Program simulation and Machine position....Crashes**

[clifford.gage]

I am having issues when I send the program out to the machine, the simulation and the actual position of the machine don’t look the same. This has caused a few crashes for us.

This one shows my program, you can see the head is facing towards us and the machine position for A and C axis is the same as the nc code I have written.

This picture shows the nc code on the machine, it is the same as the program

This picture shows the machine, the head is positioned the wrong way. It,s 180 degrees off on the C axis.

I was thinking would this be that the machine is going the quickest way to the position.

For example in this case from the home position it had to rotate 27.48 degrees to reach that position in picture 3, but to reach the correct position it would have to rotate 152.52 degrees.

Just a thought.

Would there be a way to fix this?  As it’s causing major issues for us as we have very long programs and have to leave the machine running a lot.

Thanks

Clifford Gage

[craig.shipley]

Hi Clifford

There's one or two things to try but if we are to go any further we'll need some data (project, post, MTD).

I am assuming you are using orientation vectors along with the "use orientation vectors calculated during simulation" ?

Please provide further information.

Thanks

Kind Regards

[clifford.gage]

Yep, I'm using  orientation vectors.

I've attached the program.

What's MTD?

[craig.shipley]

Machine Tool Definition (the machine simulation file you use inside PowerMill).

This .mtd file AND folder with machine models in should be zipped and sent across please, along with your post processor.

Thanks

Kind Regards

[clifford.gage]

I've attached the post and MTD

[iamcdn79]

You need to upload all of your files for the mtd including the dmt files located in the subfolder

[craig.shipley]

Hi Clifford

Thanks for the files but the MTD should have a folder next to it (Belotti_S.P.A_NAVY_6062) that needs to be attached to.

Thanks

[clifford.gage]

Ok. Attached.

[TK.421]

I may have missed it in your post, but I didnt see what version of powermill you're running?

this used to happen to me all the time, but powermill 2019.2.2 seems to have fixed this. I have yet to run into it.

[iamcdn79]

I was told that the machine kinematics must match between the post and mtd file but I have noticed that your X and Y axis kinematics do not match  but not sure if that matters because I have that same thing where the Y axis does not match in one of my 5 axis machines which was setup by a Post support employee.

One quick thing to check is if the home position matches between your Powermill simulation and your actual machine. Can you postion your machine at C 0 A 0 and check if it looks like the attached image and that it has not been changed by 180 deg in the C axis?

[craig.shipley]

Thanks Clifford.

You may have noticed I have opened a support case for this (Case #: 15510081) but I will also keep this post updated for the interest of others.

Kind Regards

[clifford.gage]

I didn't notice that. Thanks

[clifford.gage]

Yep thats the way the machine looks in the home position

[craig.shipley]

Clifford

Can you please confirm that the image shown has your machine in the HOME position according to the MTD and that it matches your actual machine.

Note the WORLD workplane showing the axis directions, these also need to match.

Kind Regards

[craig.shipley]

Hi Andre

They do need to match, but the way the post & MTD label the axis order are different, so you have to compensate for this...

In this post, the X&Y are in the table, but in the MTD X&Y are in the head, so the direction is opposite when this happens (-1 for post, 1 for MTD).

Does that make sense?

Kind Regards

[clifford.gage]

yea that's the home position 

[clifford.gage]

I think I know what you are saying. Because in this machine the head rotates instead of the table, it's causing issues.

How do i fix this ?

Thanks

[craig.shipley · Accepted solution]

For the benefit of the forum post...

First things first, the component is being aligned on the machine using a probe... so it's not sitting exactly as we see inside PowerMill, despite the values in the control looking the same (i.e. there's an offset in the control which aligns the part).

This is the underlying issue.

However, it seems the post processor being used isn't the one that was originally provided for this machine.  I have now provided the original post and I am told that the simulation / code/ machine now match.

This is in the testing stage but for the benefit of the forum post appears to be solved.

@clifford.gage feel free to mark this as a solution as and when you are satisfied with the post I sent across.

Kind Regards