Solidcam fixtures and stations

[DarkStarMedia]

I have been playing with solidcam for a little while and I was wondering if you can setup a fixture with multiple stations.

Example...

I have a part that needs machining on 4 sides with a fixture with 4 stations.

the first station is similar to a vise and holds the raw stock to machine the first side (think pocket with open ends)... we'll call this the top

all of the rest of the stations uses the previously machined pocket to index off of.

The second station rotates the part 90 degrees around the x axis for machining one side. we'll call this the left

the third station rotates the part 180 degrees about the x axis (right side)

the last station rotates the part another 90 degrees about the x axis to get to the bottom (it's now 180 degrees from station one).

How can solidcam handle this? I saw the Solidcam professor about the multi-sided machining but that seemed to indicate a 4-5 axis machine.

Is this a case where you can set (on the machine) a different home (G54-9 IIRC) for each coordinate system defined in solid cam (MAC 1 position 1, MAC 1 position 2)?

For background I went through HAAS CNC mill training 8-10 years ago at the local community college but we did all programs via hand coding.

I do not have a machine shop or a job at a machine shop but have a friend that runs a machine shop. It's mostly a hobby for me. He lets me use his computers to play with solidworks/solidcam when his guys are not using it (weekends mostly).

Richard

[foxsquirrel]

Many different things can be done, however safety and programming skills need to be considered. Simplest and safest method would be to post code individually for each operation and touch off each fixture. If its a production part it might be worth the time and cost to have your SC rep make a special post that allow selection of the G154 P series fixture offsets.

I have done that stuff by editing the G & M codes by hand BUT you better be very keen with G code or you will crash the machine and hurt someone with flying carbide.

[glovebox20]

Is this a case where you can set (on the machine) a different home (G54-9 IIRC) for each coordinate system defined in solid cam (MAC 1 position 1, MAC 1 position 2)?


1.
Look in your Cam manger. Near the top you should seem "coordinate" with the circle cross symbol thing. Click on it. Right click on MAC or Position and "add" or "new" option should pop up on the sub menu. Select it. Set up your new MAC the way you want it.


2.
Now when your programing, make sure you have the right MAC selected in the Geometry tab. for the geometry your going to program.

3.
When your setting up the machine, enter the correct offset into the right work offset field (G54,G55, etc.) for that MAC.


Note:
Make sure your retracts are high enough to clear the work stations when jumping around to different MAC's to avoid crashes.





When doing small lots, I like to do one OP at a time. When doing production stuff, I like to do the same OP, X many of times to reduce tool changes, then do another setup.

But some people like to have a complete part with each machine cycle, witch is nice, but can be rather time consuming to set that all up at once.

Do what ever your comfortable with.

glovbox20

[DarkStarMedia]

Thanx for that. I'll try it next time I have access.

[noiseboy1]

i have recently started running a CNC router in my spare time and tweaked my post to automatically change Machine home ( g54 55 etc) based upon the CS used in solid cam.

i currently have the first 4 homes of the machine set to stops / guides on each corner of the bed so it is easy for me to position machine, flip & reposition machine, for two sided machining of sheet material.

if this is of any help, i can dig out my post and upload it for you to have a look.

cheers

now back to my current problem - where has the add CS button / menu gone in my solid cam :S

[DarkStarMedia]

I just got back to the shop 2 weekends ago and spent much of the time re-learning SW/SC... funny how that happens...

Sure ... feel free to post the post... it couldn't hurt.

Richard

[noiseboy1]

this is the section of my post that changes home numbers - can just set each mac number to the machine home number you need ( - 53)


;-------------------

@home_number
gcode = 53 + home_number
if home_number eq 1 then
{nb, 'G'gcode}
else
{nb, 'M10'}
{nb, '(------------------------------------)'}
{nb, '(Flip/Reposition_Part_To_Home',gcode, ')'}
{nb, '(------------------------------------)'}
{nb, 'M00'}
{nb, 'G' gcode}
endif
flag2 = 1
endp

;-------------------


does anyone know how to do the same thing with mac positions, I've programmed a part by mistake using different positions rather than different mac's and don't seem to be able to move the operations to a new mac without re-defining all the geometry.