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Version 16 User's Guide

1. General Conditions Leadin leadout choose Generate from ContourCAM Ss 7 0 Process Control entering T1 as the gt Closed geometries M Open geometries name of the program and select Climb milling gt Right hand side your postprocessor In Conventional milling ContourCAM s editor you NOW p Radius compensation Check if the working process was f Control performed as intended ternal C ContourlAh External None a ae EA ContourCAM NC Simulator File Simulation View Layout Window Help S Js aalala elelefeyrirlslts l Sel User s Guide 7 Tutorial ContourCAM 2D 7 3 5 Pocket milling Advanced Now you are to make a pocket milling where a couple of islands are included Draw a line through the points X30 Y30 and 30 110 Draw one more line through 30 110 and 170 110 And one more line through 170 110 and 170 30 Draw a line through 170 30 and 100 30 Snap from the endpoint 100 30 to the starting point 30 30 Draw a circle with its center in 55 55 and a radius of 10 mm Draw a line through the points 100 75 and 140 75 ON O OO A OUO N amp Draw a semi circle from 100 75 to 140 75 9 Press T text and write the text 1 snap the text to the point 100 30 10 Write the text 2 and snap it to any point on the border of the circle 11 Write the text 3 and snap it to the point 100 75 Your drawing should look like thi
2. 8 8 8 5 Rotating the Transmission Profiles 1160116661 8 9 SO oine aeen sat sen E pu sauamennet pe seues 8 10 Ser ISMN sode a iu dasha abba neta narerneindnesrete tse 8 12 8 8 Engraving a Snake 1 0 ccccc cece cee sceeseeeeceeceesensseeseeeseeaas 8 15 SESE E oE Maar rere ete A AEE et AC et ea Oe PRE OR Ta IR RE tL ae 8 17 Table of contents 4 ContourCAM
3. If you do not divide the shift profiles individually changes are the corners will be cut which is probably not desirable The snakes require there to be the same number of line pieces in each shift profile If this is not the case the snake command will display an error message informing you in with shift profile the problem is How to make the division into line pieces must of course be decided from the drawing or the surface But the main rule is If you want a tool path for every 2 mm then the number of line pieces is the length of the profile divided by 2 User s Guide 5 Tutorial ContourCAM 3D v i iN Q A V Q LITT SBE ELIOT SLRS AAA STORE SIERO OOS d In this case there are in the first two profiles 4 10 4 18 line segments In the last shift profile has a line entity more so here the division is 3 6 6 3 18 line segments Observe that the distances between the knots are approximately constant which is the objective Make a drawing similar to that shown in Do not be concerned about the exact dimen sions the objective is to get to Know the principals Activate the milling command and adda snake process Select linear transformation this way the effect of place ment of Knots If you check the 3D image option and enter a file name on the forth page Engrave Contou
4. SPN Spindle feed TNO Tool number TIR Index for radius compensation e TIL Index for length compensation e NTL Next tool TNM Tool name TRD Tool radius e TLN Tool length FRH Free height TX Tool X measure only Turning machines TZ Tool Z measure only Turning machines DATE Current date 1 2 Parameters for machine cycles Like the format dialog the sequence dialog contains a number of tabs which will be described separately in the following User s Guide 9 ContourCAM Configuration 1 5 2 1 Header tab Header Here you can Edit Postprocessor enter a text that is inserted in the top of the NC program before the actual NC code but after the default header The M Use defaut default header is included only if the field Use default is checked An example of a default head is shown below Use default Header Prograrn Tool change Program header Tool header Tool header Here you can enter a sequence that is inserted for each tool used in the NC program These sequences will be included directly after the program start and are typically for Heidenhain to state TOOL DEF This NC program was generated by ContourCAM Version 16 0 Program Toolpath Date July 23 2005 Drawing C Program Files IMSI DesignCAD 3D MAX 16 5PLATE DCD Postpro FANUC 1 5 2 2 Program tab Edit Postprocessor In this tab you enter the Header
5. Roughing 121 0ME Lib Default Spindle Material top 0 000 Feed Infeed step 0 000 Descent Feed Leave 0 000 Finishing Tool gar Lib W Default Spindle 3000 po Follow f Transmission Descent Feed or Shift profiles Cancel Finishing Roughing Tool From the list of tools you choose the tool which is to be used for roughing Spindle Enter the speed of the spindle wanted Feed Enter speed of feed Decent feed Enter the feed for vertical movement into the mate rial Top of material The Z value for the top of the raw material Infeed step Depth per each movement in Z Leave The thickness of material you may want to leave for the final cut Tool From the list of tools you choose the tool you wish to use for the final cut Spindle Enter the speed of the spindle Feed Enter the speed of feed Decent feed Feed by vertical movements in the material NC paths follow Transmission If you want the milling carried out following the transmission profile you activate this option Shift If the preparation must follow the shift profiles you activate this option If your transmission profile is placed otherwise than it is drawn it is possible to rotate or offset it If that is necessary you click the flag Offset Rotate and the dialog in the figure is displayed 6 8 ContourCAM 6 1 5 Creating a snake process 1st transmission profile Offset Here you c
6. 1 5 3 3 Value tap Edit Postprocessor Files r Default values wee values that are used when Serial Free height This field contains the default safety height of the machine When milling this height is used for positioning by default Feed rate This field contains the default feed rate Thisis used for bothNC generation and simulation Spindle This field contains the default spindle value Il ME for tool change Free height itil Feed rate 100 00 Spindle 2000 00 Rapid traverse In this field you enter which text specifying the rapid traverse movements on a Heidenhain normally MAX or 9999 This field is enabled only if Heidenhain is selected in the Format tab Under the tab Values standard generating NC code are stated 1 5 4 Tool library When activating the tool library the dialog below appears e Max tool number Here you state the highest tool number allowed ContourCAM willnot assign tool numbers higher than this number Add rad index On ISO controls values for radius and length compensation are typically stored in Tool Data Max tool no Em Add for rad index Add for len index Toollist Pasitian Corp table Not available Cancel Help tables Often you choose the tool number as index to the table but if it is not possible to save radius and length values in the same index you can choose to add a fixed offset t
7. 4 SI Phe RT Pa DD DDT 5 Be DDD 2191919 2 2 D Select Mode Unitless OFF 0 342 SD WIREFRAME 00000008 DEFAULT WP_ The get a complete program you might want to do a pocket milling to clear the bottom To make a pocket milling you will need to make a copy of the 2nd trans mission profile to use as the border for the pocket milling User s Guide 6 1 Tutorial ContourCAM 3D 8 7 Helmet In this lesson we will construct a helmet as shown above The program is made in DesignCAD 2D since all transmission and shift profiles are planar To make the helmet we use two snake processes The first forms the top to the ears and the other from the ears and down 8 12 ContourCAM 8 7 Helmet DesignCAD 3D MAX 16 Helmet ded Helmet 7 File Edit Yiew Plugins Tools Options Draw Point Dimension Solids ContourCAM Animation Window Help a x D 5 3 3 K 2 gt AAS gt w x 7514 Y 184 0 o Ee 0 4 200 100 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 9 9 8 E 7 ay l ue OOO SSO HI HAANES 2 D Select Mode Unitless 0 15 2D DRAFTING DEFAULT WP Profiles for the first snake process The profiles for the first snake process are shown here The easiest way to draw the profiles is by drawing curves and use the curve to line Command to convert them to polylines In the real life the pr
8. Engraving Transitions C Linear f Smooth Adjustment f Full scaling C 8 scaling Twisting Comments Select a ball headed tool with a diameter around 5 When you press the tab labeled Technology the contents of the dialog changes to what is shown in All input fields related to roughing are disabled as we chose not to generate a roughing program For the finishing we select a ball headed tool with a diameter of approx 5 mm Press the button in the finishing group and select a tool fitting the above description If there is no such tool available in the tool list press the button and create a new tool We want the toolpaths to primarily follow the transmission profile since this will result in mostly horizontal movements The contents of the other pages of the dialog is of no interest to this assignment Press the OK button the accept the input 3D image Snake General 8 1 Your first snake Write the text 1 2 25 at point 60 15 This means that this is both shift profile one and two The 25 means that the profiles should be divided into 25 line segments Now we are almost ready to define the NC program but first we should save the drawing From the menu Files select Save As and name it lesson1 Select Milling from the menu ContourCAM Press Add in the dialog that appears and select Snake A dialog as shown in now appears Set the input as shown In this lesson we will only generate
9. Leadin in safety plane Rapid descent Cancel Circular C Linear Radius 0 000 Angle 25 000 Leadout in safety plane Help and 45 for the angle of the lead in arc Tool Choose a tool with a diameter of 5 or a similar tool from your list of tools Spindle Enter speed of spindle 2000 Feed Enter 200 for the feedrate Radius compensation Click the field besides Control since in this case you want to use the compensa tion of tool on the controller Infeed step Enter 5 as maximum infeed step per path Overshoot Enter 3 You wisha distance of 3 mm between the lead in and the lead out to avoid that any material is left Lead in Choose circular lead in by clicking the field besides Circular Enter 3 for the radius of the lead in Lead out Enter 3 for the radius an 35 for the angle of the lead out Now click the OK button after which you will return to the ContourCAM Process Control From here choose Generate In the next dialog you enter the filename Poc and choose a postprocessor from the list 7 3 8 In the Editor of ContourCAM It is now possible to add change or edit in the program see chapter 2 before sending it to the CNC unit When the program is ready it is possible to choose Simulate NC program under Cam in the main menu which graphically shows how the preparation will be performed 7 20 ContourCAM 7 3 9 Machine cycles EA ContourCAM NC Simulator mex F
10. SE 264 38 Klippan Tel 46 O 435 44 81 1 www tmagicsystems com www contourcam com The material presented in this publication is copyright protected 1997 2005 by Magic Systems and may not be reproduced in any form by any method for any purpose without the prior written consent of Magic Systems Information in this document is subject to change without notice It is against the law to copy the software except in accordance with the terms of the licensing agreement PROGRAM LICENSE AGREEMENT IMPORTANT NOTICE Please read the terms of the following License Agreement carefully Your use of the product signifies your acceptance of the terms of the Agreement If you do not agree with the terms of this Agreement you should promptly return the package your money will be refunded Retain this License Agreement for future reference Article 1 License Grant The software is the intellectual property of Magic Systems and its licensors and is protected by law including Swedish copyright laws and international treaties Magic Systems grants to you a license 1 To use the program on a single machine 2 To make a single archival back up copy of the program in Support of your use of the single program on a single machine 3 To modify the program and or merge it into another program for use ona single machine 4 To transfer the program to another party if that party agrees to accept the terms and conditions of this Agreement and y
11. the text will be interpreted more about this later other wise the color number color number in the color palette is decreased by one and will eventually be interpreted later The remaining entity types are given prior ities according to their color The lower the color number the higher priority If two or more entities have the same color they are given priorities in the following way e Arrow lines preparation never starts at the arrowhead e Full circles e Arcs Lines type 0 full Lines type 5 dotted When a point is reached from which there are no more entities the next geom etry is continued with until all geometries have been dealt with 5 4 2 Working processes When you have finished the construction of the object and you wish to deter mine how your drawing must be prepared you choose ContourCAM from the main menu and from the pull down menu if the item is to be milled the option Milling When you choose the command the dialog below is displayed Add Here you have to define what kind of preparation you wish for the current drawing When the command is activated you can ae choose among a number of prepa Contouring Edit ration processes depending on whether you are working with EA ContourGAM Process Control Processes Remove milling turning etc ow Edit If you wish to edit a process Mowe up you choose Edit The dialog with the 7 entered values is displayed on screen and then the
12. If you want you can attach comments to the task Now we will look at the dialog appearing when you click Roughing Finishing The dialog is shown below User s Guide 3 ContourCAM 2D Tool From your list of tools you choose the tool you wish to use for the roughing of the pocket Pocketing General FoughingFinishing Leadin Leadout Spindle Enter the speed of the Roughing spindle if preselected it works as Toot Ea Default Lib under feed Spindle 3000 Overlap 30 000 ee Feed Enter the feed wanted if you Feed ean Infeed 90604000 choose a tool with preselected values those values will be added Descent Feed 3 5 000 automatically 7 No finish on sides Descent feed The feed rate used Tool Radius compensation when descenting into the material Default O Control Overlap Enter the value in percent Lib Spindle 20 ContourCAM for the overlap you wish for each o PY Feed Infeed step lap Descent feed 1 infeed step Enter the maximum depth of material to be removed in each pass Help Leave Enter how much material to leave on the sides for final Cutting No finish on sides If you do not want to generate code for final cutting you just Click this field Tool From your list of tools you choose the tool you wish to use for the finishing of the pocket Spindle Enter the speed of the spindle if preselected it works as under feed Feed Enter the feed wanted
13. Program Tool change sequences for the beginning and ending of NC programs Start program respectively eStart program This sequence typically contains the program number and various setup codes End program W430 End program Here you state codes telling the control that the program ends 1 10 ContourCAM 1 5 2 3 Tool change Here you state the codes that Edit Postprocessor erent 0 change are used for tool change Of course the tool number will be First tool change included but also other varia bles like spindle indices to the compensation table posi tioning next tool etc It is possible to specify a ea 7 0 Stspn M3 Specia 0 EOE change in First tool change If this field is empty the sequence entered in the field Tool change is used for all tool changes 1 5 2 4 Misc tab In the tab Misc sequences that are included immediately Header Program Tool change before and after the toolpaths are entered Often for milling Start cutting they will be empty but if using for instance a plasma cutter it is used for turning on and off the torch Edit Postprocessor End cutting 1 5 3 Settings The dialog that appears when clicking settings has three tabs User s Guide 1 11 ContourCAM Configuration 1 5 3 1 Files tab Here you can state directories Edit Postprocessor and file extensions to NC Files Se
14. code for the finish path Technology Difset Rotate Misc i je m a Finishing Tool 8 Lib W Default Spindle Feed Descent Feed Follow f Transmission 7 Shift profiles Cancel User s Guide 3 Tutorial ContourCAM 3D EA ContourCAM NC Simulator Sai File Simulation view Layout Window Help AS aalala slolelililil 2t 3 EA View 1 Seg NUM All we need to do now to get the NC program is to press the Generate button and enter a filename ContourCAM automatically proposes the name of the drawing to be the file name for the NC program When you press OK the program will be generated and loaded into the editor Pressing F7 will start the simulator and show a program as in 8 2 Using knots In this lesson the matter of individual division will be revised This will often be necessary when there in the surface occur sharp corners like in this assignment 8 4 ContourCAM 8 2 Using Knots DesignCAD 3D MAX 16 Knots dcd main File Edit Yiew Plugins Tools Options Draw Point Dimension Solids ContourCAM Animation Window Help er x D 5 3 3 be a ll i gt 4 LG 36 01 i 20 72 ox Oo o o 0 9 9 3 m 4 st ae gt OA 5 ne 4 17 kel bes ED ee eo 2 0 Select Mode mm 0 102 2D DRAFTING DEFAULT WP 3 ar 4 8 Q Q 5
15. codes and also ending ASCII 0 signs will not be saved in the file In the postprocessor you can specify a folder where the files are to be placed 3 2 ContourCAM NC Simulator To verify NC programs ContourCAM contains an NC simulator The simulator displays a graphical image of the NC program Depending on the NC program the simulator behaves in different ways The NC simulator enables you to simulate toolpaths on the screen before sending the NC program to your CNC unit If you open it from within the editor you will get a simulation of the current NC program but you can even open an NC program from the file menu and have it simulated FA ContourCAM NC Simulator e 3 File Simulation View Layout Window Help S J aalala 5 6 FA View 2 Xx view 1 T fox Ess 2 i COOL 5 User s Guide 4 1 NC Simulator Menus The NC menu of the simulator includes the following File gt Open Let s you open the file that you want simulated This file must be a NC program File gt Exit Terminates the program Simulation gt Trace Starts simulation If for any reason the simulation has been stopped this starts the simulation again Simulation gt Single step Starts simulation in single step mode If for any reason the simulation has been stopped this starts the simulation again When stepping you can follow each NC code closely This is very useful w
16. following the same procedure exactly that you just been using Integer When you defined all parameters click the OK field until you have returned to ContourCAM configuration User s Guide 7 9 Tutorial ContourCAM 2D If you have another controller than the Fanuc used in the example above itis a good idea for you to define a cycle for your own controller A defined cycle can be deleted by clicking on the name of the cycle to be removed then it will be high lighted and then click the Delete field in the dialog Try to define one or more cycles for your own controller Now you are to attach the defined parameters Edit Postprocessor of the cycle to the Fanuc or your own post processor where the definition of the cycle of Now editing TE the machine itself for carring out a Deep hole FANUC drilling takes place From ContourCAM configuration choose Postprocessor Choose Edit and then click Fanuc or your own Settings controller from the list of postprocessors AB Now the dialog in the figure is displayed Cancel enag Click the field Machine cycles and a new dialog appears DE Machine cycles Sequences As you will notice the cycle fading you have just named has Available machine cycles First coordinate been transferred to the list 83 242 RAT G13 gla VIS Fife of machine cycles of your Aah Vit postprocessor In the windows to the right First coordinate Subsequent coordinates and Ter
17. if you choose a tool with preselected values those values will be added automatically Descent feed The feed rate used when descenting into the material Radius compensation Here you decide if the tool compensation of the contours should be made by your controller or if ContourCcAM must compensate for the tool before the NC code is generated It is often preferable to leave the tool compensation to the control if the control is able to as it is much easier to adjust the compensation on the control if the tool does not correspond to the measurements exactly 5 14 ContourCAM Lead In Out Here it is possible to choose if you want a circular ora as entrance ending of the prepara Pocketing 0 tion If you choose circular lead in out you must enter radius and Overshoot 3 000 9 angle and if you choose linear lead in out you must enter the length of Leadin Leadout the line and the angle wanted f Circular Circular aes Pipe Overshoot Here you can enter a i value that will determine the Radius 10 000 Radius 10 000 distance between the lead in and Angle 60 000 Angle 35 000 the lead out to avoid that material i is left Leadin in safety plane Leadout in safety plane Rapid descent Cancel Help 5 5 4 Boring etc The boring process enables you to call canned machine cycles for boring drilling tapping etc on the circles in the drawing When this process activated
18. in strange characters in the NC program e ASC O In this field you enter how many ASCII code 0 ContourCAM shall transmit after the NC code This imitates empty tape on a tape reader and is demanded by some older controllers EOB delay Amount of nulls to send after end of block i e after each line Some older controls requires time to process each line e Add line numbers Check if you want automatic line numbering during transmission to the CNC unit Don t send start code Check this the start code should not be send to the CNC unit The start code will then only be used to determine program start on reception Delay after stop code When ContourCAM receives 8 stop code from the controller it is interoreted as end of transmission However some controllers raise the alarm if the connection is closed immediately Therefore it is possible to state a delay of a number of seconds so the controller has time to finish e No XON polling If you use only software handshake when it is ready User s Guide 3 ContourCAM Configuration to receive ContourCAM will continuously send an XON signal to the CNC unit every 2 seconds until it starts receiving data Check this option to prevent ContourCAM from sending XON s before data is received Don t wait for XON If you use software handshake ContourCAM will not begin transmitting before it receives an XON signal Check this option to start the transmission immediately
19. length compensation for this tool Often this value will be stored in the control so you may leave this field empty e Maximum step If you enter a value here ContourCAM will prevent you from using a deeper infeed step with this tool e Spindle Enter here the default spindle speed for this tool e Feed rate Enter here the default feed rate for this tool 1 4 Machine cycle library Machine Cycle Library The machine cycle library is activated Available machine cycles from the postprocessor menu By this Deep Hole Drilling you get an alphabetical list of the defined machine cycles When a machine cycle is highlighted it can be edited or deleted Furthermore new cycles can be defined For editing and setting up you will have the same dialog which will be EE described in the following User s Guide 3 ContourCAM Configuration 1 4 1 Editing machine Machine Cycle Library cycles Available machine cycles In the machine cycle library you only define Centering the general interface for the machine esi Edt cycles i e the name and parameters Tapping What NC code is generated for each cycle New is defined is the various postprocessors thus you can use machine cycles without Delete considering which CNC unit you are going to use Please note that the machine cycles are not referred to internally by their Cancel Help names hence changing names will not have undesired side effects
20. on the transmission profile T1 10 T3 The shift profiles must be enumerated by increasing numbers There are no further demands on the numbers like with which to start and steps between numbers If the transmission profile is a closed geometry the entity that starts the profile should have a color of lower priority than the entity which ends the profile If for example the transmission profile is black priority 1 the entity which ends the profile could be made blue priority 3 If several shift profiles are to be attached at the same point on the transmission profile the directive may be written separated by commas e g T1 10 T2 10 As mentioned earlier a transmission profile drawn in DesignCAD will by default be interpreted as lying in the XY plane while the shift profiles are placed vertically The shift profiles can either be rotated such that their planes are perpendicular to the tangents of the transmission profile at the attach points or be placed with their plane parallel with the X axis one or more of the profiles are not to be placed perpendicular 1 10 i to the transmission plane or tangent rotation directives can be specified at the attach point The code to use for specifying 2 oa attach points in such cases is of the following form XY Plane Tn m gt d L e For example 1st Shift profile 2nd Shift profile T1 10 gt 20 T3 gt 30 T5 gt 10 15 d indicates the rota tion in deg
21. only the amount of available memory limits the number of shift profiles Furthermore it is not always possible to EPERE Eri EEE 7 s ne ra H 5 m a describe a surface using 5 a F dd 1 al r a Poel Pl maL ai m Pal i dd Hie TT only one transmission Spelt ESEE zi profile Shown here is a PEER surface that cannot be described using only one transmission profile as the shifts vary in width Using ContourCAM it is possible to describe surfaces using two transmission profiles and several shift profiles When ContourCAM creates a surface based on transmission and shift profiles it first divides each profile into a number of short line segments All shift profiles must be divided into the same number of line segments Likewise if there are more transmission profiles they must be divided into an equal number of line segments ContourCAM then forms a net or grid by letting the shift profiles move down then transmission profile s When moving from one shift to the next the shape is gradually changed from that of the former to that of the latter Below we describe the theory and by examples show how the 2 snakes are used After reading the theory we suggest that you try out the tutorial before starting on your own 6 1 Snake programming 6 1 1 Snake 1 programming from DesignCAD 2D We start by describing how you program sna
22. postprocessor Choose Postprocessor If there is no postprocessor associated to the file or you would like to associate another postprocessor to the file you can select this command When the command is activated a list containing all the post processors in the system will be displayed You can select the new postprocessor you would like to associate to your file Cancel Help User s Guide 2 5 ContourCAM Editor 2 3 2 Dimension offset Dimension Offset This command makes it possible to offset the whole or parts of the program along one or more axes You will be asked to enter the 0 12 displacement for all three dimensions If the andai program was written in ISO code the lines after a G91 until the next G90 will not be aid aris offset OF Cancel 2 3 3 Remove Line Numbers This command removes all line numbers Normally you work without line numbers in ContourCAM The line numbers will not be appended until the trans mission to a CNC unit starts 2 3 4 Add Line Numbers If you are using other software than ContourCAM for the transmission and you do not wish to use transmit to file this function can be use to add line numbers to the NC program 2 3 5 Insert start stop sequences Normally the start and stop sequences indicated in the postprocessor will be inserted when the NC 6006 is generated However it is possible to insert start and stop sequences in the editor 2 3 6 Dr
23. program except iS saves the program in a file instead of sending it via the serial port 2 4 4 Simulate NC program This command start the simulator and let it work on a copy of the program in the active window For a complete description of NC simulating see chapter 4 2 5 Loop programming Solving several simple problematic with a certain similarity can be very trivial By using loop programming you can repeat a simple procedure several times without having to write all the coordinates yourself Using loop programming a part of NC code can be repeated a number of times with a linear displacement Loop programming is indicated using an asterisk followed by the number of repetitions and the coordinate displacement after each repetition Hereafter the program follows terminated by another asterisk It is possible to create nested loops This could be useful to make an array of holes 5 10 Y5 0 Y 0 xO Yo eon Y 5 2 lt 420 130 15 M440 Y 20 An example of loop programming the left the loop code and to the right the result When the loop program is written select Expand loop in the CAM menu A new window containing the result will be opened The original program will still exist in the editor If the result is not what you expected you can just close the window and the window with the original loop program will automatically appear If ContourCAM locates an error in the loop program an err
24. same principle so only replace will be discussed 2 4 ContourCAM 2 3 CAM functions This illustration shows the dialog that pops up when the replace function is Search and Replace activated Text to find iGo e Find The text to search for is entered here Replace with 4 Replace The text replaced with is entered here Options Help e Case sensitive Check if you want Case sensitive Cancel case sensitive search Prompt on replace Prompt on replace If this field is checked you will be asked to confirm each replace Please note that if you have selected a block when activating the replace func tion it will be performed on the selected block only Otherwise it will be performed from the cursor position to the end of the text Besides searching for texts you can also search for patterns A pattern consist of normal text and the following special characters indicates whole words until a space or a tabulator numbers including sign and space _ white space space or tabulator used when searching for special characters For example _ For example X will match X10 X 20 7 X 56 etc The pattern T will match all words starting with T 2 3 CAM functions Especially the commands in the CAM menu makes the ContourCAM editor special Most of these commands demand that there is a file with an associated postprocessor in the active text window 2 3 1 Choose
25. shape of the adja cent shift profiles more about this later To minimize the size of NC program it is a good idea to decide how you wish the NC program generated along the transmission profile or the shift profiles and how close the toolpaths should be For instance if a distance of 1 mm between the toolpaths is desired and they should follow the transmission profile it is the points on the shift profiles that decide the density of the toolpaths Thus it is preferable to have a distance of 1 mm between the knots on the shift profiles If the transmission profile is a User s Guide 6 5 ContourCAM 3D smooth curve the distance between its knots might be more than 1 mm These optimizations of the NC program is of course on the expense of a deviation from the true profile It is thus necessary to consider if it is an acceptable deviation In the tutorial this will be exemplified 6 1 4 Engraving ina snake Froajected part By projecting we understand that a given XY coordinate in the object you want to bend gets the Z value of the corresponding point in the snake In addition to making the tool paths for milling the surface described by the snake you can also engrave drawn objects in the surface This is done by projecting the drawn elements onto the surface defined by the snake i e for each point X Y of the drawing corresponding Z value of the surface is used with a given offset added The snake com
26. the menu Window 2 1 Editing files When starting the editor there are no files in the editor You can either read a file using Files Open See section 2 4 or begin a new file using Files New User s Guide 2 1 ContourCAM Editor 2 1 1 Short cuts while editing The following is a list of short cuts and their function in the ContourCAM editor A sequence of keys with a plus in between means all the keys should be typed simultaneously For example lt Shift gt lt Ctri gt R lt Shift gt means you should hold down both lt Shift gt and lt Ctrl gt while pressing R If a sequence of keystrokes are separated by spaces it means you press them down after each other For example lt Ctril gt K R means you should press both lt Ctrl gt and K release them and then press R Finally a sequence of keystrokes separated by 8 comma means they have the same function Key lt T gt lt U gt gt gt lt gt lt Ctrl gt lt gt lt Ctrl gt lt gt lt Page uo gt lt Page down gt lt End gt lt Home gt lt Ctrl gt lt Home gt lt Ctrl gt gt End gt gt Ctri gt G lt Insert gt lt Delete gt lt Backspace gt lt Ctrl gt Y lt Ctrl gt QY lt Shift gt cursor move ment lt Ctrl gt KB lt Ctri gt KY lt Ctrl gt X 2 2 ContourCAM Means Move cursor Move cursor one word right Move cursor one word left Move one page up Move one page down Move cu
27. this section ContourCAM s most important task is to generate NC code based on a drawing The code generation is done by the commands Milling Turning and Cutting depending of the type of machine tool you wish to program 5 6 ContourCAM 5 4 1 Generating NC code from a drawing 5 4 1 Generating NC code from a drawing In this section we discuss generation of NC code based on a drawing of tool paths The principle is to convert a drawing consisting of lines and arcs to the corresponding movements in an NC program Additionally there are options to regulate feed rate tool change radius compensation etc 5 4 1 1 Drawing format A drawing file used for NC generating consist of geometries and texts Texts can either be single commands these always start with a dollar sign or they can be a part of a geometry A geometry is a coherent set of the entities lines arcs arrows and texts The idea is that each geometry is run through by using each entity exactly one time If a whole geometry is not run through it is considered being more than one geometry Entities of other types than the ones mentioned are ignored 5 4 1 2 Types of entities Noted below is a list of those drawing entities being used for NC generation and their meaning Arrow lines Indicates a linear movement with feed rate with the limitation that the CNC unit can only move in the direction of the arrowhead Arrow lines are normally used to set the direction Lines
28. type 1 Indicates a linear movement with feed rate Lines type 5 Indicates rapid traverse Arcs Indicates a circular movement on the CNC unit Circles For full circles the direction of the circulation is noted by using the line type Clockwise O full and counter clockwise 1 dashed 5 4 1 3 Defining of toolpath Before the preparation of a geometry can begin a start point must be selected You can by using start numbers texts starting with a number indicate start points for geometries When the program must locate a new point of start the start point that has not been used yet with the lowest number is selected When all start points has been used the preparation will continue on the closest stop point of an entity autotrace was selected else the user will be asked for help In the following we will take a closer look at the rules for the preparation i e in what order one would like this executed indication of soeed depth of the cutting radius compensation etc First we will look at how the toolpath through a geometry is decided Each time we come to the stop point of an entity all those entities stop points of which are within the distance noted as tolerance in the editor are found Then the entity with the highest priority is selected and the preparation continues User s Guide 7 ContourCAM 2D The priority of entities is as follows Texts as always handled first If the color is black 1 color column
29. 00 to open contours this last field Feed should be ignored FEE step 5 000 Descent Feed 10 Open geometries Here you Start number decide if the preparation of open roan 4 10 contours should be carried out on the right or left hand side of the contours If the process only applies to closed contours this field should be ignored Radius compensation Here you Cancel Help decide if the tool compensation of the contours should be made by your control or if ContourCAM must compensate for the tool before the NC code is generated It is often preferable to leave the tool compensation to the control if the control is able to as it is much easier to adjust the compensation on the control if the tool does not correspond to the measurements exactly Comments Lead In Out Here it is possible to select if you want a circular or a linear lead in and lead out as start ending of the preparation If you choose circular lead in out you must enter radius and angle and if you choose linear lead in out you must enter the length of the line and the angle wanted Overshoot Here you can enter a value that will determine the distance between the lead in and the lead out to avoid that material is left 5 5 3 Pocket milling Pocket milling is used to remove material in an enclosed area You can specify any number of borders and islands the only restrictions are that all geometries that are borders or islands must be closed i e
30. 1 E l 1 A at His 1 OO 1 5 8 0 Ee 5 1 ale PE User s Guide 9 Tutorial ContourCAM 3D EA ContourCAM NC Simulator es File Simulation View Layout Window Help 8 sjoe J 1 FA View 2 BARRIZ 7 EN View 4 4 3 Ready CAM NUM 8 20 ContourCAM Introduction Getting Started TION sossa A T 1 System Requirements ccccceesceeseeeeceteeeeseeestenseeneseneeeaas 1 2 Installing 2 2 Manually Installing and 3D vicied nee ae Aaa aba E 2 COntoOurG AM Setup ss oeer a A molar I S 2 Sources of Information About 20 2 3 The Users GUIS wi sett ecevece tee arian tidat aa casee hacia nereaad tania 3 The Online Help System ccccccccecceeceeeceeeeeesaeeeseeeseeeeees 3 The Sample Drawings cccccceeeeeeeeeeeeeeceeeeeesaeeseeeeeeesaees 3 Chapter 1 ContourCAM Configuration Lisl General SCtuinOS eiris eaa ON 1 1 tee VAES enea i ister thatched eee 1 2 3 0 aaa a a aeea 1 2 1 3 1 Tools for milling MACHINES cc cece cece eee eee eens 1 3 1 4 Machine Cycle LIB aN erreser Eai 1 3 1 4 1 Editing machine CYyCIOS ccccccccceeee esses eneeeeeasenes 1 4 OSUOFrOCCSSONS aera a ee eee 1 4 12531 POSIDFOCCSSOPF aeee 1 5 PORTMAN 0 ewe 1 5 2 C00rdi
31. 1 Choose Add from the dialog Boring 2 From the list of tools choose the tool to do the tapping As you can see there are three different parameters to carry out the operation on the machine used in our example In this case you want a tapping from height 10 to the bottom of the hole 3 Enter start height 10 4 Enter total depth for the tapping 20 5 Enter dwell time 1 6 Click OK Now you have stated the parameters for the tapping In this exercise you were to prepare three operations for each of the holes in the drawing This is now done From the dialog Boring you click the field Generate Now the dialog below appears 7 24 ContourCAM 7 3 9 Machine cycles Enter the name the NC program 1 File name 2 Choose a postprocessor and click OK IB oring Browse Now ContourCAM calculates and gener ates the hole program in consideration of FANUC E the machine cycles chosen and deliver the final program in the editor ready for Cancel Help possible editing or direct transmission to the CNC unit EX ContourCAM Editor c ctwin Boring cn File Edit Search ContourCAM Window Help x ae S iI This Nc program was generated by Contourcan Version 16 0 Date July 24 2005 Drawing C PROGRAM FILES IMSI DESIGNCAD 3D MAX 16 CONTOURCAM SAMPLES BORING DCD Postpro FANUC Teal 1 Pinol Tool 2 G10MB 11 G90 G92 XO YO ZO Pinolb
32. 2 Enter speed of spindle and r feedrate Infeed step 4 000 choose pilot drilling Dwell time f 000 Start height 20 000 4 Enter start height O 5 Enter the depth of the drilling 2 A p wn Cancel Help 6 Click OK Now you have defined how you want the pilot drilling to be made on all holes From the dialog choose Add again 1 Choose the tool to be used for the deep hole drilling D20 2 Enter speed of the spindle and feedrate 3 From the list of machine cycles now choose Deep hole drilling or the name you applied for the corresponding operation User s Guide 7 23 Tutorial ContourcCAM 2D Now the list of parameters needed for this operation will be displayed corre sponding to the parameters you stated when you defined this particular machine cycle In this example the relevant parameters appear as the dialog below Operation 1 Enter start height O Tool 2 Enter the total depth of the drilling Spindle 20 M Default Lib Feed 3 Enter maximum infeed step per drilling 4 Machine cycle Driling with threading 4 Enter safety distance the height where movements in rapid traverse are allowed 1 mm Farameters Start height 20 000 Total depth 35 000 Depth of thread 4 000 Now you defined a deep hole Safety distance 1 000 drilling The last operation to be Dwell time 7 000 carried out is the tapping 5 Enter dwell time 1 6 Click OK Cancel Help
33. 3D MAX 16 Funnel ded main File Edit view Plugins Tools Options Draw Point Dimension Solids ContourCAM Animation Window Help Del 5 3 3 ae ail iit 4A arx 149 pPy 594 ox 0 o een 0 canang a AE ate J Ri 1 S SlSlO SORIA Fd ss Vad Ea LA Ba as a 3 2 D Select Mode Unitless 0 119 2D DRAFTING DEFAULT WP Draw a semi circle from point 0 10 to point 50 10 and one from point 50 0 to 0 0 Draw a line from point 50 0 to 50 10 This geometry is what we call the transmission profile Draw a quarter circle from point 60 15 to point 75 0 This will be the shift profile Now we need to add the texts Write the text T1 50 at point 0 10 The T indicates that this is a part of the transmission profile The one that we want the shift profile number one to be attached here Finally the 50 means that we want the geometry to be divided into 50 line segments from this point to the next text At the coordinates 0 0 write the text T2 This indicates that this is the point of the transmission profile where we want shift profile number two attached Since this is the end of the transmission profile there is no indication for division as in the first text 8 2 ContourCAM Snake General Technology Dtfset Rotate Mise Hame 5 nake Layer i Follow tangent of transmission profiler Do Make inverse surface Roughing W Finishing
34. AM 3D We rotate the first transmission profile 90 and the second 90 The rotation of the transmission profiles is defined on the page labeled Offset Rotate For the second transmission profile the direction is zero To understand how the direction imagine you have a stick that you place attached to start point of the transmis sion profile and parallel to the X axis then you raise it the indicated angle Thus to get the first transmission profile to go up we need to point the stick the opposite direction of the X axis hence 180 degrees 8 6 A basin DesignCAD 3D MAX 16 A Basin ded main File Edit Yiew Plugins Tools Options Draw Point Dimension Solids ContourCAM Animation Window Help X D 5 3 3 De 2D Il i t 4 AS gt EL k w x 1956 Y 58 41 vx 0 0 of o al 0 Front view 0 00 0 00 f 0 00 1000 00 9 9 8 s te i 0 20mm Omm 20mm 40mm 60mm 30mm 100mm 420mm 140mm 160mm 180mn 1 3 4 6 7 9 10 12 10 1 15 S hkl lt lt 41 eas Sa A m 2 D Select Mode mm 0 56 2D DRAFTING DEFAULT WP This drawing is a snake with 2 transmission profiles and 13 shift profiles The transmission profiles are closed i e their start and end points are connected Therefore we need to tell which way to go around The direction is controlled by coloring of the first and last entities The last entity must have a lower pr
35. ContourCAM will search the drawing for full circles in the indicated layer The circles are grouped according to their diameters and the different sizes will appear in the list of circles For each group of circles you can add up to ten oper ations When generating NC code ContourCAM will optimize for minimum travel and tool change When you choose boring from the menu the dialog below is displayed User s Guide 5 15 ContourCAM 2D Name Enter the name under which the information of the actual preparation should be saved The lt name is transferred to the dialog Paks for boring from where you can Layer fi select it later if you wish to edit Circles some parameters Circle 020 00 Boring Layer Enter the number of the layer where the object is drawn Circles ContourCAM automati cally detects the diameters of i Add Edit Remove circles in your drawing and classi fies them It helps you to select the Comments most sensible tools for the making of each hole Operations When one diameter measurement is highlighted this field shows which operations you have selected precisely for those holes Cancel Help Edit If you wish to edit a selected cycle the cycle in question must be highlighted before clicking edit Delete Deletes the highlighted cycle Comment If you want enter comments to the task here When you click Add from the dialog Operation another dialog appears To
36. D Filename Enter Test as filename Generate MC program Postprocessor Choose the postprocessor wanted from the list File name Click OK after which ContourCAM gener lest Browse ates the program In a little while Postprocessor ContourCAM switches to the editor where FANUC the NC code of the generated program is displayed 8 Cancel Help 7 3 3 In ContourCAM s editor You now have the possibility to add change or edit the program see chapter 2 before it is send to the CNC unit When the program is ready you choose Cam from the menu and then Send program The program will be transmitted to the CNC unit connected 7 3 4 Cutting priorities generating NC code Adjust your screen to be 250 units wide Ctrl 4 Ctrl 6 Drawing exercise in cutting priorities In this lesson we shall make a drawing as shown in this illus tration The purpose of this exercise is to show how to decide which direction ContourCAM should go For the left part of the drawing we will use the toolpath process while using ContourCAMing for the right part 1 Draw toolpath 1 Draw a rectangle using the line command V with lower left corner at coordinate 20 40 and upper right corner in 40 50 It is important that each side of the rectangle is a separate line Draw the line between 20 50 and 40 50 as an arrow gt as shown in the illustration above Write the text 1 and snap the corner of the rectangle as shown in the dr
37. Decimal point not has been selected In this field you configure how decimal numbers without a 1 8 ContourCAM 1 5 2 Sequences in the postprocessor decimal point are represented Selecting Leading zeroes implies that decimal numbers are written with zeroes in front of them the Word length field will become selectable Selecting Trailing zeroes implies that decimal numbers are written with pending zeroes Word length This field is only enabled if Leading zeroes is checked in the Number format field In this field you enter the word length of decimal numbers The word length is necessary to be able to write decimal numbers with leading zeroes Using 2 decimals and a word length of 6 the coordinate X100 is written as X01 if you use leading zeroes only if you use both leading and trailing zero X100 is written as X010000 and as X10000 using trailing 267065 only 1 5 2 Sequences in the postprocessor To set standardized parts of NC programs code sequences are used You state a fixed pattern of NC code containingvariables ContourCAM places a number of system variables at your disposal When generating NC code the system varia bles are replaced by their values The system variables is written in braces case is ignored The following system variables are supported PNO Program number X 1 coordinate Y 2 coordinate Z 3 coordinate CX 1 center coordinate CY 2 center coordinate FED Feed rate
38. Enter gt wn 7 4 ContourCAM 7 1 6 MagicTrim Possibilities Example 2 7 1 6 MagicTrim Possibilities Example 2 This example with circles only is as born to MagicTrim It is possible to use the same geometry twice or more with the MagicTrim command It is always important to set the points close to the intersection point with the following geometry to indicate which intersection is in question in case there are more than one 7 1 7 Nest 1 Nest an item to itself 1 Draw a line through X30 Y30 and X30 Y100 and then a line through X30 Y30 and X100 Y30 2 Snap to the endpoints and press V for Line 3 You now have an triangle which you want to rotate 180 degrees to nest it to itself 4 Select the triangle Edit Entity select or the arrow in the upper left corner of the tool box 5 Choose from the menu under ContourCAM pt 4 Nest and then the command Nest 1 User s Guide 7 5 Tutorial ContourcAM 2D On screen you now have the rotated item and the ofS original item You are now to direct the rotated piri item to its final position 1 Snap to the upper corner of the rotated item point 1 2 Then snap to the upper corner of the original item point 2 3 Set a point on the slanted line as a reference point point 3 4 Set a point to the right of the slanted line to state the direction of the offset point 4 5 Enter the offset 2 mm 6 Save the dr
39. It is possible to define up to 10 parameters for Machine Cycle Parameter each machine cycle When a cycle is employed the user will be asked to enter values for each parameter Options When a parameter is defined or edited the dialog T Disable negative values in the figure appears Also the name of the parameters can be changed without influencing the current values Integer You can avoid negative values to be entered by activating No negative values If you activate Integer values in the NC code will be written without decimals Cancel Help 1 5 Postprocessors Postprocessors are very important in ContourCAM since they describe to ContourCAM how a specific CNC machine will be controlled In this section we will describe the dialogs where you configure your postproces sors While reading this try to consider how the postprocessors for your CNC machines should be configured With ContourCAM there are several examples of postprocessors for more common controls as an inspiration for your own postprocessors you can try and see how they are configured 1 4 ContourCAM 1 5 1 Postorocessor format When you set up or edit a postprocessor a dialog box like this one will appear Each of the Edit Postprocessor five big buttons activates a new dialog box where the configuration of the postprocessor Jah Galley PE takes place Eae Some of the boxes contain tabs with several pages Hel Settings In the follow
40. M Editor The ContourCAM editor forms the connection between ContourCAM and your CNC machines It is in the editor that you can make changes in the NC code programs simulate NC code on screen and communicate with the CNC machines EN ContourCAM Editor c ctwin Cut Contouren File Edit Search ContourCAM Window Help This NC program was generated by ContourCian Version 16 0 Date July 24 2005 Drawing C PROGRAM FILES IMSI DESIGNCAD 3D MAX 16 CONTOURCAM SAMPLES CUT CONTOUR DCD Postpro AGIE PROGRAM HEADER Contouring GOOX 008498Y 0358764 03 60 1 000000 0 12 3 4 03 X 002 002 0001 0000007 002000F 100640 0 1 03 3 4 04 0 000000 12 397 1 00 18950 3 GO1X 035738 Y 000000 GO1x 000000Y 002000644 0 000000 01 12 7 03 X 002 000 002 1 004 0000 00000 640012 1 04 51122 2 PROGRAM END The main part of the editor is as the name implies a text editor It works as most other text editors The size of the files you can edit is limited only by the amount of memory Windows offers And since Windows uses the hard drive as an expan sion of the memory you can work with file sizes of several mega bytes of memory As long you have enough memory there is no limit to the number of files that can be read into the editor The first nine files will be numbered from one to nine and you can quickly switch between them using
41. Milling and then Add From the menu that now appears you choose Contouring A new dialog is displayed Name Accept the name Contouring Contouring Layer Enter 1 for layer No one General Conditions Leadin leadout Name E Tool Layer f SFK Lib Material W Default Material top Enter O as the top of your material Total depth Enter 5 as the total Material top 0 000 Spindle i Total depth 1 0 000 Feed Infeed step 5 000 Descent Feed 10 Start number Al Comments a Cancel Help 4 10 depth Infeed step Enter 5 as the infeed step per each path Tool From your list of tools you choose a tool with a diameter of 10 for milling ball nosed or some other tool you already defined Spindle Enter speed of the spindle 3000 Feed Enter feedrate 300 Descent feed Enter 100 as the feedrate for vertical movements into the material Start number Since this is contouring and since you are not to do further prep aration for this item you do not have to state start number 1 because there are no other start numbers in your drawing Comments If you wish to make comments you are free to do it inside this window When you entered the general information for the item to be prepared you click the flag Conditions where you are to determine how you wish the preparation itself to be executed Now the dialog in the figure are displayed 7 12 ContourCAM 7 3 2 Gener
42. Select the circle R2 5 and use the command Circular array under Edit Selection edit to draw three copies of the circle Attach the numbers from 5 10 as shown in the drawing When your drawing looks like the drawing beginning this task you are ready to generate NC code of the whole drawing Choose milling and then the command toolpath Fill in the dialog as shown below User s Guide 7 15 Tutorial ContourCAM 2D Toolpaths Tool Lib W Default Spindle Feed Descent Feed Material Material top 0 000 Total depth 7 000 Infeed step 3 000 Start number All Comments Cancel As it appears in the dialog for the general adjustments it only applies the start numbers 4 and 10 You now choose one more contouring and repeat the process for the remaining start numbers filling in the dialogs as shown here 7 16 ContourCAM When you have completed the dialog for the toolpath you now choose contouring under Add from the process control Then you fill in the dialogs as those below me u oo Help Contouring General Conditions Leadin leadout Layer fi nm Lib Material pe W Default Material top 0 000 Total depth 1 0 000 Feed Infeed step 5 000 Descent Feed 10 Start number E C Comments Help Cancel 7 3 4 Cutting priorities generating NC code Contouring When all dialogs are completed you
43. Set a point close to the tangent ot 1 point on the circle to the left the circle radius 20 4 Set a point close to the tangent point on the circle to the right circle radius 15 5 Set a point in the direction of the center of the rounding arc 6 Enter radius of rounding arc 200 Now we will make a fillet at the top of the two circles radius 150 Choose Edit from the main menu then Trim Fillet from the pull down menu and then the command Fillet 2 7 2 ContourCAM 7 1 3 Line PDXY Drawing line dialog 1 Set a point close to the tangent point on the circle r15 ot 1 2 Set a point close to the tangent point on the circle r20 3 Set a point in the direction of the center of rounding arc 4 Enter radius 150 pt 2 circles connected by the fillets we The screen now shows the two just made ot 3 Now you can remove the parts of the circles inside the geometry Use MagicTrim to cut it off auto matically See section 7 1 5 7 1 3 Line PDXY Drawing line dialog Set a point in 0 Choose Lines from the main menu and then Line PDXY from the pull down menu The Line PDXY command allows you to describe a line in every possible way without forcing you to remember which point command to by used in every single case 70 000 0 Answer the following questions and only key in the fields where the values are known 1 P angle 30 pt 1 2 You do not know the distance 3 Relative X is
44. a P instead of the displacement During each iteration of the loop the NC program will be rotated the specified number of degrees Rotation is counter clockwise To achieve clockwise rotation specify a negative angle Rotation works on both absolute and relative coordinates Note When doing loop programming with rotation it iy important to specify both and Y coordinates for each movement since only the specified coordinates are updated A modal program will therefore not be rotated correctly User s Guide 2 11 ContourCAM Editor 2 12 ContourCAM Serial Communication When NC programs are to be transmitted or received from a CNC Unit the program Serial Communication is used It can operate as an independent program or controlled by the editor In this chapter the first mentioned method is primary described for serial communication via the editor see section 2 4 EA ContourCAM Serial Communication 3 x File Communication Help Lines received POST AGIE m Seral settings Fort COM Baudrate S600 Databits 7 Stopbits 1 Parity EVEN Handshake No File name Editor Rscenving 3 1 Reception from serial port When the program is started the standard postprocessor will automatically be loaded If you want to receive using another postprocessor you must choose it from the Communication menu After this receiving is activated either by pressing the receive button or by Choosing Receiv
45. an enter an offset of the first transmission profile Often it will be in Z a value is entered as offset in X and Y can be General Technology Ulfset Rotate Misc 1 51 transmission profile obtained by moving the transmis AE sion profile in the drawing 1st transmission profile Rota Direction tion If the transmission profile is not to lie in the XY plane you can raise it to a given angle m 2nd transmission profile 2nd transmission profile aie Rotation Offset Here an offset of the 2nd Angle transmission profile can be Direction entered In addition to altering the Z value this feature is useful if the first and second transmission profiles are connected In this case they must be drawn some distance apart and then the offset is used to reverse this distance amp 20 000 Cancel Help 2nd transmission profile Rotation If the transmission profile is not to lie in the XY plane you can raise it to a given angle In ContourCAM itis possible to engrave text as well as drawings in the surfaces created by the snakes The text or the drawing must be placed on the transmission or shift profile where you wish the engraving to be 2 20 executed study this example User s Guide 9 ContourCAM 3D a When the text drawing has been snake i placed as you want you select the flag Engraving The dialog in the General Technology Offset ARotate Misc fig re w
46. andshake must be chosen Hardware handshake is also called RTS CTS handshake With hardware handshake the computer and CNC machine need two extra connections in addition to the ones need to the communication Using these two connection both the computer and CNC machine can stop the other if the transmission goes too fast The other possibility is Software handshake this is also called XON XOFF or DC codes Using software handshake the communication wires are used by the receiver to start and stop the transmitter To decide which sort of handshake and how to connect it refer to the manual for the CNC machine Baud rate In this field you choose the communication speed If you do not use handshake then you should not choose a speed higher than 2400 baud If you use handshake speeds up to 38400 baud are possible Parity In this field you choose which parity to use Even parity is the normal when using 7 data bit and None when using 8 data bit Odd parity is rarely used e Start code and Stop code In the Start and Stop code fields you can enter special ASCII codes which are transmitted before and after the transmission of the NC code These codes are required by some controls to indicate the start and stop of the actual NC code For instance most Heidenhain controllers uses stop code 3 If you enter O as start or stop code no code will be transmitted When receiving it means that possible noise before and after the transmission will not result
47. arallel tool paths are indicated User s Guide 3 ContourCAM 3D 6 14 ContourCAM Tutorial ContourCAM 2D In this chapter we present examples on the use of ContourCAM s command for NC programming 7 1 Examples of drawing editing and nest commands 7 1 1 Fillet 2 Draw an arc between circle and line Now choose Fillet 2 from the menu Draw a circle through the following points press lt O gt lt gt 30 30 lt gt 45 30 Draw a line through the following points press lt V gt lt gt 50 10 lt gt 80 50 Now choose Edit from the main menu and from the pull down menu Trim Fillet User s Guide 7 1 Tutorial ContourcCAM 2D 1 Set a point close to the tangent t 3 point on the circle P 2 Set a point close to the tangent point on the line 3 Set a point in the direction of pt 2 the center of the rounding arc pt 1 4 Enter radius of the rounding arc 30 Remember that the rotation direc tion is always counter clockwise 5 Clear the screen Y 7 1 2 Fillet 2 Draw an arc between 2 circles 1 Draw a circle with known center and a specified radius circle 4 ot Radius 20 and center X30 Y30 2 Draw a circle circle 4 radius 15 and center X85 Y50 pt 2 Now we will make a rounding arc radius 200 at the bottom of the two circles Choose Edit from the main menu and then Trim Fillet from the pull down menu and then the command Fillet 2 3
48. ating the NC code 1 Click the field to the left of Climb milling When the field is active it is Contouring market with a black dot General Conditions Leadin leadout 2 Click the field External as the contouring must take place on the Left hand side outside of the item Climb milling Right hand side Since it is a closed contour the 0 questions in the dialog about open Control contours does not have to be intemal ContourClAM answered since they have no influ Extemal i chine ence on the actual item 3 Compensation of the tool Click the field Control since you wish the controller to make the compensa tion of the tool 4 In this case you want a linear lead in to the item so you click the field besides Linear The length of the lead in must be 10 mm In the window Length enter 10 Angle enter O since the lead in line differs from the first line in the drawing to be milled O degrees 5 Repeat the procedure making the lead out and use the same length 10 mm Accept what you keyed in by clicking OK Now you return to ContourCAM Process Control You are now to let ContourCAM FA ContourCAM Process Control Cio 3 generate the NC code according to the information stated in the Processes dialogs Click Generate Now the dialog in the next figure appears Move up Move down Parameters Close Help Generate User s Guide 7 13 Tutorial ContourcCAM 2
49. ative distance to material to where z movement in rapid traverse is allowed Comment If you wish it you can add a comment to the task here Tooling ContourlaM Carpet Do roughing Here you indicate whether roughing should be done General Tooling Tool From your tool list choose the Do roughing tools to be used for roughing and finishing respectively Default If this is activated values for spindle and feed are inserted from the tool library feed at submergence is calculated from the percentage of the feed rate given in options When default is active the feed and spindle fields cannot be edited Lib Clicking this button opens the tool library so tool definitions can be edited Note Do not use this to of pick out tools Spindle Here you enter the desired spindle speed if default as for feed 6 12 ContourCAM Tool 010MB Lib Default Path dist 1 0 Spindle poo Step ooo Feed 300 000 Leave ooo Descend feed 150 000 Infeed step 1 000 r Finishing Tool jor Lie W Default Spindle js000 200 008 Path 1 0 Descend feed Shep 000 Cancel Help 6 2 Milling Carpet Feed Here you enter the desired feed speed if you choose a tool with default the selected values for just this tool automatically be added Feed at submergence Feed speed at vertical finishing in material Path distance Here the distance between the p
50. awing ContourCAM will read the drawing as follows Go to start position no 1 Since two entities branch off from the start point ContourCAM will select the entity with the highest priority in this case the arrow as it has higher priority than a line 7 14 ContourCAM 7 3 4 Cutting priorities generating NC code 2 Draw toolpath 2 Draw a line from 20 40 to 40 20 Now draw a red semicircle as shown in the drawing press H to change color Draw two line segments starting at coordi nate 20 25 as shown draw the lower line using red and the upper black Snap the text 2 to the upper line ContourCAM reads this part of the drawing as follows Go to start position 2 Follow the first line to the intersection with the other entities Observe that only intersection of end points count From this point three entities branch off as both the semicircle and the lead out have a lower priority color than the vertical line black have the highest priority the route is determined Draw a line through the following points 20 40 and 40 20 Then draw a semi circle use color red H as shown in figure no 2 in the drawing Draw to line segments the lower of the two lines must have a lower color than th upper line e g blue starting in the coordinate 20 25 fairly as in the drawing Attach the text 2 to he endpoint of the upper line ContourCAM reads the above as follows Go to start position no 2 Follow the first line to the intersection wit
51. awing and name it NT 1 7 1 8 Nest 2 Nest two different items to each other Draw a triangle through the following points X30 Y30 X50 Y140 X90 Y20 X30 Y30 And one more through these points X140 Y170 X170 Y35 X200 Y95 4 X140 Y170 U N N O N HH 3 Select the item to be nested by snapping to I pi 2 the upper corner of the last drawn triangle F 4 Now choose the command Nest 2 pid 5 Now snap once more to the same point while this point later is to refer to a point you will set HE on the first triangle you drew 6 Set a point on the reference line point 3 while this line later shall refer to a reference line on the triangle you drew first 7 Snap a reference point to the upper point of the first drawn triangle point 4 8 Set a reference point on the line point 5 9 Set a point point 6 for the direction of the offset 7 6 ContourCAM 10 Enter 3 as distance between the two items 11 Save the program and name it Nest Above you see the two items after they have been nested to each other with a mutual distance of 3 mm The points you set on each of the elements consequently refers to each other so in this way the nesting is carried out proportional to these points 7 2 Defining tools and machine cycles ContourCAM contains libraries where you can define tools and machine cycles To be able to generate the correct NC code it is as an example necessary to know t
52. ch are to be used for Bark Lib this process are drawn M Default Material top 0 000 Spinde Material top Enter the Z value of 00 the top of the material in which the Feed path to be milled Infeed step 3 000 Descent Feedfi00 Material Total depth Enter the Z value for Start number the button of the path E asl infeed step Enter the maximum Comments depth of material to be removed in each pass Tool From the list of tools you choose the tool which is to be used Cancel Help for the actual preparation Lib Pressing this button brings up the tool library enabling you to define new tools etc Defaults If this option is checked the fields spindle feed and descent feed are filled out with the default values Spindle Enter the speed of the spindle Feed Enter the feed wanted It is possible preselect the speed of feed and spindle when you define your tool If a tool is defined with preselected feed spindle these values will be adjusted automatically when the tool is selected Descent feed Enter feedrate for the first vertical movement to the object Start numbers Enter the start numbers for which the stated values shall apply You can list the individual numbers separated by commas or write intervals using a hyphen e g 1 5 7 9 means the numbers 1 2 3 4 5 7 and 9 If Allis checked all start numbers in the entered layer will be used Comments If you wish t
53. commands 7 1 7 1 1 Fillet 2 Draw an arc between circle and line 7 1 7 1 2 Fillet 2 Draw an arc between two circles 7 2 7 1 3 Line PDXYDrawing 7 3 7 1 4 Delete all but specified Color eens 7 4 7 1 5 MagicTrim Possibilities Example 1 7 4 7 1 6 MagicTrim Possibilities Example 2 ccccceeees 7 5 7 1 7 Nest 1 Nest an item to 56 cece eeee eee ees 7 5 7 1 8 Nest 2 Nest two different items to each other 7 6 7 2 Defining tools and Machine CYCIES cccc cece eee e eee eee 7 7 7 2 icc deteteiste et ieee tine 7 7 7 2 2 Definition Of drilling cycle cece cece eee eeeeeeeeeees 7 9 7 3 Examples for NC generation cccccceceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees 7 10 7 3 1 Preparation of a drawing for NC generation 7 10 7 3 1 1 The construction phase 10662100 7 11 7 3 2 Generating the COdGC cccecce cece eeeeeeeeeseeeeeeeeees 7 12 7 3 3 In Conto rCAM S Editor 222 0 7 14 User s Guide Table of contents 3 7 3 4 Cutting priorities generating NC code 7 14 7 3 5 Pocket milling Advanced cccc ccc eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaees 7 18 7 3 8 In the Editor of 7 20 7 23 29 Machine Cyel Sera canes baedueiacsncechaesticsiccemeecateaess 7 21 Chapter 8 Tutorial ContourCAM 3D Sol YOUR TIRSU SAKES 8 8 1 5 2 USING KNOTS 8 8 4 ISO 0 marae 6 34 Rotating Shift
54. d earlier You may place text command at entity end points which will influence the gener ation of the NC code The texts will be handled when they are met during the preparation of geometries More commands can be collected into one text sepa rated by commas or space you can also state commands in texts that defines start numbers The following commands are available Z d Fixes the cutting depth to d Is effective until something else is stated or to the end of the geometry If the command is not placed at the beginning of the geometry The change of height will take place during the movement to the point The command has no effect if the type of the machine is fixed for anything but a milling machine ZD d Fixes the cutting depth d The difference between this and the command above is that the change of height always will be carried out by a vertical move ment RL Turns on left sided tool compensation in the subsequent movement RR Turns on right sided tool compensation in the subsequent movement RO Turns down tool compensation in the subsequent movement F d States the feed rate 0 Is active until anything else is stated or until the end of the geometry Below you se the dialog for milling of a toolpath 5 10 ContourCAM 5 5 2 Milling of contours Name Enter the name under which Toolpaths this process should be recognized Layer Enter the number of the layer where the elements of the Layer PS Tool drawing whi
55. drive other thaw D replace that drive letter in the command line instructiony above ContourCAM 2D and 3D ContourCAM consists of an editor a two dimensional and a three dimensional system Usually it s both quicker and easier to create drawings in two dimensions rather than in three and this is fully exploited in ContourCAM since by using simple directions you can prepare three dimensional objects from two dimensional drawings You can of course create 3D objects by constructing them in 3D as well ContourCAM Setup Once you have installed ContourCAM on top of DesignCAD 3D MAX you will probably be raring to start testing it out but before you can actually start turning out products or prototypes on your CNC device you will have to configure ContourCAM thoroughly Not only will you need to closely consult the next chapter ContourCAM Configuration but you will need the manual for your machinery as well Introduction 2 ContourCAM Sources of Information About ContourCAM Sources of Information About ContourCAM You can learn about ContourCAM in various ways The supplementary learning tools are the tutorial in Chapters 7 and 8 of this manual the online Help system and the sample drawings We recommend that you read the manual thoroughly so you don t miss any of the details that make ContourCAM exceptional The User s Guide The User s Guide consists of 6 chapters describing the functionallity of ContourCAM
56. e ge OA pk 5 Q a Q Q oe Q 3 Pes Es BS ES EN SSE 4 Now the screen shows a drawing as the one in the figure Now imagine that the holes must be prepared as follows First operation Should be a pilot drilling then you want to make a deep hole drilling and at last you are to prepare for a tapping be sure you have defined the cycles necessary before making this exercise Under ContourCAM from the main menu you choose Milling and then Add Click Boring etc and the dialog in the figure is displayed 7 22 ContourCAM 7 3 9 Machine cycles AS the dialog shows ContourCAM Operation ud has already observed the size of the holes D20 Now you are to define the operations to be executed on the id ae given holes Click Add and a new i Default Lib Feed dialog will be displayed Tool Machine cycle drilling Parameters Start height 20 000 Depth 22 000 Cancel The first operation to be executed Operation must be a pilot drilling First choose Teel the tool you wish to use for the a Spindle operation in question in this example the tool is named Pinol ep Feed you have defined your tool for pilot drilling and saved it under another name you just select this tool Machine cycle Deep Hole Drilling Parameters 1 From your list of tools select the tool meant for pilot drilling Total de th 35 000
57. e in the menu Communication Before the reception can start you must enter a filename and where you want the received to be saved If a start code is entered in the postprocessor all data up to and including the start code will not be saved Also if a stop code is stated all data received after the stop code will not be saved the stop code itself will not be saved either User s Guide 3 1 Serial Communication FA ContourCaAM Serial Communication a File Communication Help Lines transmitted D POST FANUC m Senal settings Fort COM Baudrate 9600 Databits 7 Stopbits 1 Parity EWEN Handshake Hard soft r File name Editor Tram iting 3 2 Transmission via serial port Transmission to an external unit is activated either by pressing the transmit button or by choosing Transmit from the Communication menu If a file is no loaded using Files Open you will be asked to enter the filename of what is to be transmitted If software handshake is used data will not be transmitted until the ready signal XON is received from the external unit However transmission can be activated by pressing send again 3 3 Transmission to a file If you choose Transmit to file from the menu Communication the result will be saved in a file instead of being transmitted to the serial port This can be useful if ContourCAM is not used for serial communication as comments are removed and line numbers can be added Start and stop
58. e over point between each infeed Otherwise the drill will only be lifted the safety distance between each infeed When you entered the values the NC program generated will be placed on the position of the cursor 2 3 7 Mirror in This command is used to mirror an NC program round the X axis This means that negative x values becomes positive and positive x values become negative The command has no dialog since it is very simple If you want to mirror a program round the x axis where for instance x 10 this is done by the following sequence Use the command Mirror X Use the command Offset and offset the program with the value 10 along the x axis The program has now been mirrored round the x axis with x 10 2 3 8 Mirror Y This command is used to mirror an NC program round the y axis This means that negative y values becomes positive and positive y values becomes nega tive The command has no dialog since the function is so simple User s Guide 7 ContourCAM Editor If you want to mirror a program round the y axis with y 20 this is done by the following sequence e Use the command Mirror Y e Use the command Offset and offset the program 20 along the y axis The program has now been mirrored round the y axis with y 20 2 3 9 Rotate This command is used to rotate an NC Rotate program a number of degrees round a stated point This command has a dialog 007 looks like this one Degrees Enter how ma
59. e specified relative to the current position of the tool Polar All coordinates are stated as polar with radius in the first axis and the angle in the second axis Only available with ISO User s Guide 1 5 ContourCAM Configuration 1 5 1 2 Coordinate t ab Edit Postprocessor In this tab adjustments of coor Format Coordinates Options Decimal dinates are placed Endpoint Circle options 2 Endpoint Axis 1 Here Amis 1 HE Scale 7 0000 Center coordinates you enter the character for the 1 axis normally X e Endpoint Axis 2 Here Anis 3 zo Scale 1 0000 you enter the character for the 2 axis normally Y e Endpoint Axis 3 Here you enter the character for 6 2 J the 3 axis normally 2 hyja 2 a Scale ooo C Radius coordinates Radius letter IR m Center point eat a W Space between coordinates e Endpoint Scale For each coordinate you enter a factor which the coordinates in your drawing will be multiplied by before written in the NC code Normally the factor will be 1 e Center point Axis 1 Here you enter the character for the 1 axis of the center coordinates normally I e Center point Axis 2 Here you enter the character for the 2 axis of the center coordinates normally J e Center coordinates If center coordinates is selected arcs will always be written with a specified center This will not influence reading of NC code Only ISO format Radius coordinates If radius c
60. e that you would like to include in your editor you select include file in the menu Select the file in the directory and the file will be inserted at the cursors posi tion Include File Look in 00 carpet cn carpettest cn E contour cn contour 10 cm Helmet 15 cn I50 Corner cn magictriml cn magictrim cn Cutting Priorities 2 cn test2 cn Helmet 14 cn Testen File name 02 08 Files of type Files Open as read only Cancel EA ContourGAM Serial Communication File Communication Help Lines received POST FANUC gt Seral settings Port COM Baud rate JBOD D atabits 7 Stopbits 1 Parity EWEN Handshake Hard soft File name Editor Receiving 2 2 Search functions 2 1 4 Include from Serial The command Include from Serial is located in the Edit menu This is one of two ways to receive via the serial port In this way the received data will be inserted at the cursors position in the actual window The editor will be locked until the serial transmission has ended either by itself or by the user For more detail see section 2 4 1 As in any other editor you can also search and replace texts in the ContourCAM editor You also have the option to swap two different texts However it is not possible to search for texts that exceeds one line The dialogs for the three search functions search replace and swap are made on the
61. e where the NC program is saved Automatically a name corre Cancel Help sponding to the name of the drawing is suggested If you do not enter a certain path the file will be saved in the directory stated in the postprocessor or in the configuration of ContourCAM If the file name has no extension the default exten sion will be added automatically Browse Can be used if you wish to have an overlook of the files already existing exit by lt Esc gt or if you wish to overwrite an existing file exit by lt Enter gt Postprocessor Here you choose the postprocessor you wish to use The default postprocesssor will be preselected the first time after the last one used 5 5 Milling In the following the preparation processes available for milling in 2 and 212D will be described e Milling of a toolpath Milling of a contour Pocket milling Boring etc Engraving User s Guide 5 9 ContourCAM 2D 5 5 1 Milling of a toolpath The toolpath process is used to directly convert the lines and arc of the drawing to movements in the NC program This is the process that comes closest to directly programming on the control in that you have to draw each horizontal movement you want the milling machine to perform most of the vertical move ment are generated automatically Operation starts at each start number by descending to working level then the geometry is followed using the standard rules for path finding describe
62. e written only when it changes Always states that feed rate must be written with every movement in the NC code This is specially used by older Heidenhain controls Never states that feed rates will never be included in the NC code Dec in feed Here you specify with how many decimals the feed rate should be written in the NC code This only influences the output format NC code and simulator 1 5 1 4 Decimal tab In the decimal tab you state Edit Postprocessor how decimal numbers are Format Coordinates Options Decimal written in the NC code Sign of positive coordinate Number of decimals In Number of decimals E a this field you enter the number of digits to put after the decimal point Newer controls normally use 3 decimals while older controls often have a precision of 2 decimals W Decimal point 7 Space C Nothing Word length En Decimal point Indicates whether numbers are written using a decimal point this is normal for newer controllers or a fixed format If Decimal point is not selected the Number format field is enabled Sign of positive coordinate In this field you configure how positive coordinates are written Choosing implies that positive coordinates start with a e g X 100 Choosing Space implies that positive coordinates start with a space e g X 100 While Nothing implies that no sign precedes positive coordinates e g X100 Number format This field is only enabled if
63. ed warranties of liability for incidental or consequential damages so the above limitations or exclusions may not apply to you Article 4 Product Serial Number and Required Activation Many of the software programs Magic Systems produces contain a serial number and activation system designed to prevent unlicensed or illegal use of the software If this software contains such a system you agree that Magic Systems may use these measures to protect Magic Systems against software piracy Software using this system may contain technology that limits the ability to install and uninstall the software on a computer to not more than a finite number of times for a finite number of computers This License and the software containing this technology require activation as further set forth in the Installation program of the software The software using this system will only operate for a finite period of time prior to software activation by you During activation you will be asked to provide your unique product serial number provided with the soft ware over the Internet to verify the authenticity of the software If you do not complete the activation within the finite period of time as prompted by the soft ware the software will cease to function until activation is complete which will restore software functionality In the event that you are not able to activate the software over the Internet you may contact Magic Systems Customer Service via the telepho
64. elect the entity entities and press lt Enter gt Then set a point as reference on the object you have selected Then another point reference on the line you wish to use as reference line Now set a point on the target which refers to the point on the selected object then another point on the line that should refer to the line you selected on the subject Set a point for direction of the offset and finally enter the distance for the offset The selected object will be straightened to its reference parallel to the reference line on the target with the two reference points straightened to each other 5 4 2D NC programming In this section we describe ContourCAM s facilities for supporting CAM program ming in DesignCAD The philosophy behind ContourCAM is to make the gener ated NC code based on a drawing as complete as possible In a CAD program a drawing consist of some drawing elements lines circles text etc called entities When generating NC code based on a drawing one has to arrange the entities in a structured way so that the generated code is constructed in a reasonable way Typically a drawing can be read in more than one way The programmer can based upon his knowledge concerning the drawing chose the correct reading but a computer cannot Therefore it is important to Know the rules that ContourCAM employs when reading a drawing And it is these rules and the commands that use these rules we will describe in
65. elp Now you have filled in the dialog with general information for the course of the preparation Now click the flag Roughing since now you are to determine how you want to do the roughing When this is done the dialog in the figure is displayed Islands The islands to left is numbered 2 and 3 Enter 2 3 Tool From your list of tools you choose a tool with a diameter of 6 or some other tool you already defined Pocketing General Foughing Finishing Leadin Leadout Roughing Tool Default Lib Spindle 3000 Overlap 30 000 Feed 600 Infeed step 4 000 Descent Feed 3B Leave 5 000 No finish on sides Spindle Enter speed of the spindle 3000 Feed Enter feedrate 200 Overlap Enter 30 which is the overlap you wish for each path Infeed step Enter 5 for the maximum step in Z Tool SFP ii Default Lib Spindle IL Feed Descent feed E Cancel Radius compensation Control f Contou AM Infeed step Leave Enter 1 By this you state that you want 1 mm of material left for the final cut Now fill in Finishing to determine how the finishing should be made A new dialog is now displayed Help User s Guide 7 19 Tutorial ContourCAM 2D Pocketing General Roughing Finishing Leadin Leadout General Level change I For each level fe y Overshoot 2 000 7 Leadin Leadout f Circular C Linear Radius 0 000 Angle 60 000
66. ents to the actual process OF Cancel Help Been Be you can do it here The comment will be written in the NC program marked with apostrophes in front of the text User s Guide 5 19 ContourCAM 2D 5 6 2 Contour cutting The contouring process is used to cut one side of a contour with compensation for torch diameter You can do contouring on either open or closed geometries For open geometries you must specify which side to cut For closed geometries ContourCAM deter mines which are the internal and which are the external sides Thus it suffices for you to specify if you want to cut the inside or outside of the geometries and if you want to Comments cut clockwise or counter clockwise ContourCAM automatically gener ates lead ins and lead outs so you should not draw these Contour cutting General Conditions Name ontouring Layer Feed 100 Torch diameter Start numbers W All Now we take a look at the dialog for contouring The dialog for general adjustments is almost identical to the dialog for cutting paths the only difference being a field for entering the torch diameter Therefore we will only describe the tab Conditions where information special to contouring is entered The dialog is shown below Cancel Help Closed geometries By clicking the appropriate radio button it is decided whether the preparation of the closed contours should be performed clockwise or c
67. feed 4 66 777 infeed step Default value for ai Leave 0 000 infeed step Pocketing Default values only related to pocket milling Lead in The default settings for lead ins Direction Choose between climb and conventional milling e Radius compensation The default radius compensation Lead out The default settings for lead outs 1 3 Tool Library ContourCAM has two tool library one for milling machines and one for lathes 1 2 ContourCAM 1 3 1 Tools for milling machines 1 3 1 Tools for milling machines When you activate the milling tool library the dialog below appears Milling Tool Library Tools Here you have the list of all the tool Currently in the Type f Cutter library The tool that is M Dril highlighted is the one currently being edited aaa e Add Pressing this button lets Diameter 10 000 you add a tool to the library Rounding 5 000 Enter the name of the tool you aon E wish to add use aname which makes the tool easy to Maximum step recognize as Defaut e Type What type of tool Pame 06 E Dimensions The contents of Rees rate 300 000 this group depends on the type of the tool Cancel Help Diameter The diameter of the current tool i e twice the radius Rounding Enter a value between O the tool is flat and the tool s radius if the tool is ball faced Displacement Here you can enter the value of
68. giving examples of the various possibilities Some of the examples you will find as samples in the ContourCAM Samples Folder We also recom mend that you go through chapters 7 and 8 which will guide you through some examples of how ContourCAM works Chapter 7 concerns 2D CAM plus a number of excellent drawing and editing additions and chapter 8 is about 3D CAM The Online Help System ContourCAM offers a complete online Help system You can access it from the Help command on the Main menu In addition context sensitive help lets you press Fl anywhere within the program for help on that area The Sample Drawings ContourCAM comes with a number of sample drawings located in the ContourCAM Samples subdirectory These drawings include examples of the various facilities that ContourCAM offers as well as files for the lessons of the tutorials Chapters 7 and 8 We hope you will enjoy your new software User s Guide Introduction 3 Getting Started Introduction 4 ContourCAM ContourCAM Configuration In this chapter the program element ContourCAM Configuration is described Here the general setup of ContourCAM takes place Also here postprocessors are created and edited Finally the machine cycle library will be updated from this program 1 1 General settings By activating General in the menu Setup the dialog below appears ContourCAM Setup e NC code Here you enter in Directories which directory NC programs NC c
69. h the other entities From the intersection point three different entities branches off The semicircle and the lead out line both have a color lower than the horizontal line the toolpath is determined 3 Draw toolpath 3 Draw a line between the coordinates 20 10 and 40 10 Draw a semicircle as shown in the figure Draw the two lines representing lead in and lead with a lenght of 5mm each Attach the text 3 to the endpoint of the horizontal lead in ContourCAM reads the above as follows Go to start position no 3 Follow the first line to the intersection with the other entities Contrary to the previous example all entities have the same color Since circles has a higher priority than lines the toolpath automatically takes the circle before the lines The route is determined 4 Draw a Contour Draw a line between the coordinates 50 25 50 5 95 5 and 95 15 Draw a circle R25 and center in the coordinate 85 43 Using the command Fillet to point Edit Trim Fillet you now draw the upper fillet R18 and the lower with fillet R50 Trim the entities until you have a figure like the one in the drawing Attach the text 4 to the intersection point of the two upper arcs When milling a Contour the lead in and out are determined in the dialogs for contouring 5 Draw one more contour Draw a circle R8 and center in the coordinate 75 45 Draw one more circle R15 with the same center One more circle R2 5 with center in the coordinate 86 5 45
70. he exact measurement of the tool which is to be used for the actual prep aration In the following you are to define a tool and a drilling cycle The proce dure for defining tools as well as machine cycles is always the same why you should not have trouble setting up your own libraries once you examined the examples which follows 7 2 1 Definition of tools You have a tool ball nosed cutter with a diameter of 10 mm which you want to define for your tool library From the menu ContourCAM in Windows you choose ContourCAM Configuration whereupon the configuration dialog is displayed From the configuration dialog you ContourCAM Configuration choose Libraries and then Milling Setup Libraries Postprocessor Help tool library whereupon the dialog in the figure is displayed Contourl4hM Configuration Program Version 16 0 Full version Editor Enabled Simulator Enabled 20 Enabled 30 Enabled 4th asis Disabled User s Guide 7 Tutorial ContourCAM 2D Tool Milling Tool Library The window shows a list of all tools defined Since you have not Type yet defined any tool your window E Cutter will be empty Now choose the Dril flag Add since you want to add a Other tool to the library In the dialog Ese Orr now appearing you are to enter Diameter 10 000 the name under which you want to se enter the actual tool to your list of tools You are free to decide the Correction na
71. hen the points are set you are asked how many extra turns the spiral should have Press lt Enter gt if none If the start point is closer to the center than the stop point the spiral will be counter clockwise If the stop point is closer to the center than the start point the spiral will be clockwise 5 3 Nest commands These commands are used for repeating a geometry on a drawing The commands are useful when preparing a drawing for cutting All the commands described in this section can be found in the ContourCAM menu 5 3 1 Nest 1 Nest one Original object Set per a geometry to itself TAN Direction specification this command is used to nest an Fef point object with itself Handle Result First you must set two points used to LV enclose the object Then you seta point on the copy for handles then another point on the original asa reference point for the handle Next User s Guide 5 5 ContourCAM 2D you must set a point on the reference line and yet another as direction specifica tion for offset press lt Enter gt if you do not want a offset Finally the offset distance is entered The copy of the object will be placed with the specified offset parallel to the refer ence line 5 3 2 Nest 2 Nest two geometries to each Original abject Set these points other Pan Direction specification Ref point E Handle This command is used when nesting two different objects against each other First s
72. hen you want to follow the program and spot where the presumed error occurs Simulation gt Restart This restarts the current NC program If for example you have been simulating a program and want to start all over again this can be achieved in one of two ways Open the same program again or select this entry in the menu Simulation gt Clear This clears the simulation windows Machine Status A x 98 240 View gt Machine status This shows the machine status Y 83 925 at the current point of the simulation 7 10 000 View gt Info This shows length cut rapid move ment and work time at the current point in the Length cut 12160 simulation Rapid movement 595 View gt NC line This shows the NC line at the Line of NC program x current point of the simula GO X 79 5 Y 55 1410 5 J 22 136 tion 4 2 ContourCAM Layout You can choose between these layouts EA ContourlaAM NC Simulator File Simulation View 5 Window Help Al d 8 FA View 2 pa User s Guide 4 3 NC Simulator 4 4 ContourCAM ContourCAM 2D In this chapter we will describe 2D CAM programming using ContourCAM This consists of a number of commands added to DesignCAD These extensions make it possible to generate and read NC code and expands DesignCAD s drawing facilities Be aware that layers 50 and 254 shouldn t be used since some of ContourCAM s command
73. his command draws an arc from a point to a line circle The arc drawn will be tangent to the line circle pt 1 When activating this command pt 2 you should set a point close to the line circle that the arc should be tangent to Next set a point indicating where the arc should start and a point in the direction of the center of the arc Finally enter the radius of the arc Fillet to point will now draw the short arc being tangent to the line circle you have specified and with center close the point you specified 5 1 4 Delete all but selected color Menu Edit gt Magic Deletes This command is very useful if you receive a drawing from a customer or the drawing office stored on a disk Usually colors are used to separate elements on a drawing For example one color for text and another for geometries Typically only one color is used for the toolpaths To delete everything on the drawing except elements with a specific color simply set a point close to a element having the color you want to keep in the drawing User s Guide 3 ContourCAM 2D 5 1 5 Delete but selected Delete all except what 5 selected Menu Edit gt Magic Deletes When activating this command you are requested to select the elements you want to keep When pressing enter all other elements are being deleted 5 2 Drawing commands Drawing commands are used when creating new entities on a drawing Most of our additions supplemen
74. ile Simulation view Layout Window Help S Jg aalala tl 0x you choose the command Send program the program will be transmitted to your own your CNC unit Try to make some other examples of pocket milling 7 3 9 Machine cycles In this chapter we shall see how it is possible to make use of the cycles available in the controller of your machine and possibly to call those cycles during the phase of construction 1 Draw a circle radius 10 with the center in the coordinate X25 Y25 2 In the tool box you choose array ordering and select the circle you just drew Press enter 3 In the field in the upper left corner you enter 5 as number of copies 4 Then enter 3 as number of rows 5 Click the field Use original as first copy active when marked with a cross 6 Set a point in the coordinate X50 Y25 for the placement of the second copy 7 Then set a new point in the coordinate X25 Y50 for placing the rows User s Guide 7 21 Tutorial ContourCAM 2D DesignCaAD 3D MAX 15 Boring ded main File Edit View Plugins Tools Options Draw Point Dimension Solids ContourCAM Animation Window Help Gt Oe 5 3 3 2 t 4 AS 0 amp w x 68 97 4233 DX 0 pf 0 Di o al 0 20mm 30mm 40mm 50mm 60mm 70mm 80mm 30mm 100mm 110mm 120mm 130mm q 4 E 2 9 e 5 A F a o
75. ill appear Igu WI Engraving Tool Safety distance i 000 Defaut Spinde un Depth o 000 Tool From the list of tools you Lib choose the tool you wish to use for anr Step 0 000 i Feed sp the engraving Descent Feed Laper Spindle Enter the speed of the 3D Image spindle C ctwintub ded Feed Enter the speed of feed r Limiting plane 1 Decent feed Feed by vertical None J movements in the material C 1st transmission profile eo oo Safety distance Enter the distance to the surface in mm 0 where movements in rapid traverse OK Cancel Help are allowed Depth Enter the depth into the surface to do the engraving Step Enter the length of the linear movements All movements of the drawing will be divided into line segments of this length to be able to follow the surface Layer Enter the number of the layer where the text drawing to be engraved into the surface is drawn 3D Image Here you enter the file name for the 3D image of the snake If you check the make 3D image option on page one ContourCAM will generate a DesignCAD 3D drawing of the surface defined by the snake You can use this drawing to verify that the snake does indeed define the surface you intended Furthermore you can use it for shading to make a dashing model of the resulting item 6 10 ContourCAM 6 2 Milling Carpet EA ContourCAM NC Simulator File Simulation View Lay
76. illing on lathes Most controllers on new turning machines contain machine cycles to for deep hole boring However there are still many older controls without this facility In ContourCAM there is a command to generate NC code for deep hole boring on a lathe Before activating the command a window in the Editor must be open and alsoa postprocessor must be selected When the command is activated a dialog as shown in the figure appears 2 6 ContourCAM 2 3 Mirror in X e Change over point Here you enter the point where the feed rate should start Final depth The final Name aI depth of the hole Tool Changeover First infeed The initial ILT10 l Final depth infeed depth The sign is ignored Last infeed The Spindle First infeed step final infeed depth Ifa value Feed l is entered it must be Lest ifen see smaller numerically than Sately distance 7 the initial infeed depth ContourCAM will calculate the intervening infeed Comment depths so they gradually decrease and the final will be approximately as entered If nothing is entered the same infeed depth will be used during Cancel Hep the whole process I Full withdraw between infeeds e Safety distance Here you enter the distance from the material where the program switches from rapid traverse to feed rate e Full withdraw between infeeds If you check this option the drill will be moved to the chang
77. ine iti eas Saananadvanab ns Gascued ated AS 2 8 2 4 Calling external programsS cccccceccescesseeeeeeeeeeeeeeaueeanes 2 8 2 4 T Recel 2 8 2 SCN POJA eea raves seat aehiiee data eeeeeieauu 2 9 2 4 3 OCMC TOTS aicoinsrarcntetcersaaseaneeundiaincbigddaneeeicnediutowteatng 2 9 2 4 4 Simulate NC Program cccccceceeeeeeeeeeeseeeeeesaeeanes 2 9 20 OOD PrOgr rann N G 0 8 2 9 Chapter 3 Serial Communication 3 1 Reception from a Serial port 167 3 1 3 2 Transmission via a Serial port c ce cccceeee eee eeeeeeeeeeeeeaees 3 2 3 3 TRANSMISSION TO Tile eana a a aaa 3 2 Chapter 4 NC Simulator Chapter 5 COntourCAM 2D Dal siira on tcemcatielindictesundaadits 5 1 5 1 1 MabicTrim Trimming more elements sna 5 2 5 1 2 Fillet 2 Draw an arc tangent to line circle 5 2 5 1 3 Fillet to point Draws an arc through a point tangent 00 5 3 5 1 4 Delete all but selected COlor ccccccceeeeseeneeeees 5 3 5 1 5 Delete but selected Delete all except what is SCIECIEG scare araia s 005005050 5 4 5 2 DFAWING 5 4 5 2 1 LinePDXY Relative line ccccceceeeceeeeeeeeeeenees 5 4 5 2 2 2 Draw 0 ene eared 5 5 5 2 3 DRAW a spral socere n aaraa 5 5 Dio NESECOMNANGS wetter traa dactauntinadetaucaianeins 5 5 5 3 1 Nest 1 Nest one geometry to itself 008 5 5 5 3 2 Nest 2 Nes
78. ing Sort coordinates implies that the coordinates in the NC code will be sorted alphabetically Endpoints and center coordinates separately Otherwise they will be written sorted according to their axis number Normally coordinates are sorted by the axis but lathes for instance may require that the coordinates be sorted alphabetically 2 Axis milling only 2 Axis milling only is used when a milling machine can only control two axes simultaneously ContourCAM will then generate all movements in all 3 axes as 2 movements If 2 axis milling only has been chosen then the Move axes together field is enabled e Quadrant circles Quadrant circles are used if a CNC machine only accepts arcs within a quadrant ContourCAM will then divide arcs passing through more than one quadrant into a number of arcs e Agie sequence States that the NC code is meant for an AGIE erosion machine The reason why an AGIE machine must be treated in a special way is that the NC code does not come in the same order as the preparation path If you have an AGIE erosion machine you ought to be aware that the simulation of AGIE programs reflects the exchange of lines in the NC code The example of a postprocessor for AGIE shows the configuration of an AGIE e Move axes together This field is used to describe how simultaneously movements with three axes are to be generated for CNC machines only able to move two axes at the same time This field is only selectable if 2 ax
79. ing the dialog boxes for configuring E postprocessors will be described a Tool Library DE Machine cycles 1 5 1 Postprocessor format When the format of the postprocessor is to be stated a dialog box containing 4 tabs appears The following sections will describe each tab separately 1 5 1 1 Format tab Under this tab the general Format Coordinates Options Decimal format of the NC code is selected Edit Postprocessor Description Sets the general NC 50 The 150 format is available in three variants with 2 absolute coordinates with absolute endpoints format to be ISO which and relative center and with all relative means G codes C Heidenhain 0 Heidenhain Sets the Machine type Options general NC format for C Essi f Milling Absolute Heidenhain controls C Turning Relative center Cutting C Relative Essi Adjustment to ESSI C Polar controls Milling machine Indicates that the CNC machine is a milling machine Therefore up and down movements between different milling tasks will be generated automatically Turning machine Indicates that the machine is a Turning machine e Cutting machine Indicates that it is a flame laser or plasma cutting machine e Absolute All coordinates are specified from the origin Relative center Centers of circles are specified relative to the current position endpoints from the origin Only available with ISO Relative All coordinates ar
80. iority color than the start entity For example if the start entity is black highest priority the end entity can have any non gray scale color e g blue To get to desired result the second transmission profile must be 44 7 mm lower than the first To obtain this we must offset the 2nd transmission profile 44 7 in Z This is done on the 3rd page of the snake process see of the previous lesson In this case we enter 44 7 in the Z field of the 2nd transmission profile all the other fields are left empty 8 10 ContourCAM 8 6 A basin DesignCAD 3D MAX 16 A Basin 3D ded File Edit View Plugins Tools Options Draw Point Dimension Solids ContourC4M Animation Window Help 4 2 6BRB Soe e D 8 oz 0 DI 8 0 ox 193 Y 10093 afz Perspective 20 0 5 ee 000 800000 6 5 9 gt gt Ej A Basin 3D ded front 3 E A Basin 3D ded main 5690 8 x EY q i AN aN k j 1 My a Wk zy Med A Vee 1 if 0 i AA NN NN any 8 q Rat Ak A MURALI SA Test ALS pee et ale a THRI i Bint EH y i He 6 1 H UT jia 8 4 Bs ah aa Fl PRN UTS F ea 1 Bs SO ANII ee ih es KTERE PA SY ear Tn H x x 5 XX 1 x Wann LAM UNI Meen
81. is milling is active 3 always alone tells that the third axis must always be moved alone meaning if the movement of the third axis is negative then axis 1 and 2 are moved first followed by the third and the opposite if the third axis is moved positive By Shortest path the combination of axes leading to the shortest movement is chosen This possibility is used if the machine is able to work with two arbitrary axes e Start letter States the letter preceding the line number which normally User s Guide 7 ContourCAM Configuration is the letter N If itis a Heidenhain control there will be no start character Number of digits No of digits states how many digits the line number should contain If No of digits for instance is 4 then the line number 10 will be written as NOO10 while O as No of digits states that only the necessary number of digits Should be written Start number Start number states which line number to start with Step Step states the step between succeeding line numbers Wrap after If the control has a maximum allowed line number it can be stated here When generating NC code the line number count will be reset when the indicated number is exceeded Lineno before L If this option is not checked N numbers are not added to lines starting with L This only applies to the ISO format Feed options This field states how ContourCAM should specify feed rates in the NC code Modal states that the feed rate should b
82. kes in DesignCAD 2D and later we will discuss snake programming in DesignCAD 3D The first to do when construction a snake is to draw the profiles You determine what is to be the transmission profile and the shift profiles Using DesignCAD s drawing facilities you draw the profiles all profiles must be in the same drawing and reside in the same layer When the profiles are constructed you specify using text which are transmis sion and shift profiles For each shift profile there must be a text on the transmis sion profile s specifying what shift is to be attached at this point and how many line pieces the profile should be divided into until the next specification When using the snake modules the following rules must be observed 6 2 ContourCAM 6 1 2 Basic snake programming e The profiles may only consists of lines and arcs If a profile drawn using e g acurve this must be vectorized before the snake can be generated e Oneach profile text are attached at the start point of the geometry The text contains information on what profile it is and how many pieces the profile should be divided into It is important that texts are attached to the endpoint of an entity otherwise ContourCAM will not be able to make the connection between the text and the entity If you want to attach a text to an internal point of a polyline you must break the polyline at this point 6 1 2 Basic snake programming When programming snakes in De
83. le and female part The opposite of the one you programmed will be generated if you select this option Cancel Help Transition Linear If you choose to connect the cuts by lines the movements between each cut will be linear which means that you will have an edged object Smooth If you want a smooth transmission between the cuts you activate this option Adjustments Full scaling By full scaling the cut profiles will be scaled in XYZ to fit between the two transmission profiles Example if a semi circle is bigger than the distance between the two transmission profiles the form of the object will still be a semi circle X scaling By x scaling it is understood that the cut profile does not change the y and z values during the scaling Example If the cut profile is a semi circle bigger than the distance between the two transmission profiles the cut will change to an ellipse with the same max radius as the radius of the original semi circle Twisting By twisting it is understood that the sides of the cut profiles will be perpendicular to the transmission profiles Do The processes which you activate will be generated Comments Under Comments you can add information to the general adjust ments When you filled out the dialog with the general information you choose the flag Technology and the dialog in the figure is displayed User s Guide 7 ContourCAM 3D Snake General Technology Offset Fiotate Misc
84. mands always does projection This is because bending with true length is only possible in single curved surfaces The object to be bend should be in a layer for itself in the same drawing as the snake Bending is especially useful for putting text onto a 3D surface for engraving 6 1 5 Creating a snake process Snake processes are added to an NC program much the same way as pocket milling contouring processes etc You activate the process control for milling from then menu ContourCAM gt Milling in DesignCAD Then press the Add button and select Snake 6 6 ContourCAM 6 1 5 Creating a snake process Name Enter the name of the oper ation to be carried out snake Layer Enter the number of the layer General Technology Offset Ratate Misc where the actual drawing is saved Nme EZ 7700000000 Follow tangent of transmission Layer f1 profile If this option is checked it 00 means that the cut profiles regard Follow tangent of transmission profiler Roughing less of the form of the transmission Make inverse surface iv Finishing profile always must be placed Engraving Transitions Adjustment perpendicular in proportion to it If the option is unchecked the cuts must follow the turning of the trans mission profile i 3D image 0 Linear Full scaling Smooth 1 amp scaling C Twisting Make inverse surface Choose Comments this option if you are to produce for instance a mold consisting of a ma
85. me of your tool just be sure that Maximum stef 7 the name you use is as unequiv Add 6 ocal as possible so it is easy Rename Spindle 3000 recognizable ieee Feed ete 00000 Cancel Help Tool Name ed In this example we named the tool 10MB diameter 10 miller ball nosed If you want to another name just do so When you have Name entered the name you click the OK button and return to the library dialog itself where you can see the tool you just defined has gt 8 been added to your list of tools Type With the mouse you click in the field just beside Cutter Dimensionns Now you determine exactly what the tool looks like Diameter Enter 10 D10 Rounding Enter 5 if you enter O as the rounding the tool is flat Displacement Enter the possible value compared with the measuring tool Maximum step Here it is possible to enter a maximum value for the infeed step valid for this particular tool Defaults It is possible to define default values for the speed of the spindle and for the feedrate of the actual tool If a tool is defined with default values those values will be transferred to the dialog from where you call it automatically Spindle Enter 3000 as speed of the spindle Feed Enter 300 as default feedrate Click the OK button Now you have defined a ball nosed milling tool with default values for speed of spindle and feedrate Try to define some more of the tools you may have at you
86. minate Subsequente coordinates cycle you now enter the ae parameters of the controller needed to carry out the ee actual cycle Try to define ae illi atal dep more drilling cycles yourself Infeed step Safety distance Dwell time Terminate cycle Geo 52 ch 4 5 6 7 9 10 7 3 Examples for NC generation 7 3 1 Preparation of a drawing for NC generation In this example you will learn how by using ContourCAM you define a geometry from a concrete task We will follow the performance from receiving a drawing from a customer until you are ready to transmit the final NC code to the controller 7 10 ContourCAM 7 3 1 Preparation of a drawing for NC generation 7 3 1 1 The construction phase In the figure you see the task you are to solve You decide to start in the coordinate 10 0 State the origin in the coordi nate 10 10 150 0 1 Draw a line lt Ctrl gt V through the points 0 0 and 150 0 2 Draw a circle with radius 10 and center in 15 2 3 Draw a circle with radius 20 and center in 70 2 4 Draw a circle with radius 10 and center in 130 2 5 Draw a line from 150 0 to 130 45 6 Draw a circle with radius 20 and center in 130 40 75 7 Draw a circle with radius 10 and center in 10 30 8 Draw a vertical line lt Ctrl gt V starting at 0 0 and make Sure it is sufficiently long 9 Choose the Fillet 2 command from the Edit Trim menu Set
87. nate ta Drect nals uadeyecdwoa ten 1 6 Te Deae bere a neue ti eGhee aE 1 7 15 14 06 eee 1 8 1 5 2 Sequences in the 5100 1 9 1 2 Sta DN sete cae icine cana e 1 10 1 2 a veaxeicinches E a aa 1 10 1 40 29 oi seaisnetinn oeshotw E 1 11 1 2 MISCHA eaaa 1 11 12973 erea EN cea daee 1 11 FOS AD a cause E 1 12 2 e T 1 12 1 95 33 aa E TET 1 14 TOO Orai eaa E 1 14 10 9 MacNN CYGCICS siina ao A Aa 1 15 1 6 Assign default POStDrOCESSOTL cccccceeeeeeeeeeeneeeeneeeaees 1 16 Chapter 2 ContourCAM Editor 2 2 1 2 1 1 Short cuts while editing cccc cece eee eeeeeeeeeeeeees 2 2 2 1 2 Hot keys in ContourCAM 00 2 3 2 TGs sira an A A aaditanthe trae 2 4 User s Guide Table of contents 1 2 1 4 Include from 2 4 2 2 SEACH TURC 2 4 2 HORS ana aa a NN 2 5 2 3 1 Choose pOStproceSSoOfr cccceeee see eeeeeeeeeeeeateeeaeeees 2 5 2 3 2 Dimension offset a ssnnasnnrrnonrnrrrrnnrrrrnrnrrrrnnnnne 2 6 2 3 3 Remove Line 1611111111 2 6 2 3 4 Add Line NumMberS sassssnnnsnnnnnnnnrnrrnerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrennne 2 6 2 3 5 Insert start Stop SEQUENCES cccceeeeeeeeeeaeeaees 2 6 23 0 DAING Onm ere et hatlusece e 2 6 ZO II Aaaien avant aneeauk eed eee iad eee Re rae nena 2 7 213 7 WINTON Yesa a esses a 2 7 2 iO TROLLS ic
88. ne cycle are shown First coordinate Here you enter the NC code for initiating the machine cycle including the first coordinate You can refer to the values of the parameters using the system variables 1 2 etc To get the coordinates X and Y are used in addition all other system variables can be used see section O e Subsequent coordinates Here you enter the code sequence for the remaining coordinates e Terminate cycle Here possible NC codes that end the use of the machine cycle can be entered User s Guide 5 ContourCAM Configuration 1 6 Assign default postprocessor In ContourCAM you can assign a postprocessor to be default in a directory This means that all files in that directory by default will have this postprocessor attached You can assign a postprocessor to any number of directories but there can be only one postprocessor assigned to each directory If you assign two postprocessors to the same directory only the last one will Count You activate this command from the post processor menu A dialog as shown Assign postprocessor to directory Ed appears m Directory e Directory The directory to be assigned the postprocessor Postprocessor The postprocessor you wish to assign to the given Postpracessar directory FANUC e Assign When you press this button a file indicating the default ese Bee postprocessor for the entered directory 1 16 ContourCAM ContourCA
89. ne to complete the activation process using the information provided by Magic Systems during activation or as may be set forth in the docu mentation Article 5 General 1 You may not sub license assign or transfer the license or the program except as expressly provided in this Agreement Any attempt otherwise to sub license assign or transfer any of the rights duties or obligations hereunder is void 2 This Agreement will be governed by the laws of the Sweden and you agree that any claims regarding the software shall be brought in Sweden and waive any objections to jurisdiction in the Swedish Courts 3 You acknowledge that Swedish laws prohibit the export re export of technical data of Swedish origin including software and agree that you will not export or re export the software without the appropriate Swedish and foreign government license COPYRIGHT ContourCAM is copyright 1997 2005 Magic Systems DesignCAD 3D MAX DesignCAD Express and the IMSI logo are registered trade marks of IMSI Adobe Acrobat and the Acrobat logo are trademarks of Adobe Systems Incor porated which may be registered in certain jurisdictions Flash is a registered trademark of Macromedia Introduction Getting Started Introduction ContourCAM is a powerful CAM addition to DesignCAD 3D MAX DesignCAD is developed purely as a drawing system and has been given several awards Because of the incredible capacity and because it i
90. nique offers the following e Generation of finishing programs for 3D surfaces e Generation of roughing programs for 3D surfaces e The NC programs can be radius compensated for every thing from end to ball cutters with check for undercutting e Engraving in 3D surfaces e Generation of DesignCAD 3D drawings showing what the surface will look like A snake is described by one or two transmission profiles and a number of shift profiles If it is possible to describe each profile in one plane only you can draw them using DesignCAD 2D if not the profiles must be drawn in DesignCAD 3D Once the profiles are constructed and you have told what is transmission and what are shift profiles the snake program is started and ContourCAM will generate the surface Before we start describing the details of the snakes you must gain an under standing of what transmis sion and shift profiles are If we imagine that we were to make a program ofa snake the animal that is the transmission profile would be the spine of the snake The shift profiles would be cross sections at the head and tail as shown in the above illustration User s Guide 6 1 ContourCAM 3D If the snake had just eaten it would bulge in the middle In this case it would not be enough to describe the snake using two shift profile 4 or more are required to describe such a shape as shown in the above illustration It is possible to use more than 2 shift profiles
91. nology Offset Rotate Misc will see how to make transmission 1 on prone profiles that do not lie in the XY Offset Rotation lane When they have been p y 2 Angle 90 000 rotated the two transmission x E profiles will be parallel which is the Direction 180 000 cause for the shift profiles to have the same width Make a drawing similar to that shown in Activate the milling command and add a snake process On the first uncheck the option Follow tangent of trans Angle 90 000 mission profile This makes the shift 1 Direction profiles stand vertical If this option is checked they will be rotated according to the tangent of the transmission profiles m transmission profile Offset Rotation Cancel Help DesignCAD 3D MAX 16 Rotating Transmission Profiles 3D dcd File Edit Yiew Plugins Tools Options Draw Point Dimension Solids ContourCAM Animation Window Help 4 ome a wil i 3 5 0 0 2 0 0 955 2 3971 Y 6 1 Perspective f20 0c e 5 50 00 5 000 8 6 9 gt gt E Rotating Transmission Profiles 3D Seg Ej Rotating Transmission Profiles 3D ded main ARN PANIN PAY s 1 7 caang i 0 S 2 0 Select Mode Unitless 0 975 3D WIREFRAME DEFAULT WP User s Guide 8 9 Tutorial ContourC
92. not known 4 Absolute X is not Known User s Guide 3 Tutorial ContourcCAM 2D 5 Relative Y 70 6 Absolute Y is not known 7 1 4 Delete all but specified color 1 Draw a circle radius 40 with center in X90 Y60 2 Change color to red in the color table lt H gt Draw a circle radius 35 and the same center 3 Change color to blue and draw a circle radius 30 and the same center 4 Choose Edit and from there the command Delete but one color You are now asked to set a point on an entity with the color you wish to keep 5 Set a point on the blue circle The circles drawn in different colors are now removed automatically 7 1 5 MagicTrim Possibilities Example 1 The command MagictTrim is acti vated from the menu Edit gt Trim 4 Fillet MagicTrim is a general command for trimming where you point out the elements you want to be represented in your milling path for instance MagicTrim automatically removes those part elements which are not part of the final item 2 When activating the command you are to set points on the part elements you wish to be repre sented in the final preparation path You are to set a point close to the intersection point with the following entity inside that part of the entity which is not to be cut off In the example you can see succession of the entities and the position of the points When you have set a point on all the entities you wish to keep press lt
93. ny degrees the Rotation centre program must be rotated A positive 10 000 number for clockwise rotation and a negative number for counter clockwise i o oo rotation eX Enter the x coordinate for the center Cancel Help of the rotation Standard value O eY Enter the y coordinate for the center of the rotation Standard value O Please note that a rotation round O 0 of 180 degrees is not the same as mirror in Y 2 4 Calling external programs Serial communication and simulation of NC programs take place in two external programs To make it easier for the user two short cuts have been made to these programs These shortcuts can be found in the CAM menu 2 4 1 Receive program Activating this command enables you to receive a program from the control Serial Communication is activated and it then waits for data to receive If you switch back to the editor or another program Serial Communication continue in the background When Serial Communication has received a whole program a new window containing the received program will be opened in the editor For more details see chapter 6 2 8 ContourCAM 2 4 2 Send program 2 4 2 Send program This Command activates Serial Communication which will immediately start sending the contents of the active window in the editor Transmission will also run in the background For more details see chapter 3 2 4 3 Send to file This command s functionality is the same as Send
94. o add comments to the actual process you can do it here The comment will be written in the NC program marked with apostrophes C in front of the text 5 5 2 Milling of contours The contouring process is used to mill one side of a contour You can do contouring on either open or closed geometries For open geometries you must specify which side to mill For closed geometries ContourCAM determines what is the internal and external sides Thus it suffices to specify if you want to mill the inside or outside of the geometries and if you want to use climb or conventional milling ContourCAM automatically generates lead ins and lead outs so you should not draw these User s Guide 5 11 ContourCAM 2D Now we are to look at the dialog for contouring The dialog for general adjust ments is identical to the dialog for toolpath milling therefore we will only describe the tab Conditions where information special to contouring is entered The dialog is shown below Closed geometries By clicking in the appropriate radio button you Contig decide whether the preparation of General Conditions Leadin leadout the closed contours should be l Name EEEE 00000 performed using climb or conven ee Lyh Tool tional milling and also if the prepara lark gt Li tion should be carried out on the Material poi internal or external side or the Material top 0 000 Spinde contours If the process only applies Total depth 1 0 0
95. o the tool number for one of the values If you want to place the values of the radius compensation with an offset you can enter the offset here 1 14 ContourCAM 1 5 5 Machine cycles e Add length index Here you can enter an offset for the length compensation index e Tool list This list shows all the tools you have defined for the current type of postprocessor Position Here you can enter the position for the current tool If you enter a number other than zero this will be the tool number used for this tool If you leave this field empty ContourCAM automatically assigns a position number when the tool is used e Not available Checking this option will prevent this tool from being used with this postprocessor 1 5 5 Machine cyc les Machine Cycle Available machine cycles First coordinate Under machine cycles you G83 212 1 131 0141 VIS Fifed define how the current post Ki Y processor generates code for the machine cycles defined in the machine cycle library see section 1 4 Subsequente coordinates e Machine cycles 1 iy available Here you Parameters choose the machine Start height cycle to be changed Total depth Notice that the whe 5 0 contents of the Dwell tine remaining fields are changed when a new machine cycle is selected but the changes for all machine cycles are stored Terminate cycle Geo al 2 5 4 Sp 6 6 3 10 Parameter Here parameters defined for the current machi
96. ode EE should be placed by default This can be overwritten in the DesignlAD 30 c Program Files SID esign CAD 3D M s postprocessors Default postprocessor F T mo olerance e DesignCAD 3D Here you enter FANUC where DesignCAD 3D MAX is i E 9 Default extension cn installed Options Units Default postprocessor Here you enter which postprocessor willbe preselected in commands that require the choice ofa eee Cancel Help postprocessor ers Een Bea Default extension Here you can enter an extension that automatically is added to file names of NC programs for which there is no extension specified e Tolerance As the NC code is generated a path through a given geometry is found If the geometry has small gabs between some entities the tolerance can be set to for instance 1 200 with the result that the geometry will be regarded as unbroken provided that the gab between two entities is 0 005 mm or less 1 200 0 005 File include character When the NC program is transmitted from the editor to an external unit e g a CNC unit the editor will read files to be included in the NC program In this field you enter which sign in the NC code indicates that the following text is a file name which is to be included when transmitting Normally P is used but some times it can be necessary to choose another Notice that files which are to be included must be entered on 8 line of their own W Single postprocessor m
97. ode ror W Save postprocessor info in NC file t inches User s Guide 1 ContourCAM Configuration e Single postprocessor mode If this option is checked ContourCAM will not ask you to select a postprocessor when working with files without an attached postprocessor but the default postprocessor will always be assumed e Save postprocessor info in NC file If this option is checked ContourCAM will not store information of attached postprocessor in the NC files This means that when you load file again it will only have a postprocessor if the Single postprocessor mode is checked or the NC file is placed in a directory with a default postprocessor see Section 1 6 Units Youcan choose between millimeters and inches This only affects how output is presented 1 2 Default values By activating Defaults in the Setup menu the dialog below appears In LaIel Iii this dialog you can alter the values used to initialize the dialogs for General Leadin Leadout defining NC processes Program number j f Climb cutting Descent feed When the C Conv cutting i rawing aper default option is checked in Freeheight 110 000 Radius compensation tool selections the descent reeheight 10 5 feed will be this percentage of Safety Distance 1000 2 Carta the general feed rate 0 Descent feed 0 T e Material Default value for top ee Pocket milling of material Materiale top 0 000 Overlap 50 000 In
98. ofile might be digitized from a model Draw all elements for the first snake process in layer 1 Remember that you will need to offset one of the transmission profiles to get it in the correct height Observe that the 1st transmission profile is the same as the 2nd transmission profile for the 1st snake process except for some devia tion by each ear Make the drawing for the 2nd snake process in layer 2 User s Guide 3 Tutorial ContourCAM 3D EA ContourCAw NE Simulator fe x File Simulation View Layout Window Help 5 9 9 aalala elslefelriririts l SEE F i HN age PX Z A Zy 4 E AALS 8 14 ContourCAM 8 8 Engraving in a Snake 8 8 Engraving in a Snake ContourCAM offers the possibility for engraving texts logos etc In surfaces defined by snakes All text fonts can be engraved but the text needs to be vector converted DesignCAD 3D MAX 16 Helmet Engraved ded Helmet 7 File Edit Yiew Plugins Tools Options Draw Point Dimension Solids Animation Window Help x D gt 4 gt 25 0 3 3 5 arx 86115 fY 302 56 0 o Df 0 al 0 Front View 0 00 f 0 00 0 00 1144 76 200 100 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 70 3 6 6 5 P 5 ae baal 9 9 9 9 lt TBS ad EN 2 0 Select Mode Unitless 0 14 2D DRAFTING DEFAULT WP The
99. ol Tool From your list of tools you i Spindle 00 choose the tool you wish to use for Default Lib Feed o0 O te ACHA JOD Feed Enter the feed wanted if you Machine cycle choose a tool with preselected Deep Hole Driling z values those values will be added automatically Parameters Start height 0 000 Spindle Enter the speed of the Total depth 7 000 spindle if preselected it works as under feed Infeed step 3 000 Machine cycle From the library of Safety distance 2 000 cycles you choose the cycle you Dwell time 0 000 wish to use If you click the field to the right a complete list showing Cancel Help the cycles available appears 5 16 ContourCAM 5 5 5 Engraving Parameters Depending on the cycle chosen the relevant parameters for carrying out the cycle appears You enter the values wanted then you click the OK button to accept the values entered 5 5 5 Engraving EA ContourCAM NC Simulator File Simulation View Layout Window Help aalala 66 FA View 2 SEE iewi With the engraving process you can generate NC code for engraving any drawing on a flat surface ContourCAM will generate NC movements for all lines and arc in the indicated layer The code will be optimized for minimum rapid traverse The dialog is shown below User s Guide 7 ContourCAM 2D Name Enter the name under which the this process shall be recog Engra
100. oordinates is selected arcs not representing a full circle will be written using a radius statement Radius letter Character for radius statements e Space between coordinates States if 5086005 between coordinates and other code should be added For Turning machines it is often necessary to change the end points and center point fields from their default values A Turning machine working with diameters the first axis must be named Z with a scaling of 1 and the second axis must be named X with a scaling of 2 Study the construction of the postprocessor for OKUMA 1 6 ContourCAM 1 5 1 Postprocessor format 1 5 1 3 Options tab In the tab Options you find Edit Postprocessor fields for adjustment of Format Coordinates Options Decimal different elements common for most postprocessors Line numbering format Feed options lf Modal line Modal e Modal line Selecting I Sort coordinates oN ine Modal line implies that oie No of digte 4 the coordinates will be o generated modally i e if 7 Startno 10 p Dec in feed a coordinate does not 506 10 Change during the i movement then this Ida Wrap after coordinate will not be Lineno before L written in the NC code Also the G code for linear movement is only written if the previous was not a line The use of modal lines can make the NC code shorter especially in connection with 3D programming Sort coordinates Select
101. or message will be displayed on the screen and the cursor will be placed at the error It is possible to do displacement along all three axis User s Guide 9 ContourCAM Editor Note There should be wa postprocessor assigned tothe loop program If not use Choose postprocessor iv the CAM menu By nesting loops it is possible to make a 4 Yio E O grate The following 6 X10 4410 Y 0 program makes a xO YO E 20 Y 0 ith 4 6 hol E 30 Y 0 In It X 50 E O i0 x4 Y10 N 10 10 E 20 6 X10 E 30 E 40 XO YO E 50 1 4 410 20 X 10 z0 E 20 Y 20 E 30 Y 20 Since loops are ea aoe 0 unfolded from the VASE inside this results in X 10 430 first a row with holes shells Vora ll _ 0 4 30 4 in Y O and X in inter iad SSG vals of 10 starting in 450 Y 30 O and ending in 50 In this example each row starts in the left side To make each second row start in the right side the program can be changed to the following x2 0 6 X10 XO YO 0 X 10 X50 0 6 P6O X100 YO X100 Ys KaU YOO GUS 0 3 100 YO 04 X50 3 2 10 ContourCAM 2 5 Loop programming Example of loop programming with rotation The point 100 0 is being rotated 360 degrees in intervals of 60 degrees In addition to displacement you can also do rotations around origin 0 0 This is done by writing the angle noted by
102. oring T1 M06 GOO X 25 Y 25 2 10 01 DO1 53000 M3 X 25 Y 50 X 25 Y 75 X 50 Y 75 X 50 Y 50 X 50 Y 25 X 75 Y 25 Z 100 Y 25 X 125 Y 25 X 125 Y 50 X 125 Y 75 X 100 Y 75 X 75 Y 75 X 75 Y 50 Z 100 Y 50 Deep hole drilling T2 6 GOO X 100 Y 50 Z 10 02 202 53000 M3 Ti 0083 2 35 R 20 0 4 q 1 V 1 F300 X 100 Y 50 X 125 Y 50 X 125 Y 25 X 100 Y 25 X 75 Y 25 X 50 Y 25 X 25 Y 25 8 13 Insert Modilied Post FANUC NUM In the next chapter we present some examples to make you more confident in 3D programming There are examples in snake programming in DesignCAD 2D starting with very simple tasks and including engraving of texts and logos User s Guide 7 25 Tutorial ContourcCAM 2D 7 26 ContourCAM Tutorial ContourCAM 3D 8 1 Your first snake In this first lesson we will make an NC program for milling a surface as shown below m a a a 7 SS iN aN N NNN N NN i AAN 4 SD NAS NY AA AA We will make an NC program for milling this surface in lesson 1 At first glance this looks like a complex 3D surface that we need a 3D CAD system to represent However as we shall see it is actually quite simple to make using a 2D drawing and ContourCAM s snake system User s Guide 8 1 Tutorial ContourCAM 3D DesignCaAD
103. ou do not retain any copies of the program whether in printed machine readable modified or merged form Except as expressly provided for in this license you may not copy modify or transfer this program 5 If the software in this package is licensed as a Site License it is licensed for use on several machines Additional master copies of the software may be made by the licensee equal to the number of licenses purchased No reverse engineering Except as stated above YOU MAY NOT MODIFY TRANSLATE DISASSEMBLE OR DECOMPILE THE SOFTWARE OR ANY COPY IN WHOLE OR PART Article 2 Term The license is effective until terminated You may terminate the license at any time by destroying the program together with all copies modifications and merged portions in any form The license will also terminate upon conditions set forth elsewhere in this Agreement and Magic Systems may terminate your license if you fail to comply with this Agreement You agree upon such termina tion for any reason to destroy the program together with all copies modifica tions and merged portions in any form Article 3 Disclaimer of Warranties and Limitations of Remedies 1 Magic Systems software is licensed to you As Is You the consumer bear the entire risk relating to the quality and performance of the software In no event will Magic Systems be liable for direct indirect incidental or consequential damages resulting from any defect in the software e
104. ounter clockwise and also if the cutting should be carried out on the internal or external side or the contours If the process only Contour cutting General Conditions Open geometries t Left hand side f Right hand side Closed geometries Clockwise Counter clockwise Radius compensation Control Internal Contourlah f External applies to open contours this field should be ignored Open geometries Here you decide if the preparation of open contours should be carried out on the right or left hand side of the contours If the process only applies to closed contours this field should be ignored Radius compensation Here you decide if the torch radius compen sation of the contours should be Lead in Circular C Linear C None Radius 0 000 Angle 30 000 Cancel C None Lead out Overshoot 110 000 f Circular C Linear None Radius f 0 000 Angle 30 000 Help made by your control or if ContourCAM should compensate for the torch before the NC code is generated It is often preferable to leave the torch compensation 5 20 ContourCAM 5 7 Turning to the control if the Control is able to as it is much easier to adjust the compen sation on the control if the torch does not correspond to the measurements exactly Lead In Out Here it is possible to choose if you want a circular or a linear lead in respectively lead out as start ending of the preparation If
105. out Window Help aalala 1 2t 3 FA View 1 3 Zoam ing select zoam window The picture above shows the engraving in the surface created by the snake system 6 2 Milling Carpet Menu ContourCAM gt Milling gt Add gt Carpet With the carpet process you can generate NC code to finishing of an arbitrary 3D object ContourCAM will generate parallel paths over the object following the height of the drawing Paths will only be generated over the drawing User s Guide 6 11 ContourCAM 3D The general tab Contourlam Carpet Name Here you enter the name under which this process should be Hame Beericsson known General Tooling Layer Path conditions Start point Work both ways 10 000 Angle 0 000 10 000 Material Top 0 000 Safety distance fi 000 Comment Cancel Help Layer The number of the layer in which your object is drawn is indi cated here If the field is empty all layers will be used Work both ways Indicates if the milling machine should process back and forth or travel back in rapid traverse Angle Indicates angle of the paths to the X axis Start point Here you enter where the processing has start It is not necessary to enter precise coordi nates ContourCAM will find the nearest starting point Material top Here you enter the Z value for the top of your material Safety distance Here you enter the rel
106. parameters Parameters can be changed Close Help Generate Remove If a process is highlighted it will be removed if you press this button Copy Appends a copy of the highlighted process Please note that not all proc esses can be copied Move up down If you wish to change the order of the chosen processes you can move the highlighted one step up or down respectively Parameters When you choose parameters a dialog for adjustment of the general parameters for the NC code is displayed see Section 5 5 2 1 5 8 ContourCAM 5 5 Milling Generate When you want to convert the defined processes to an NC program you press this button see Section 1 5 2 2 5 4 2 1 Parameters Parameters When you press the button Parame Program number fil Fresheight f10 000 ters in the process control the dialog below is displayed 4 axes milling Rotation axis Program number Enter the 2 value of rotation center rae program number for the NG Step wher vectorizing s00 tej program This number will be inserted where the system variable pno is used typically in the OK Cancel Hel ee sequence for the program start Free height Enter the Z value for the height where positioning movements in rapid traverse are allowed 5 4 2 2 Generating of an NC program Generate MC program File name When the command Generate is activated Browse the dialog below is displayed Postprocessor Fanuc File name The fil
107. r disposal 7 8 ContourCAM 7 2 2 Definition of a drilling cycle 7 2 2 Definition of a drilling cycle Machine Cycle Library Now you are to define a drilling cycle In Available machine cycles the example which follows we have Centering used a cycle Deep hole drilling from an ieee ordinary Fanuc controller From Tapping ContourCAM configuration you choose New Libraries and then Machine cycles Then the dialog in the figure appears gt Delete Now you are to define a brand new cycle Therefore with the left button on the mouse you click the field New The OK Cancel as dialog in the figure is displayed Machine Cycle Definition Name Enter the name Deep hole 4 drilling Mame Dee TEE Drilling Now you are to enter the parameters relevant for the cycle you are now Parameters defining Use the mouse to click the field New Now a new dialog is displayed Safety distance Dwell time Mew Delete Cancel Help Machine Cycle Parameter Name Enter the name of the first parameter in this case Start height Click the field OK where upon you return to the definition dialog itself Notice that the name of the parameter is auto Disable negative values matically transferred to the list of parameters Once more choose New and enter the name Total Depth as the next parameter Now define the following parameters Infeed step Safety Cancel Help distance and Dwell time
108. rCAM will generate a 3D drawing dcd as shown here 8 3 ISO corner In this lesson there are three shift profiles in the snake The surface is extraordi nary since the radius must be constantly R 50 in horizontal intersections It is therefore necessary to program a shift profile in 45 that is less steep than the two profiles in 0 and 90 respectively Because the radius must be 50 mm all the way down to the arc vil afstande i 45 ges i forhold til 0 og 90 i en given h jde gt gt gt Dette fatter jeg ikke en lyd af lt lt lt The shift profile in 45 has been calculated and is shift profile no 2 8 6 ContourCAM 8 3 ISO corner Observe you need to divide the transmission profile into two 45 arcs since shift profile can only be attached to end points of entities To manage three shift profiles simultaneously and ensure a smooth transition from shift to shift canbea problem If you touched the surface at the middle shift profile you would feel an edge if ContourCAM did not take this into account in the programming By setting the general parameters you decide if you want linear or smooth transitions between the shift profiles for this surface you should select smooth transition If you select linear you will get an edge at the second shift profile which you can feel with a finger This happens because the two knot on each side of shift two in the tool path being generated does not have tangent through the
109. rees around the normal vector of the plane of the transmission plane i e devia XZ Plane tion from the tangent e indicates 1st Shift profile 2nd Shift profile the rotation in degrees of the shift relative to the plane of the rd transmission plane i e devia tion from vertical 6 4 ContourCAM 6 1 3 The placements and limitations of the Knots This illustration is an example of how the rotation directives works 6 1 3 The placements and limitations of the Knots It is important to have an understanding of how ContourCAM calculates the surface and hence the tool paths The starting point is the number of line segments into which you have specified for ContourCAM to divide the profiles For example if you specify 1 10 shift 1 is divided into 10 line segments which equals 11 knots on the profile Knots on a smooth curve Here you can obtain an under standing of the situations in which you run into troubles val Normally if the shifts are curve movements as in this illustra tion there are no problems A curve with an edge In this illustration there could be problems since the profile has an edge If the distance from the start point to the edge is not precise the edge will disappear from the surface It might be vital to have such an edge In those cases it is neces sary to be more specific about how to divide the profile as shown in this illustration Furthermore one needs to consider the
110. rial Values filesspecific to this postproc essor If nothing is stated the Path for NC files values entered in the general setup of ContourCAM are used Edit Postprocessor m Path for transmit to file Path for NC files If you _ want the NC programs for this postprocessor placed in another Default extension directory than the one stated under ContourCAM configuration you can indicate it here Path for Transmit to file Here you state where the result of Transmit to file is to be saved If you state nothing it is saved in the default directory for NC programs Default extension If you want to have a special extension added to the NC files for this postprocessor by default you can specify it here 1 5 3 2 Serial tab Under the Serial tab the Files Serial Values parameters concerning communication with the CNC Cornport D atabits Stopbits Handshake unit via RS232 are adjusted C com com F M Hardware The fields in this dialog must be 2 comd cr 8 iz Wo Software adjusted so they are consistent palate Pally Start code 37 with the similar parameters on C 110 C 1200 9800 C None Stop code 37 the control C 300 C 2400 19200 Even C 00 C 4800 38400 Odd e Comport In this field you Options choose which serial port on Add line numbers Delay after stop code 2 seconds the computer to use for the Don t send sta
111. rsor to the end of the line Move cursor to the beginning of the line Move cursor to the top of the file Move cursor to the end of the file Go to line number Toggle between Insert Override Delete the character underneath the cursor Delete the character to the left of the cursor Delete line Delete till the end of the line Mark text Begin marking block Delete marked text block Cut marked text block to clipboard Key Means lt Ctri gt C Copy marked text block to clipboard lt Ctrl gt V Insert from clipboard lt Ctrl gt S Search lt Ctrl gt R Search and replace lt Ctrl gt E Search and exchange lt F3 gt Repeat the last search exchange or replace 2 1 2 Hot keys in ContourCAM Editor In addition to the short cuts while editing there are several hot keys to quickly activating commands in the menus Key lt F1 gt lt Ctrl gt lt F12 gt lt F12 gt lt Shift gt lt Ctrl gt R lt Shift gt lt Ctrl gt W lt Alt gt lt F4 gt lt F5 gt lt F6 gt lt Ctrl gt P lt F7 gt Meaning Help Read program from disk Save program to disk Insert file at cursor position Save marked text block to disk Exit editor Receive program Transmit program Print program Change to visual simulation of NC code User s Guide 3 ContourCAM Editor 2 1 3 Include file The command Include file can be found in the Edit menu If you have a file on your hard driv
112. rt code e NoXON poling I Dorit wait for XON transmission to the controller When using COM3 and COM4 you may run into problems The normal settings are for COMS base address 3E8h h interrupt OCh interrupt level 4 is normally used and for COM4 base address 2E8h interrupt OBh interrupt level 3 The problem with these settings is that COM3 and COM4 will share interrupt and interrupt level with COM1 and COM2 respectively The result is that if a mouse is connected COM1 then after using 3 the mouse will no longer work If you want to use another setting you will have to change the hardware normally some jumpers must be adjusted and in the Windows setup Databits In this field you choose the number of data bit used 7 data bit is the normal when communicating with CNC machines while 1 12 ContourCAM 1 5 3 Settings communication between two computers normally uses 8 data bit e Stopbits In this field you choose the number of stop bits 1 stop bit is the usual but with communication speeds lower than 600 baud 2 stop bits are sometimes used Handshake In this field you choose which type of handshake you want If you choose not to use handshake ContourCAM will start transmission without waiting for the machine to become ready Similarly when receiving ContourCAM will not try to stop the CNC machine if data are send too fast Both cases can result in loss of data If you want to use DNC transmission some sort of h
113. s Choose ContourCAM from the main menu and then Milling The process control in ContourCAM is now displayed From here you choose Parameters after which the parameter dialog appears Parameters 1 Enter 1 as the program number 2 Enter 10 for the height where Program number Freeheight 10 000 movements in rapid traverse are allowed 4 aves milling Rotation axis 3 Click the OK button Z value of rotation center 0000 7 2 Now you are back in the process Step when vectorizing 50 control dialog where you click the Add button Now choose pocket Cancel Help milling A dialog like in the figure below is displayed 7 18 ContourCAM Pocketing General Roughing Finishing Leadin Leadout 5 ocketing Layer f Material Top of mat 0 000 Total depth Start numbers Borders Islands 2 3 Comments Direction Climb milling 1 Conventional milling 7 3 5 Pocket milling Advanced Name Accept the name pocketing Layer Enter 1 since the drawing is placed in layer no one Material top Enter O as the value in Z for the top of the item Total depth Enter 20 In this case the minimum Z value of the item Direction Click the field Climb milling Notice that the field next to climb milling now is marked witha black dot to indicate that it is now active Borders The border of the area to be cleared has number 1 Enter 1 for the border panama Cancel H
114. s at each start number by lighting the torch then the geometry is followed using the standard rules for path finding described earlier You may place text command at entity end points which will influence the generation of the NC code The texts will be handled when they are met during the preparation 5 18 ContourCAM 5 6 1 Cutting paths of geometries More commands can be collected into one text separated by commas or space you can also state commands in texts that defines start numbers The following commands are available RL Turns on left sided tool compensation in the subsequent movement RR Turns on right sided tool compensation in the subsequent movement RO Turns down tool compensation in the subsequent movement F d States the feed rate d Is active until anything else is stated or until the end of the geometry Below you se the dialog for cutting paths Name Enter the name under Cutting paths di which this process should be recognized Layer Enter the number of the wa layer where the elements of the Feed 100 drawing which are to be used for this process are drawn Feed Enter the feed rate You may a sh a ret leave this empty if the postproc a Po essor does not generate codes for feed rates Comments Start numbers Enter the start numbers for which the stated values shall apply If All is checked all start numbers in the entered layer will be used Comments If you wish to add comm
115. s internally uses those layers All ContourCAM s CAM commands can be executed using the ContourcCAM menu which the installation will add to your DesignCAD menus You will also find some extra programs and macros that we have placed in their appropriate DesignCAD menus In the following we shall indicate where you will find the program or macro at the beginning of each section All the special commands Magic Systems has developed as a supplement to DesignCAD s commands will be discussed in the following In the beginning of the tutorials Chapters 7 and 8 of this manual you will also find examples for most of the commands 5 1 Editing commands Editing commands are used for editing already existing entities or create new entities based on already existing entities To make it easier using DesignCAD for editing NC programs we have added several new commands that will be discussed in this section Under each command the menu in which it can be found is listed User s Guide 5 1 ContourCAM 2D 5 1 1 MagicTrim Trimming more elements Menu Edit gt Trim fillet t 4 ra When using this command you 2 should point out a path through a number of elements When you have pointed out the path and press lt Enter gt MagicTrim will automatically trim all the elements so all the elements that are not part of the path are deleted When two subsequent entities have two intersections you should always set the point close
116. s so user friendly we chose to base ContourCAM on DesignCAD 3D MAX to achieve our objectives A CAD CAM system which lacks nothing in capacity which is easy to learn and use and extremely quick to convert a drawing into NC code We believe that we have achieved our objectives and we are confident that when you have worked with the system you will agree System Requirements To use ContourCAM you must have at a minimum the following hardware and software installed in your computer e Approximately 70 megabytes of hard drive space for a complete installa tion DesignCAD 3D MAX ver 6 Microsoft Windows 2000 or Windows XP Although not required to run ContourCAM the following hardware is recom mended for better performance Pentium processor e atleast 256 megabytes of RAM e SuperVGA graphics card capable of 256 or more colors e SuperVGA monitor capable of at least 800x600 resolution User s Guide Introduction 1 Getting Started Installing ContourCAM For your convenience the installation of ContourCAM is automated You simply insert the CD rom into your CD rom drive and the installation process will start automatically If not please follow the instructions below Manually Installing ContourCAM 1 Select Start in Windows 2 Choose the Run command 3 Type D AUTORUN EXE and either press ENTER or click OK in the Command Line field 4 Follow the instructions on the screen If yow ue a CD ROM
117. shift knot To generate this figure and see it in the simu lator follow the same procedure as in lesson AN NAKA and i j 1 AANA SRO KN ARINAA YY 0 SESE OO race Se AEE 22 gt 0 6 6 Ky 6 0 6 AN LVN AFF LLLP KLIP ed A A oe User s Guide 7 Tutorial ContourCAM 3D 8 4 Rotating Shift Profiles 1 20 2 A a 14 20720 27 Ae A snake with rotated shift profiles In this lesson we give examples on the slightly more complicated codes for rotating the shift profiles relative to the transmission profile Using the code T1 20 gt 20 the shift profile labeled 1 will be rotated 20 relative to the transmission profile Using the code T2 gt 40 the shift profile labeled 2 will be rotated 40 relative to the normal vector of the transmission profile Naturally these codes can be used simultaneously for instance you could have the following code T1 20 gt 20 40 It is plain to see how the shift profiles have been rotated relative to the transmission T27 2 profile Again do not be concerned by getting the correct dimensions but make sure you understand the principal 1 7 1 1 16 8 8 ContourCAM 8 5 Rotating the Transmission Profiles 8 5 Rotating the Transmission Profiles Here we want to rotate the trans mission profiles In this lesson we General Tech
118. signCAD 2D both transmission and shift profiles are drawn in the same plane To decide the position of the surface ContourCAM uses certain rules when it reads a drawing as a snake In this illustration a snake gt pm with one transmission a 2 8 2 4D profile drawn in i gt DesignCAD 2D is shown _ 13 10 When ContourCAM reads 467 2 7 70 qs this drawing the following happens 7415 A followed by a number means that the geometry in question is the transmission profile the number indi cates that the shift profile with that number is to be attached at this location ContourCAM understands the transmission profile as lying in the XY plane while the shift profiles are raised to vertical and are placed at their attach points on the transmission profile 6 1 2 1 The shift profiles A shift profile is described by the text code n m where n and m are numbers and brackets indicate optional text For example 1 20 2 n Indicates the number of the shift profile in question m Indicates how many line pieces the shift profile is to be divided into from this text and forth For the first shift the text must include m for the rest it is not necessary By default it is the start point i e the point where the text is attached that is attach to the first transmission profile and if there are two transmission profiles the end point that is attach to the second transmission profile To change the defa
119. smission profile Custom EA ContourCAM NC Simulator File Simulation View Layout Window Help 199 alalalal 2 a Fre mx ee LN EN View 4 7 A h ii I il MATITE TA B 8 16 ContourCAM 8 9 Carpet 8 9 Carpet To show you how the carpet function works we use one of the examples in the Extended Samples some parts off the valve namely We select the closure and copy it to anew drawing Valve Top 5 D 2 O 8 the correct plane we need rotate it and lay a plane To be able to work with it in underneath KAAS PI INS KZ RAY P 4 4 We me 0 A iN 4 KEO Xx lt User s Guide 7 Tutorial ContourCAM 3D Then you select ContourCAM gt contou hk Carpet Ea Milling gt Carpet and fill in the windows General Tooling Hame Carpet Layer Path conditions Start Print W Work both ways 10 000 Angle 0 000 Material Top 0 000 Safety Distance 2 000 Comment Cancel Help ContourlaM Carpet General Tooling Do roughing Finishing Tool 5 Li M Default Spindle poo Feed 200000 60300 Descent Feed Step 30 8 18 ContourCAM 8 9 Carpet GA MM 0 0 0 C 0 oO Ves Kill 5 Aa H Aa a E 8 F 5 1
120. st to the desired intersec tion when pointing out the first entity of the two A rule of thumb is to always set the points as close as possible to the intersec tion with the following entity If you are marking a closed path you should finish by setting a point on the first entity Note that you can include several parts of an entity in your path See section 7 1 5 for an example of MagicTrim MagicTrim has a lack at present though it cannot automatically trim polylines If you select a polyline when using MagicTrim the command will only be executed until the polyline after which it stops 5 1 2 Fillet 2 Draw an arc tangent to line circle Menu Edit gt Trim fillet pt 3 This command makes fillets between circles arcs and lines When you activate the command you must set two ot 2 points close to the entities i between which you want the pt 1 fillet If the fillet is between circles arcs it is important to set the points on the correct side of the circles arcs When you have set the two tangent points you must set a point in the general direction where the fillet should be Finally the radius of the fillet is entered An arc will now be drawn counter clockwise from the first tangent to the other 5 2 ContourCAM 5 1 3 Fillet to point Draws an arc through a point tangent to line circle 5 1 3 Fillet to point Draws an arc through a point tangent to line circle Menu Edit gt Trim fillet pt T
121. t and extend existing DesignCAD commands 5 2 1 LinePDXY Relative line Menu Draw gt Lines ContourCAM Line PDX Command Eg This command performs a triangle calcu lation based on two of the following start of line 8 478 5 303 values Angle ji 5 000 Distance 25 000 P polar angle D polar distance Relative 24 148 Absolute 30 626 DX relative distance along the X axis Relative 6 470 Absolute r 12 774 X absolute X coordinate ao O N gt DY relative distance along the Y axis 6 Y absolute Y coordinate Lancel Help When D polar distance and DX relative distance along the X axis or and DY relative distance along the y axis are used there are always two solutions If D is negative the second solution is chosen 5 4 ContourCAM 5 2 2 Box2 Draw squares O O square 5 2 2 Box2 Draw squares Menu Draw gt Planes This command is designed for drawing one or more squares with rounded corners The command lets you specify the values of the square You must enter width height the rounding on the corners 0 if they should be sharp and finally the angle of the square Next you must point out the center of the square If you set points before activating the command these will be use when placing the 5 2 3 Spiral Draw a spiral Menu Draw gt Circles This command draws a spiral You must set three points center start and stop W
122. t numbers W Al Work direction Horizontal C Vertical Work side External C nternal Safety distance n 000 Comments ae Cancel Help Name Here you enter the name of the process You can have more than one process in and NC program Layer Here you enter the layer number in which are drawn the elements of the drawing to be used in this process Start numbers Enter the start numbers for which the stated values shall apply If All is checked all start numbers in the entered layer will be used Work direction Here you set a dot in either horizontal or vertical Work side Here you set a dot in either external or internal Safety distance Here you set the safety distance Comments Her you can place any comments you might have 5 22 ContourCAM ContourCAM 3D The 3D parts of many CAD CAM systems are constructed such that the user draws the objects directly in 3D But as working directly in 3D requires more abil ities than working in 2D we have chosen another strategy for ContourCAM We have however introduced a function which we call Carpet whereby you can mill actual 3D surfaces but so far it does not work on all types The 3D part of ContourCAM is based on solving as many task as possible using 2D drawings only In ContourCAM there is generally only one way of defining 3D surfaces we call this principal Snake programming ContourCAM s Snake programming tech
123. t two geometries to each other 5 6 ett tn e 5 6 5 7 0 Generating NC code from a 5 4 1 5 7 0 Drawn 1 1 5 Table of contents 2 ContourCAM 5 4 1 2 Types of acetceveseciincee Gis cenesetioueone ees 5 7 5 4 1 3 Defing of 5 7 5 4 2 Working processes vwsisieiant bee ecitasentcicinet ada 5 8 54 21 5 9 5 4 2 2 Generating of an NC 5 9 Bs 5 9 5 9 1 Milling a sewers nenna 5 10 5 5 2 Milling Of CONTOUIS 2 5 11 POCKET IMG N 5 12 asrine NN 5 15 D290 Siete cen aaa 5 17 0 5 18 56 1 GUTING DaS asst ee eee ees 5 18 5 6 2 Contour sorrera ER 5 20 MORNING ae Gaetan ianuioadas anne S 5 21 7 5 21 00000 COMTOUr TURNING 5 5 Chapter 6 ContourCAM 3D 6 1 Snake programming 2cichideceshainekiediameseet des bslans 6 2 6 1 1 Snake 1 programming from DesignCAD 2D 6 2 6 1 2 Basic snake programming 1072466622 6 3 6 12 THE SHIFT onor 6 3 6 1 2 2 The transmission 686 ees 6 4 6 1 3 The placements and limitations of the knots 6 5 2 4 Engraving a SNAKE srair sivas checker pasie E eee 6 6 6 1 5 Creating a SNAKE PIOCESs ccceceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees 6 6 672 MINO CaPTaiN 6 11 Chapter 7 Tutorial ContourCAM 2D 7 1 Examples of drawing editing and nest
124. text engrave must be inside the area covered by the surface defined by the snake program In this lesson the surface is inside a semi circle thus the text must also be within this area In might be advantageous to place the text etc To be engraved in a separate layer but it is not mandatory If you to the elements to be engraved in the same layer as the snake all that is not part of the snake defi nition will be engraved in the surface In the snake process you should check the option engrave on the first page General to tell ContourCAM that you want to do an engraving User s Guide 5 Tutorial ContourCAM 3D On the page labeled Engrave you Snake bdi specify the information needed to do the engraving see We enter 2 in Safety distance to allow the General Technology Offset Rotate Misc ia 0000 milling machine to descent with Safety distance 2 000 rapid traverse until 2 mm above the Defaut pinde Sau Surface In Depth we enter 3 to Lib C 0 make the engraving 3 mm into the Feed 300 Step 1 000 surface The let the text etc follow Pescentboed inp 777 the surface we must divide all lines a and arcs into small line segments poner The field Step specifies how long C Program Files IMSM DesignC amp D 30 Max 165 0 Browse these line segments should be r Limiting plane Pare f None 9 Tat transmission profile 2nd tran
125. the first point at the top of the circle to the upper right Set the second point at the top of the circle to the upper left For center of the round off set a point in the middle of the drawing and enter a radius of 250 As you have seen during the construction we did not care about the intersection points between the different entities only you drew complete circles and lines a bit to long You are now to remove those parts of the elements which are not part of the final item For this purpose you use the command MagicTrim Points to set when MagicTrimming 10 1 Choose the command MagicTrim from the menu Edit Trim Fillet You are now asked to set points on those parts of the entities to be repre sented in the final item Note It is very important that the points are placed as close as possible to the intersec tion point with the following entity 11 2 Set the points from 1 to 13 as shown in this illustration User s Guide 7 11 Tutorial ContourCcAM 2D After MagicTrim 3 When the points are sat Click the central mouse button or press lt Enter gt MagicTrim now removes all Super fluous entities and leaves the final item on the screen EASY DON T YOU THINK rf VL name it T1 4 Save the drawing lt F12 gt and 7 3 2 Generating the NC code You are to mill the contour of your drawing and now you are ready to generate the NC code Under ContourCAM from the main menu you choose the command
126. ult behaviour the text code Xn can be used to specify the point which corre sponds to the attach point on the first transmission profile This text code need not be connected to the shift profile in any other way than having the same number Likewise you can use the text code Yn the change where the shift profile is attached to the second transmission profile It is important to remember that a shift profile must never be a closed geometry User s Guide 3 ContourCAM 3D If more shift profiles have the same shape you only have to draw one Let us say that the shifts 1 3 and 5 have one shape while shifts 2 and 4 have another and say we divide the shift profiles into 50 line segments We would then draw the two shapes and to the first attach the text 1 3 5 50 and to the second the text 2 4 Observe we only indicate the division on the first shape Also note that if you use the text code X1 it will apply for all of the shifts 1 3 and 5 6 1 2 2 The transmission profiles The general form of the texts of the first transmission profile is Tn m brackets indicate optional text n Indicates which shift profile is to be attached here m Indicates how many line segments the transmission profile is to be divided into from this text to the next we call knots the endpoints of these line segments For each shift profile attachment m must be specified except for the last of an open transmission profile Examples of texts
127. ven if Magic Systems had reason to know of the possibility of such damage If the software proves to have defects you and not Magic Systems assume the cost of any necessary service or repair In the event any liability is imposed on Magic Systems Magic Systems liability to you or any third party shall not exceed the purchase price paid for this product 2 Thirty day limited warranty on disks Magic Systems warrants the enclosed disks to be free of defects in material and workmanship under normal use for 30 days after purchase During the 30 day period you may return a defective disk to Magic Systems with proof of purchase and it will be replaced without charge unless the disk is damaged by accident or misuse Replacement of a disk is your sole remedy in the event of a defect This warranty gives you specific legal rights and you may also have other rights which vary from state to state 3 THE LIMITED WARRANTY STATED ABOVE IS THE ONLY WARRANTY OR REPRESENTATION OF ANY KIND WITH RESPECT TO THE SOFTWARE MADE BY Magic Systems OR ANY THIRD PARTY INVOLVED IN THE CREATION PRODUC TION DELIVERY OR LICENSING OF THE SOFTWARE Magic Systems AND ANY SUCH THIRD PARTY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WITH RESPECT TO THE SOFTWARE ITS QUALITY RELIABILITY OR PERFORMANCE OR ITS MERCHANTABILITY NON INFRINGEMENT OF THIRD PARTY RIGHTS OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 4 Some states do not allow the exclusion or limitation of impli
128. ving nized Name Layer Enter the number of the Laver ff SS aoe layer where your object is drawn 010MB Lib Top of material Here you enter Material Default the 2 value for the top of the mate Material top 0000 Aal ateral top 0 Spindle S000 7 Depth 0 200 in Depth Enter the Z value for the Feed distance between the top of mate Safety dist 1 000 Descent feed 750 rial and the button of the engraving Safety Enter the relative distance Comments to the material where movements in rapid traverse is allowed Tool From your list of tools you choose the tool you wish to use for the actual job Cancel Help Spindle Enter the speed of the spindle if preselected it works as under feed Feed Enter the feed wanted if you choose a tool with preselected values those values will be added automatically Descent feed Enter feed rate for the first vertical movement to the object Comment If you want you can attach comments to the task 5 6 Cutting In the following the preparation processes available for cutting will be described e Cutting paths e Contour cutting 5 6 1 Cutting paths The cutting paths process is used to directly convert the lines and arcs of the drawing to movements in the NC program This is the process that comes closest to directly programming on the control in that you have to draw each horizontal movement you want the cutting machine to perform Operation start
129. without start and end and each island must be completely contained within a border ContourCAM will generate toolpaths with minimum rapid traverse When you choose the command pocket milling the dialog below is displayed 5 12 ContourCAM 5 5 3 Pocket milling Pocketing General Roughing Finishing Leadin Leadout Focketing Layer 1 Material Direction Top of mat 01 000 Total depth 20 000 Start numbers Borders 1 Islands 2 3 Comments C Cancel Climb milling 1 Conventional milling Help Name Enter the name under which the information of the actual pocket milling should be saved The name is transferred to the process control from where you select it if for instance you want to edit the information later Layer Enter the number of the layer where your object is drawn Top of material Here you enter the Z value for the top of the mate rial Total depth Enter the Z value of the bottom of the pocket Direction Click the mouse button in one of the round fields to decide if the pocket milling shall be performed using climb or conven tional milling Start numbers Borders Enter the numbers of the closed contours surrounding the areas to be milled Start numbers Islands Here you enter the numbers of the island s which must be left when the pocket milling is finished An island has to be placed inside the border of the area to be pocket milled Comments
130. you choose circular lead in out you must enter radius and angle and if you choose linear lead in out you must enter the length of the line and the angle wanted Overshoot Here you can enter a value that will determine the distance between the lead in and the lead out to avoid that material is left 5 7 Turning 5 7 1 Contour turning DesignCAD 3D MAX 16 Turning dcd main aAa File Edit View Plugins Tools Options Draw Point Dimension Solids ContourC4M Animation Window Help o D 5 3 8 gt 4 2 8588 fY 1304 0 0 Di o al 0 10mm 20mm 30mm 40mm 50mm 60mm 7Omm 80mm 90mm 9 6 0028 m al lt gt gt Bk 9 9 9 2 lk ass eae eee a 2 D Select Mode mm 0 127 2D DRAFTING DEFAULT WP In the process contour turning it is possible to generate both roughing and finishing Most new lathes have machine cycles to do the roughing but in ContourCAM we have added a command to generate roughing for owners of older lathes User s Guide 5 21 ContourCAM 2D To use it you have to draw the final contour vectorize it and add a start number at the end of the object where the work must start From the ContourCAM menu you select Turning and Add and you get the following dialogs Contour for lathe General Roughing Nme i Layer Star

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