Post-processing for Gildemeister Twin42 / Seimens 840D

I'm working on a postprocessor for a client's Gildemeister Twin42 with Seimens 840D controller. Anyone familiar with this machine knows that Gildemeister uses a system whereby there is a main program which calls multiple subprograms that the user modifies as required. While I'm impressed by the capabilities of whoever came up with this scheme, and see its value for writing programs at the machine control on the shop floor, it really should not be required for someone using a CAM system, and I should be able to simply send one program to the machine without using all these subprograms. However, it seems that the controller depends on the subprograms somehow and I haven't been able to eliminate the subprograms.

Has anyone out there been able to figure out how to run this machine from one program without using the mind-bending subprograms? I'd just like to know if it is even possible before I spend any more time trying to make it work. I've talked to the Gildemeister techs and they tell me just to keep using the Gildemeister scheme, but I think this is just the "company line" being promoted.

Thank you!

That's not a Gildemeister scheme, that a Siemens dual channel control thing. I have an Emco Maier twin spindle/turret lathe that is also Siemens control and it uses the same scenario and have worked on other brands with the same control that worked the same. Very functional once you get used to it, although it can be a bit extra work as relates to using CAM offline.

You don't mention what CAM system your working on, that may help us in commenting on your project.

Rgds,
John B

Will you have an image of your hard drive that you can provide me?

Hi, we have a Gildemeister Twin 42. What kind of issue do you see with multiple programs ? The programs we got from the previous owner of the machine were made of multiple sub programs. This will ease the manual modification of them. Now we use Gibbs, the post now output a lot less sub programs, but we always have a couple on each channels. We also have an MF twin 65 and same here, all the previous owner program's had a lot of sub programs.

Regards

Francis

Francis

I need a hard disk image, can you provide me with a copy?