verify that your geometry is the correct size. What you will probably see is the tool path so you can offset your geometry to the inside using Mastercam. Then the geometry will be correct and you won't have to redraw it. But you still may have to edit corners to get rid of the radius there. Just use the Fillet function set on Zero Radius and pick the 2 lines to bring the corner back to sq. Hope this helps you.

you could do that in mastercam ? or are you confusing "start" with alphacam ?

[Boots]

No not confused here. I could put start at the beginning of the NC program above the % sign and that's all that was needed. Alphacam does the same thing. Under the file menu in Alphacam there is a command "input NC" . It used to also be in Mastercam. But I guess it has been sence removed and is no longer an option ?

[laszlozoltan]

I called my friend in a shop that has 9.1 sp2 on a system on the floor; he called back and said he tried a few things but it doesn't work. I recall we were able to verify our hand written nc code in class on mastercam 7- that was 10 years ago- it would be nice to do that because my coding is very very rusty these days from disuse.