[cnckid]

I have a 1997 Cincinnati Sabre 750 with Acramatic 2100 control. I had my own small machine shop and used MasterCAM V9 for the past 12 years to program the machine. I recently had to close my shop and go to work for another shop that took my machine, but they use Surfcam V5.1 Build 302. They have 5.2 but due to so many problems he is sticking with 5.1. I was hoping someone out there has a good post for the 2100 control. I will be contacting Surfcam support as he is on maintenance but I need to do some programming over the weekend and was hoping to get a post before next week.

Just to put my 2 cents in, I am baffled at how Surfcam does not handle depth of cuts better. When using Mastercam if let's say I have a total depth of cut of 1.562 and I want to leave .010 for a finish cut and a max depth of cut of .150. Mastercam will automatically calculate the depth of cuts to be .1411 (11 passes) and a finish cut of .01. Basically Mastercam will calculate your total depth of cuts to be equal passes. Surfcam does not do this, or at least I have not discovered how to make it do it without doing all of the calcualtions myself. Same scenario input into surfcam yields 10 passes at .150=1.500, the 11th pass is at 1.552 (.052 depth of cut), then the 12th pass at 1.562. Am I missing something in the setup of the toolpath? Seems logical to me to want to get equal depths of cut and the software should calculate this for me. Constructive feedback is much appreciated as I learn the way surfcam does things.

[moldcore]

Sorry can’t help on the post but I bet if you do a search on this site there may have been a post about that control. Maybe a generic Fanuc post would work.

As for the depth of cut, I too have wondered the same thing. You can do the calculation in the rough spacing box if you know how many steps you want or need, such as by imputing 1.552/11 using your example. Not sure anything is gained, your still making 12 total passes.

As you get into Surfcam more you’re going to find a lot of similar annoying things about the program. I attribute it to a lack of real everyday use by the Surfcam developers, no real system for feedback from users, and just plan laziness from the code writers.

I'd would go with 5.2, it’s more stable than 5.1 but still locks up now and then.

[cnckid]

Thanks for the help with the depth of cut issue, and yes I am finding more and more things I don't understand the reasoning for. Sometimes you have to select bottom, sometimes top, or bottom z, etc. Heck, in mastercam everything was from the top. Oh well, have to learn it because it's what they use here.

[machiningweasel]

i have an Acramatic post, gonna have to find it though

[Chrliev]

I have just the opposite problem, trying to learn Mastercam coming from Surfcam.

Absolutely nothing in Mcam makes sense to me. My solution..? Use SurfCam and not say anything to management. I hope you find your post...

[moldcore]

...Sometimes you have to select bottom, sometimes top, or bottom z, etc. Heck, in mastercam everything was from the top. Oh well, have to learn it because it's what they use here.

Yeah I’ve never been able to figure that one out either. Even the help file makes it sound more confusing than it should be. After 17 years using Surfcam I haven’t found a reason to use Bottom Z or Top Z. But I do use Top or Bottom all the time. I like Bottom because it keeps you from going too deep on a pocket and most times the top geometry is broken up.

[cnckid]

i have an Acramatic post, gonna have to find it though

If you find the post I would be most grateful. Send it to my email address if you find it.
Thanks,
MIke
[email protected]

[cnckid]

I have just the opposite problem, trying to learn Mastercam coming from Surfcam.

Absolutely nothing in Mcam makes sense to me. My solution..? Use SurfCam and not say anything to management. I hope you find your post...

You are probably using mcamX and I agree it is confusing at first. I still use V9 and love it

[Camfather]

Bottom Z and Top Z allow you to input the Z location on the right, so if your geo is 100 inches away, you can force Z to any location you input. Is it practical? I don't know but it is an option that gives you more control of your tool path without moving your geometry.

[cnckid]

Bottom Z and Top Z allow you to input the Z location on the right, so if your geo is 100 inches away, you can force Z to any location you input. Is it practical? I don't know but it is an option that gives you more control of your tool path without moving your geometry.

Thanks for the explanation. It is still confusing, even after I went back and looked at the help screen info after reading your info. The help screen info is basically the same for top and top z and bottom and bottom z. As you say, "Practical?". They need to add an example of its usage to clear it up, at least for me :cheers:

[mariojl]

. It is still confusing, even after I went back...:

Hi, cnckid, I will try to bring some light into this issue. Sometimes you use Top or Bottom to better control the total depth of cut (with the geom. at that Z level); but when you cut tapered profiles, it makes lots of sense to have different choices of where to locate the zero. Let’s suppose you need to cut pocket of a forming die with a 10º taper, and wish to have your mean dimension be at Z-.500” but your geom. (mean dim.) is at Z0.
No calculation needed, just leave the geom at Z0, set your Cut Control parameters at Bottom Z -.500 and SURFCAM will do all calculus understanding what you want to do. The same applies if the mean dimension has to be above Z0. The geom. is always at Z0. this option gives you a full control of any situation you may encounter.
Kind regards
Mario