[iprogcnc]

Our company would like me to use our gibbscam to send programs into the Mazak control. I underestand that Gibbs cannot post to a Mazatrol conversational program but is it possible to use run Mazatrol as the main program and have sub programs that are in G code? Can the two work together? If not, is there any software that can convert an already written G code program into Mazatrol?

[aeguru]

No Problem

[neil]

he means G-code subprograms from Mazatrol are no problem.

There is no easy way to go from G-code to Mazatrol....you would need to go through a CAM system backplot to get the geometry and then generate the Mazatrol from that. Its probably not even worth considering, though I have done it.

[precisiontork]

www.solution-ware.com works great on mazaks converts g-code to mazatrol and mazatrol to g-code programs in mazatrol from cad files works very nice

[psychomill]

As said before... Yes you can sub an EIA program from a Mazatrol main.... As long as your machine can run EIA programs. You didn't mention control version, age and machine type so ...... quite a few of the older, old controls only ran mazatrol with EIA as an option...

[jimiscnc]

M198 and M199 with Q P and other letter addresses can emulate the ultra-slick end unit in mazatrol. in the sub program section of the eia program manual they have do's and don'ts. I dont think you can have eia main and mazatrol sub, for example.

jim

[MDLang]

If I had Gibbs and my machines were G code enabled, as most Mazaks are, I would forget about the Mazatrol side of the control and run the machine as a Fanuc G-code machine. It has been my experience so far that Mazaks are very forgiving with the G-code so you should have little problem with it.

I think....

Mike

[iprogcnc]

We have several guys on the floor who live breath and s**t mazatrol
And I nust say they are very good with it. So when the idea came up to use Gibbs to program the Mazaks , there was a lot of mixed emotions and most of them not good. The management here feels that we are too limited by Mazak products and would like to wean the company off Mazak. There are some better machines out there that would serve us better , at least in some of our products. So if there is a way to run G code sub programs in Mazatrol this would probably reduce a lot of tension around here!

[Integrexman]

I use Subs in Mazatrol all the time on my integrex's. I setup the machine to look to the harddrive for the subs and never had any problems.

[MDLang]

Mazaks are good machines and Mazatrol has it's place. I couldn't imagine programming some of the stuff we do in the same amount of time with any other system.

Fear of loosing control is the only reason to not want to run G-code on the machines. Mazatrol does allot of stupid stuff that is frustrating but the ease of programming makes up for it sometimes. The really bad part about Mazatrol is that it creates alot of bad habits and lets you be sloppy about how you do things.

Most of the jobs in our shop never run the same twice because rather than make sure the job is set up right with the correct tooling and work holding as per the setup sheet some guy will just change the program around to work with what he has at the bench or in the machine. He doesn't care if he's increased the run time by 30% or more because it was easier for him.

Mazatrol makes it too easy for guys to screw things up and change things around and as a programmer that is a real piss off because I spend allot of time fixing changes after chasing them down after we find out the run is taking longer than it should.

It pisses me off when some goon has VFD'd all the feeds and speeds because he didn't want to shorten up the cutter that was in the machine already or he just simply didn't know what he was doing. Guy's will even outright re-write entire units just to avoid having to load new tools.

You can spend all day chasing people around and giving them heck or you can make it more difficult for them to do. Mazatrol is really easy, too easy and any one can screw with it. G-code is allot harder to play with without serious consiquences if you don't know what your doing.

Ease of setup and speed of programming, huge plus for Mazatrol. Training required to kick out a basic program and make adjustments that are needed, huge plus for Mazatrol. Waisted moves and limited tool paths without funky trick exploitation, big minus. The ability to have a smooth running and productive program totally screwed up by a complete idiot, big minus for Mazatrol.

Guys who don't like the idea of running G-code on the Mazaks are just scared of loosing control and loosing the ability to be a bit sloppy or whimsical about setting up a job.

I have been trying to convert repeat work to G-code to increase reliability and repeatability of the job. I find more of the things I'm doing require G-code just to get an efficient tool path with smart feed rates instead of the same feed for the entire unit. I know there are corner overrides but they don't work worth a crap or with the smallest radius. I have also imported G-code to manual units with Griffo bros just to stop people from screwing with a unit that they can't keep their fingers off.

Can't thread mill properly without G-code and you can't spiral down around the outside of something either. Lots of other things you can't do in Mazatrol no matter how good a liar you are. Besides most Fusions and newer have a very capable control on the G-code side.

Oh yeah I just remembered G-code subs was the question.

No problem with the G-code subs called from Mazatrol, do it all the time. Just set your parameters to look to the tool data page for tool offsets and it's even easier.

Just my 2 cents,

Mike

[iprogcnc]

I want to say thanks for all your responses!