post processor help

[jrrhotrod]

Hey guys just lookin for a little info or I guess i should say alot of info as i dont know to much about cnc. I thought i was ready to go writing programs off of my companys software to try out my new machine at home but i was stummped when I figured out i didnt have a post processor for my v2xt.we have I think it is 9.1 mastercam version and procam 2000 version that our cnc guys use and they told me all i needed was a post to write a 3d program for my machine so here are a couple of ?? i got
1. does mastercam or procam come with postprocessors already in there programs
2. Is the post the same for a 2d program and a 3d program or do you need two seperate posts
3. Can a post for one machine be modified to work on other types of machines
4. I have seen a few forum articles that have had there posts designed by a company that writes post, Does anyone know the cost of having this done
5. Can anyone lead me to a good explenation of what posts do and how they work such as these forum articles or some website
6. Is there differnt posts for every different cam program or can u use the same post for numerous cam programs.
Thanks for any help here guys

[Al_The_Man]

First, find out what type of 'standard' G-code type of control your machine conforms to e.g. Fanuc 0,12, 16 or Hitachi,Fagor etc or if it has any unique M or G codes that it uses.
Most CAM programs have post-processor for different machines or have the ability to modify one for your use. All a post processor is is a program that converts the CAM drawing and tool specs/paths etc and converts it to the specific G & M codes used by your controller. As a last resort, you could pass it through a post processor that is close and list out the program in a word processor and make the neccessary changes by editing, and make sure you save the result as an ASCII text document.
Al

[jrrhotrod]

Thanks for the info ill be lookin for the g-code type but im not real sure how to go about this. I do know that the machine is a boss 15sx V2XT mill and it seems to look like it takes the same g-code as does our fanuc controller at work. I thought about trying to make a program that we use for our work cncs and try loading it in the v2xt to test the 3d contouring ability of the v2xt but I didnt want somethin eratical to happen.I am still waiting on the manuals so i can get a little better idea what i have hopefully it will explain some stuff.

[Al_The_Man]

If you have the operators manual for the V2XT it will list the G & M codes that are relevant, it would pay to study these anyway for debugging any program that you run on the machine, it would also pay to write a few short programs manually to get the hang of different functions and what they do.
Al

[cadcam]

the control is a boss? is this a bridgeport?

[jrrhotrod]

The machine is a series 1 1989 bridgeport v2xt with the boss 15sx controller. other than that i dont know to much about her but i have put in a few drilling cycles and point to point programs just to see if the 3 axis would work and it seems to work good.
think Ill wait on the manuals to get here
thanks

[cadcam]

Thee are few postd for this machine,see if one of the laters get you close.

MPboss312
MPBoss9
MPboss10

these are on the Mastercam 9.1 Disk.
Should be in the Mill Posts dir in your Mcam9 folder.

[jrrhotrod]

Hey thanks for the info guys. I had my programmer go thru it(mastercam) on friday and he found the boss10 post and he wrote me a 3d program to see what it would look like on g-code.I should be getting a programing manual for this thing this week so hopefully this will clue me in a little bit on wheather it might work on the boss15.
thankyou

[WildTurkey]

Hello, I have a Haas TM-1 and BobCAD/CAM V 19.7 and I have no idea what I'm doing. An experienced machinist running a similar setup told me I needed a post processor so I downloaded the Haas TM Series Mill executable file from BobCAD.com (http://www.bobcad.com/index_support.php), but I'm not certain it's the right file and I'm not sure (actually I have no idea) what to do with it. My BobCAD support is expired and I can't afford to buy it at the moment. If anyone has experience I'd appreciate a little insight. Thank you.