M ACHINE T YPE

When you begin the process planning steps to write any CNC program, you must select the type of machine required to perform the job. The software configuration purchased dictates the types of machines available to select from, including: Mill, Lathe, Wire, Router, or Design. The information entered here establishes the data needed for the program such as: stock size tools and part origin.

Note: When Mastercam is started, the Design mode is active. You can create the design and then activate the Machine Type before tool path creation can begin but, it is a matter of preference.

• Start a new Mastercam X2 file by selecting File, New . Respond NO to the dialog stating, The Mastercam X file has changed, save it? Alternatively, Press the New icon on the File toolbar. Reopening Mastercam X2 will also work.

Figure 12 Machine Type Selection

• From the Menu Bar, single click the left mouse button on Machine Type. With the mouse pointer select Mill and then Default from the drop down list for this example (Figure 12). Machine Group 1 will appear in the Operations Manager Pane.

Figure 13 Machine Group Stock Setup

• To access the Stock setup dialog, left click on the plus sign next to Properties – Generic Mill in the Operations Manager Pane as shown in Figure 13. Then left-click on Stock setup to access the dialog displayed in Figure 14. Explanations are given below for each item in the Machine Group Properties dialog in (Figure 14) that is used in this example for Stock Setup.

Figure 14 Stock Setup Dialog

• Stock View should be set to correspond with the standard geometry view to be used for the tool path needed. In this case, the Top view is correct.

• Shape should be set to match the raw material shape, or it can be set to an existing Solid by selecting the model, or any file, by identifying the files location. To set the stock size, key in the dimensions for the X, Y and Z , including raw material (the Z value input here must be positive). In this case, the rectangular part blank information is input to the fields for X (3.35), Y (2.0) and Z (.25)

• Display establishes the way the material is displayed in the graphics window. Whether the stock is included when Fit to the Screen function is used, the part file is displayed as a Wire Frame or as a Solid. Put a check mark on Display and choose the Wire frame radio button.

• Stock Origin identifies the coordinate locations of the raw material zero values. The origin for the part may be moved to a desired corner location by left clicking once on the black arrow and then left clicking over the new location. For our example, use the left mouse button and left click on the arrow that is in the center of the part, then, click the mouse button over the lower left hand corner of the diagram. The arrow indicator of the location of the part origin will move to the corner selected. The exact numerical locations may also be input into the X Y and Z to accomplish this if they are known. The Y and X coordinates define the outer boundary of the raw stock of the part. When the arrow button below the Stock Origin section is pressed, the display will revert to the drawing file and allow the manual selection of the stock origin by mouse, directly from the drawing. In this example, there is one hundred-thousandths excess material in the length and one hundred fifty-thousandths excess material in the width. By inputting half the difference in the length and width into the Stock Origin fields for X (-.05), Y (-.075) and Z (0) the graphical verification will display the appropriate amount of metal removal for each side of the part.

• Select Corners . . . This button allows for manual selection of the stock corners from the active drawing. Once the selection is made, the values are input automatically into the fields that identify the boundaries of the part.

• Bounding Box . . . This button allows the user to return to the drawing to manually make a boundary   around the drawing to represent the material.

• NCI Extents . . . This button compares and calculates all of the tool paths in the NCI file and creates  tock boundaries that include all tool movement extents.

• Left click on the Tool Settings tab Explanations are given below for each item in the Tool Settings tab of the Machine Group Properties dialog shown in (Figure 15) that will be used in this example.

Figure 15 Tool Setting Dialog