Nakamura + HSMworks

[jmaes]

I have a Nakamura NTRX-300 and I'm not sure if Fusion 360 is capable of programming this machine. It's a turnmill with true 5-axis (BC) capabilities and a subspindle.

So far I've been told that Fusion 360 won't support the B-axis for the lathe side of things. Not that I'm looking to do true B-axis turning with it but I do change the B-axis (usually limited to 45-degree increments) based on the cutters I'm using.

Can someone offer some insight as to whether this would be feasible and what it would take to get a functional post? Currently we use NX for programming it, which is excellent for the milling side of things, mediocre for turning, but our post is absolute garbage and very expensive to fix. Also Fusion 360 is easier to pick up so I'm hoping to have some of my less experienced programmers able to do some programming on this machine without it being overly complicated.

Details on the machine found here: http://www.nakamura-tome.co.jp/products/en/atc/ntrx-300.html

Thanks,

Jonathan

[Laurens-3DTechDraw]

We have a Doosan SMX3100S That we program with HSMWorks and Inventor HSM(So Fusion would work as well). 

It requires some hacking, the B-axis orientation for turning needs to be in the tool's description for example.

But the rest works pretty well now.

One of the power users @Rob.Lockwood made a thread about his post for a Mori NTX he made here: http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/hsm-post-processor-forum/sequential-multi-channel-questions-stream-of-...

[Rob.Lockwood]

I was in precisely the same position when I opted to start that post, having burned nearly a year working to get a working post/simulation kit/bug free programming environment for NX. While on the surface it appeared to support the machine perfectly, getting the stars to align and actually allow any work to get done was just not happening.

I'm 50x happier using Fusion/HSMWorks to program the thing. It requires some hacks, but since i'm the one that implemented them, they're easily understood and fairly minimal. 

B-axis turning is limited, as @Laurens-3DTechDraw mentioned, you need to specify the tool's orientation manually, but also the tool can really only be oriented into standard tooling positions, rather than basically infinite tooling positions like NX will allow. (I think this is less true in Fusion, as it has some better functionality here.. There had been a Fusion bug that was preventing me from using it, but it was recently cleared up, so I should revisit that.)

I also still haven't implemented simultaneous 5-axis stuff into the post yet, but it's certainly capable.. and I probably need to go in and un-cork some stuff since the new transfer methods sound like they might cause me some issues. I just haven't updated the HSMWorks install at that machine yet.

[jmaes]

Thanks for the quick response guys.

Are there any posts available that I could use as a starting point? I looked through the library and aside from a few simply Haas lathe posts with live tooling didn't see a great starting point.

I think I could handle a bit of modification to a post.. I've fine-tuned my own posts using the NX Postbuilder program but am not very familiar with the javascript so I don't know that I'm capable of making this advanced of a post from scratch.

Basically changing g-code commands from one format to another is usually relatively easy; coming up with a new machine configuration... not so much.

Thanks again for the help guys.

-Jonathan

[ArjanDijk]

Hi Jonathan,

Expect it to be a deep dive into post editing. We did a postprocessor for the Mazak Integrex for a few customers and it came out really well, but we invested multiple days with the experts of Mazak and on the machine to get it right. At the moment there is not generic post that does what you need. Its a combination of a 5 axis post and a (Haas) millturn post.

I hope you have a good Autodesk CAM reseller in your country that is experienced into post adjustments of have the right amount of time and curiousity available to do it yourself.

[Laurens-3DTechDraw]

My Doosan Post is so specific for that with the tool axis being X that it isn't much good for others. Ask rob about that :p.

[Rob.Lockwood]

Yeah. As much as working from an existing post, these things are pretty
heavily configured by the MTB, and some of the customizations required to
make his Doosan post cost me hours in troubleshooting. I'd recommend
starting from one of the more reliable mill-turn posts (likely the Haas)
and add functionality as needed.