We have a NL-3000. What I would like to do with it is disable the foot petal for operating the chuck in a program. What is happening is a job is running, the operator forgets that the job is not complete (there is a M00 to clear chips) & he takes it out of the chuck. This messes up the timing of holes & stuff that are done after the M00. So disabling the foot petal at the beginning of the program & enabling it at the end is what I would like to do.... There is a parameter in the control that will disable the foot petal....is there any way I can use a system variable to change this parameter?? Thanks

quote: I'm going to make sure it's ok with our re-seller than I'll put it on the FTP.its better to ask for forgiveness than permission... yes I would like to see also

What machine (control) are you doing this for? From looking at what you are doing, Mori runs things a bit different. Basically what they do is have a program for the upper turret, then one for the lower turret...so when you hit cycle start, the 2 programs run at once.

MPLMASTER is a good starting point....& we post threading cycles with it on a regular basis. We have machines that take only the "old style" (1 line canned callout) & "new style" (2 line). All the guys have to do is call up the correct def (which in turn calls up the correct post) & they are good to go when switching jobs from machine to machine. upper & lower turret & subspindle is my complaint with CNC...

quote: CAMplete IS what MachSIM wants to be when it grows up.provided it does actual G-Code simulation....I agree

Teh shop I know of that changed from Mastercam lathe to something else also dropped mill...Other packages prove capable at milling also. Its not that these places wanted to get rid of mill, but having multiple programming solutions proved to be a PITA. Training people to use more than one package was a headache, the maintenance cost involved for multiple packages didn't prove worth while

quote: I'll keep a tally goin for you on lost sales that I know ofMNot to mention all customers who wisely jumped ship. If anyone thinks they are getting their $$$ worth from maintenance on lathe then I got ocean front property here in Utah for them....Despite what the marketing team says very little has changed in lathe since V8. 7 year of development has yielded a new interface & translators....& now they are telling us to wait for X3 MR1...however my money would be on X4 or later. Prove me wrong CNC....

Haas does things wierd....the industry standard C axis is the rotary, A axis tilts about X, B axis tilts about Y

Define the horizontal as a Vertical???

I have seen this also, but only when I pick a solid or solid face instead of a surface. If I make surfaces from the solid it does not come up with the error.

reverse depth cuts for undercutting things would be way nice...

Very cool Bryan...seems like there is always a easy way around things like this. Works like a charm Thanks!

quote: You could always get the Live Tooling one set up and then simply copy it and "dumb it down" to get your straight lathe.I was just trying to get around doing that. There is another machine similar to these also, the difference being what RPM the gear change is. I was just trying to get around having a post for each machine...That way when I make a change to one, I don't have to remember to update the others also.

I am working on a post for 2 mori lathes, the only difference between the 2 machines is one has live tooling and the other does not. The only thing that is hurting me is the post (MPLMASTER) puts out a M46 (Turning mode). Obviously this is a good thing to have on the machine with live tooling, but it alarms out the machine that does not have it. The postblock that controls this output is pcaxis_off_l...any ideas on how I can do something like "if live_tool = 1, pcaxis_off_l" Thanks

If I am following you right, I think you could do this by something like this code: if opcode$ = 105, *sgdrillf else, if mdrl_dir = one, *sgdrillfm else, *sgdrillc

I fixed the r value on the drill cycle...but it still backplots & verifies totally wrong

please check out the file "Lathedrill backwards.mcx" in the MCX2 directory on the FTP. Basically, when using lathe drill on the right spindle, the tool backplots backwards, even tho the tool draws up correctly. cool huh? to add to this, when I post this out as a canned cycle, I get the following output: code: G0 X0. Z-.5 Z-.25 G83 Z.25 R-.15 Q500 F.01 G80 Since the "R value" on a lathe drill cycle is incremental, this code rapids the tool to Z-.25, then to Z-.4, then starts pecking. The R-value on this should be R.15 (no minus sign). Another right spindle canned cycle problem I came up with today is when running a G71 "New style" cycle it is putting a negative number for the R, like this code: G71 U500 R-.025 This should be positive .025. Is there anyways to do a format that will only spit out positive numbers? My temp fix for this was to put a line in the post above the canned cycle.. code: if clearcc < 0, clearcc = clearcc * -1 kind of a ghetto way around it... [ 01-22-2008, 03:23 PM: Message edited by: JMC ]

Another thing...how bout beinng able to select gear ranges via the Machine Def? As it is right now I have to have 3 different posts for 3 different machines because they are slightly different gear ranges...this is the only difference in the posts between them. Seems to me that the machine def would be the logical place to do this

The VTL is a huge issue for me also....it gets even more confusing when programming milling tools with the C axis... sync & wait codes would be nice...backplotting & verifing BOTH turrets working is a necessity... simultaneous spindle/rotary (M90 on a Mori) for drilling holes is something that we do alot & can't figure how to get Mastercam to work with it...

the X style interface & translators are the only difference for lathe. Supposedly X3 will have the long time coming lathe enhancements.

I was looking through the help file today and found this: quote: The direction of tilt curve is very critical here. We will change this for 1.33 that the reverse direction of tilt curve is used based on the fact if the start point or end point of the tilt curve is closer to the start point of the tilt curve. Then the direction of tilt curve will not be important. anyone care to explain this???? found under Tilting strategies/tool axis will be tilted through curve/From start to end of each contour

quote: I couldn't get the MPsubrep to do any B rotations or clearance moves to go with the B. It put out everything else you were looking for. Aye, MPSUBREP does not support 4 axis...however, I got the impression that he was going to use his work offsets to get the rotations. So in mastercam there would be no transform ops, but the post will spit out a main program that calls the fixture offsets, then a sub for each tool.

MPSUBREP post is perfect for this setup....each tool has its own sub, with the main program calling up the work offsets http://www.emastercam.com/posts/mpsubrep/mpsubrep.html

Nice...Lathe level 3 & Wire level 3

Sounds like a tall order...something that would take a couple of days to test someone. Take a print, have them model it up & program using proper speeds & feeds...that will tell you alot right there. Take a "stock" MPFAN post & have them add things like adding the correct thru-coolant codes to it, I like the idea of adding prompts also. Doing something with canned text would be good also. Maybe even have them add rigid tapping (don't think the MPFAN has it). Sounds like you are looking for a pretty experienced Chinaman