Haas VF3 w/ 4 Axis issues

[Anonymous]

Hey all, I've been having some trouble getting an efficient post for active 4 axis work on a Haas VF3 I've been working on.  It has a rotary 4-axis setup that rotates about the X-axis.  Currently I'm using a modification of the Generic Haas w/ A-Axis post that a friend set me up with that deletes the "G28 X0" at the end of the program to make sure some of the long tool holders we use clear the giant rotary setup.  I'm trying to get ahold of a post that contains that modification, as well as fixes a few of the issues I'm having.

First off, while doing an active 4-axis move (ie. a multi axis contour, flow, etc.) the rotary is constantly stopping movement to clamp and unclamp.  This is happening because the post isn't always outputting an A-axis position with the X and Y locations.  As shown below, every time the machine reaches a line of code that doesn't contain an "AXX.XXX" callout, the A axis stops movement to reclamp.

N83730 X1.4028 Y-2.1687 Z0.5502 A84.765
N83735 X1.4168 Y-2.1692 Z0.5484 A84.812
N83740 X1.4251 Y-2.1693 Z0.5463 A84.865
N83745 X1.4335 Y-2.1691 Z0.5445 A84.914
N83750 X1.4417 Y-2.168 Z0.5447 A84.904
N83755 X1.4501 Y-2.1672 Z0.5424 A84.962
N83760 X1.4582 Y-2.1659 Z0.5404 A85.01
N83765 X1.4663 Y-2.1637 Z0.5402
N83770 X1.4743 Y-2.1617 Z0.5382 A85.058
N83775 X1.4823 Y-2.1586 Z0.5385 A85.042
N83780 X1.49 Y-2.1559 Z0.5358 A85.106
N83785 X1.4976 Y-2.1527 Z0.5337 A85.154
N83790 X1.5049 Y-2.1487 Z0.5334
N83795 X1.5111 Y-2.1456 Z0.5313 A85.202
N83800 X1.5176 Y-2.142 Z0.5309
N83805 X1.529 Y-2.1304 Z0.5498 A84.676
N83810 X1.5404 Y-2.1231 Z0.5491
N83815 X1.6851 Y-2.0252 Z0.54
N83820 X1.8299 Y-1.9272 Z0.5309
N83825 X1.9746 Y-1.8293 Z0.5217
N83830 X2.1193 Y-1.7314 Z0.5126
N83835 X2.264 Y-1.6335 Z0.5035
N83840 X2.2687 Y-1.631 Z0.5031
N83845 X2.2735 Y-1.6158 Z0.5459 A83.155
N83850 X2.2785 Y-1.6008 Z0.5884 A81.628
N83855 X2.2836 Y-1.5848 Z0.6332 A80.
N83860 X2.2876 Y-1.5712 Z0.6708 A78.62
N83865 X2.2886 Y-1.5666 Z0.6838 A78.137
N83870 X2.2889 Y-1.5648 Z0.6894 A77.93
N83875 X2.2891 Y-1.563 Z0.6947 A77.735

I'm also having issues with standard 3 axis operations that occur directly after a 4 axis operation.  For example after a 4 axis flow, I have a 3 axis scallop that uses tool orientation.  For some reason, it isn't posting an A-axis move to that called out tool orientation from HSMworks.  As shown below, it calls out a G0 X and Y location, but does not put in an A-axis location.  This causes the machine to stay at whatever orientation it was before (In this instance A7.75), and the tool to crash into my part.

(Scallop2)
N86945 G0 X0.5046 Y-0.0569
N86950 G43 Z2.8911 H11
N86955 G0 Z2.262
N86960 G1 Z2.0727 F20.
N86965 X0.5047 Y-0.0571 Z2.0717
N86970 Y-0.0577 Z2.0708
N86975 X0.5054 Y-0.0634 F25.

This problem is interesting in that it only occurs in the parent operation.  If I pattern the operation about the X axis, the code then includes an A-axis location, as shown here.

(Scallop2)
N110225 M11
N110230 M13
N110235 G0 A180.
N110240 M10
N110245 M12
N110255 G0 X0.5046 Y-0.0569
N110260 G43 Z2.8911 H11
N110265 G0 Z2.262

I'm able to manually go in and input A locations after I post, but it's pretty time consuming.  I'm not super computer savvy so if anybody could help me out that would be awesome!

[Laurens-3DTechDraw]

Could you share your current post?
And if you have the SW model with the edited NC-file would be awesome.

[Anonymous]

Here's the part and the post.

[AchimN]

Try this one please:

* force ABC output
* clamp a-axis only for indexing operations and not for multi axis operations

I cannot reproduce the issue regarding the A-axis not moving into the correct orientation after a 4axis operation.
(there is no operation called "(Scallop2)" into your part)

[Anonymous]

Whoops, I uploaded the wrong part file.  For some reason with that part I wasn't getting the indexing issues.  Here's a google drive link with the correct one, it's the assembly file inside the .zip.  Thanks for that post though!  Definitely fixed the clamping issues.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bx0uW72hFDGeb3NsTlZ3Z0xzU2c/view?usp=sharing

[AchimN]

Ok now I see the issue. The problem is that you are using a very old version of the post.
Have a look at the one attached, it is the latest one and I implemented your machine setup and your changes for the end of the program.