[gearsoup]

Any good (free) editors out there? I have NCNetLite for my DNC, but it doesn't allow me to do a whole lot of editing. My customers will often give me programs, but often it's written for a fourth axis/indexer. I often find myself having to break it down into several different milling ops and rotating the program. Any suggestions?

Machine is a 2001 Johnford SV-40

[Dan Fritz]

I think the operative word here is "free". We have a full-featured G-code editor for sale, but it took us over three years to write it. I don't know what planet you live on, but three years to develop a product means that you've got to SELL hundreds, maybe thousands of them to recoup the cost. Working for 3 years for free is 3 years I can't spend with my family.

You can download a free demo copy that's good for 30 days by clicking on:

http://www.sub-soft.com/download/Edi...itor_3.4.0.exe

You can download the operator's manual in PDF format by clicking on:

http://www.sub-soft.com/download/Edi...tor_manual.pdf

Our PC-DNC Editor costs $595.00

[gearsoup]

Did you at one point have a version of that software for free? A long time ago ('98) I remember stumbling across something like that......

I wasn't expecting some full blown all frills attached piece of software. Just something to get me by....

[psychomill]

How "powerful" of an editor are you looking for? Notepad is free if you have Windows on your computer.....

[gearsoup]

Yeah. That's what I've been using....
Just some way to rotate the program. Some of the jobs my customer gives me are several pages long. They have an indexer set up with 4 Kurt vises, so they program everything along the Y axis. Since I don't have such a unit, I need to rotate the program for the X axis....

[psychomill]

If you're careful, you can just simply use the "Find.... Replace" function to switch the axis. Or, you can use a G68... BUT.. You have to watch out for any A/Baxis moves, K/Z moves or plane changing in the cut as that can cause some havoc....

[MetLHead]

Hi,

Give NCPlot a try. www.ncplot.com

NCPlot version 1.1 is free, and v2.0 is very reasonable.

Thanks,
Scott

[psychomill]

They have an indexer set up with 4 Kurt vises, so they program everything along the Y axis. Since I don't have such a unit, I need to rotate the program for the X axis....

Here's another thought......

Do you not have an indexer? If not (and thats why you have to "seperate" the programs), then just set up your vises in the Y axis as well. Then you don't have to "rotate" the program for X...

Or, just clamp the part/material in the other direction (if its possible) and just run their program as it is....

[Geof]

http://www.editcnc.com/

Less than $200 for all the edit functions you could ever want.

[gearsoup]

Here's another thought......

Do you not have an indexer? If not (and thats why you have to "seperate" the programs), then just set up your vises in the Y axis as well. Then you don't have to "rotate" the program for X...

Or, just clamp the part/material in the other direction (if its possible) and just run their program as it is....

Setting up the vises in the other direction would work, however it would seriously hamper our productivity. The machine is big enough to easily hold 3 D675 Kurt vises, along the X axis. Putting them on the Y, we couldn't do more than 2. Since most of the parts have at least 3 ops, it would take longer to run the job. (less handling the better) Holding the part along the other axis wouldn't really work, because of end features (radii, width/length ratio)

[Independent CNC]

The PC-DNC Editor from Dan Fritz has been used at my company for over 7 years and is operator friendly too.

Independent CNC Programmer
www.ctcn.net/~3kings/

[psychomill]

Since most of the parts have at least 3 ops, it would take longer to run the job. (less handling the better) Holding the part along the other axis wouldn't really work, because of end features (radii, width/length ratio)

... and that's why I was saying "if its feasable". Just a thought as an alternative to having to edit code.

Here's another way... do you (and the company you're doing the work for) use the same CAD system? If so, you could ask for the geometry/tool files and repost the program for your place with the part rotated already. Even if you don't use the same system, you could import it as a generic format (IGES, DXF, etc) and use it to "re-program" for your machines.

Of course.... if you're looking for a better editor, I'm guessing you don't use/have a CAD system....

[gearsoup]

Well, I use AutoCad and MasterCam (V9). My customer uses AlphaCam. Is there a way to backfigure in M-Cam?

[psychomill]

Alphacam should be able to export files (geometry) as a format you can import with MasterCam. Things like I mentioned, DXF, IGES, STP, ... 2D, 3D... whatever you need. Then you can just program the part the way you want to run it. Or just have them provide you with a print to program.

[bborb]

gearsoup:
I heard good things about this one from a knowledgeable person.
http://www.pspad.com/en/
HTH
Bart

[cnc-king]

have you tried TEXTPAD at

www.textpad.com

[bezblu]

You can try tkCNC Editor - tkCNC Editor Overview - simple CNC editor with graphical simulation

[fordav11]

At my work we used PC-DNC back in the old DOS days in 1990 connected to a Fanuc 3000C to about 1998 or maybe 2000 then we migrated to the windows version PC-DNC3. We still use it now after nearly 22 years. It has some good features especially program comparing and coloring of the different words (as does EditCNC) but you'll only need a dedicated CNC editor if you're programming several hours daily and have the capacity to simulate the programs on a PC. For simple changes a word processor or other text editor with search/replace is more than enough for most people.