Josh, Dave? Which CNC software do you use?

[L.Mah]

our company uses mastercam.

They want me to put the inventor.ipt's direct.

is it mastercam direct?

thanks

[jmwallach51]

It depends on what you mean by direct. i worked for a company that was using Inventor and MasterCam and you could put Inventor .ipts directly into MasterCam. However I don't know the extent of this as we were doing primarily 2D, fairly simple operations.

However i doubt you could start a program in Mastercam, update it with a revised Inventor model and still retain previous defined CNC operations. If you want or need this type of associativity you probably have to go to something like Edgecam. I have no experience with this software and have not experienced any shops that use it.

From my experience, MasterCam works reasonably well with Inventor models but I believe it still uses some type of conversion that is kept in the background.

[Anonymous]

We also use MasterCAM. You can in-directly machine both ipt and iam. I
believe MasterCAM converts the solids when imported automatically (you don't
have to do anything with the Inventor files) and saves as it's own file
format but will track geometry changes to the original. Our programmer
refuses to use this functionality for some reason.

[L.Mah]

so you are saying it is fairly easy.

i talked to a guy that heard from someone else that you have to place all the profiles flat on the horizontal plane?

is this true? and how can it nest the profiles out of 4x8 sheet?

i heard mastercam can nest the parts.

appreciate anyone else have any input?

[Anonymous]

Sounds like your are flame/plasma/water-jet cutting 2D profiles. Striker
Systems has the ability to read IPT files and a nesting program that will
position and rotate the flat profiles for nesting. It will also position
parts to share a common line to reduce cutting time.

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so you are saying it is fairly easy.

i talked to a guy that heard from someone else that you have to place all
the profiles flat on the horizontal plane?

is this true? and how can it nest the profiles out of 4x8 sheet?

i heard mastercam can nest the parts.

appreciate anyone else have any input?

[markg66]

You also might want to have a look at SigmaNest, this has the ability to import Inventor parts which can then be nested. However the parts and the nest are not linked ie if you update the part the nested part will not automatically update. SigmaTek also do SolidNest which runs within Solidworks this does give association between parts and the nests in a 3D enviroment.
Talking to the SigmaTek reps there is something similar planned for inventor users either at back end of this year or start of next.

Thanks

Mark Inv 2008
(should be on 2009 when i get back to work next week)

[L.Mah]

it's not a water cutter but i went to inventor course with a guy who runs one.

my company does architctural millwork.

custom woodwork

[jmwallach51]

You mention that MasterCam "saves as it's own file
format but will track geometry changes to the original." What exactly does "track geometry changes" mean?

Since its a conversion, "converts the solids when imported automatically (you don't have to do anything with the Inventor files)" even if well done, this is a once and done operation. It must be redone every time a change to the Inventor model is made and the CNC program must be redone from scratch

I have always seen this as the major limitation of using any type of conversion from the design model to the manufacturing program. Using a conversion no matter how well done, I don't see how MasterCam tracks changes and even if it does, what advantage does this provide?

With associativity and no conversion as seen in Pro/ENGINEER (possibly using EdgeCAM with Inventor) the manufacturing file automatically tracks the design and updates CNC operations (if done correctly). In many cases you can add CNC content without losing previous operations.

Given that the design can change at any time and that most manufacturing is done by a different company, you would think this is important. However I am not aware of any Inventor users that have taken advantage of this with EdgeCAM. For that matter, I have not seen many companies really take advantage of associativity between design and manufacturing using Pro/ENGINEER.

IN the end, MasterCam works reasonably well with Inventor though better interoperability always helps.

[L.Mah]

Let's discuss an exercise in order of workflow. CNC is new to me so i just wonder what to do after i finished the assembly.

what do you have to do with the finished assembly after it is complete?

can any software just take the assembly and nest it and everything?

like take all the parts of a dresser and then flatten them out as profiles and then nest them?

this would be ideal.

[Anonymous]

No, you don't have to place parts on any particular plane. When the CNC
programmer opens them he manually sets the origin. When we first got
MasterCAM he wanted everything placed at the origin and on xy when it came
in but it was determined that less work was involved having him just set the
origin when the parts come in. (it's really easy) You have to purchase a
separate nesting module if you need that functionality. I never had that
luxury at my last gig where CNC programming was part of my job and did it
all manually.


>i talked to a guy that heard from someone else that you have to place all
>the profiles flat on the horizontal plane? is this true? and how can it
>nest the profiles out of 4x8 sheet?

[Anonymous]

I don't do CNC programming any more so I'm just
going from what our programmer tells me & my observations. Someone with real
MasterCAM experience can probably do a better job. See below:

You mention that MasterCam "saves as it's own file
format but will track geometry changes to the original."  What exactly does
"track geometry changes" mean?

I don't think MasterCAM
provides true associativity with Inventor. I believe when you turn on file
tracking it only tracks changes to the file.

Since its a conversion,  "converts the
solids when imported automatically (you don't have to do anything with the
Inventor files)" even if well done, this is a once and done operation.  It
must be redone every time a change to the Inventor model is made and the CNC
program must be redone from scratch

When a geometry change occurs
the new geometry (part) is brought in and placed on a different layer (they are
saved as surfaces). MasterCAM can then compare geometry & identify changes
& re-attach part or all of the toolpaths to the new geometry. This is
how our programmers track & store part revisions. They do not
start from scratch with each revision.

I have always seen this as the major limitation of using any type
of conversion from the design model to the manufacturing program.  
Using a conversion no matter how well done, I don't see how MasterCam tracks
changes and even if it does, what advantage does this provide?

It lets the programmer know what has
changed.

With associativity and no  conversion as seen in Pro/ENGINEER
(possibly using EdgeCAM with Inventor) the manufacturing file automatically
tracks the design and updates CNC operations (if done correctly). In many cases
you can add CNC content without losing previous operations.

We used EdgeCAM with true associativity when we first
moved to Inventor but dumped them due to poor customer support.

Given that the design can change at any time and that most
manufacturing is done by a different company, you would think this is
important.  However I am not aware of any Inventor users that have taken
advantage of this with EdgeCAM.   For that matter, I have not seen
many companies really take advantage of associativity between design and
manufacturing using Pro/ENGINEER.

We (in the
woodworking industry) do 95% of our own
machining.

[jmwallach51]

Excellent reply. It seems to me that MasterCam does offer better functionality than I thought. This is probably due to the MasterCAM programmer I worked with did not know or use its revision functionality.

I have always wondered why not that many Inventor people use EdgeCAM. Poor customer support is a deal breaker because no matter what program I have used I always run into support issues.