Looking to buy a cnc turret punch and was told that it doesnt stop there. My question is, what is required to interface a cad drawing with a cnc controlled machine?Do I need a seperate computer that does something I am not aware of? I was told the cad may be needed to be changed to g-code?. Thanks - sorry for the Off topic but I havent been able to find any help
I'm at work right now so I can't go into too much detail. but you would need a CAD program that has post processors for your particular cnc unit. If you email me, I can help you out more...
CAD is computer aided DESIGN... it outputs drawings, basically, in one form or another. in order for this drawing to drive an NC controlled machine you must process the information again, to supply the machine with the CORRECT code FOR THAT MACHINE! (important! you don't want a turret punch to attempt to punch itself!) basically, there are two types of NC programs: those that work with 2D data, and those that work with 3D data. given that you are attempting to drive a turret punch i presume it's all 2D stuff... most NC machines come with a proprietary piece of software for programming them, usually EXTREMELY limited, and usually will NOT import other drawing formats (in 2D, usually DXF, or in 3D, usually STEP, IGES or SAT)... so, what do you design in currently? if you're using the ubiquitous autocad, or any 2D package that will produce DXF files, you will need an NC programming package but you're not looking at high dollar stuff. it can run on the same machine where the CAD is performed, or on a seperate machine, and its function is to take the DXF file, and trasform that into G-code ready to be consumed by the machine. when in the market for it, be sure that the salesperson is familiar with the type, and model, of the machine that you want to drive with it, and that they will provide the appropriate post processor for that machine. NC packages often need a "post-processor", a program that re-jigs the initial output of the NC program to suit the specific machine that will be using the code. a Biese will want COMPLETELY different code to a roland... have them drive YOUR machine before you sign the order. hope that helps a bit...
At my plant we use ours for cutting our pump cams and that's about it. We dump the X & Y cords of the cam model's profile to a file then the CNC program converts into it's own program code it reads when cutting. I've been told it's old and pretty basic program but works fine for what we use it for. There prob a bunch a diff ways to get there, don't let them sell you some expensinve CNC programing package saying that's all there is, if you really don't need it. -HL
we have a cnc router (for wood) here at work. to answer your question yes you need a post processing program to take your cad file and create toolpaths from it. on our machine we use mastercam which is a cadd/cam package (although limited) the problem with most post processors is that they like to run in dos (at least ours does) which means everytime we finish up a drawing we need to clean it up in mastercam (while in windows) then drop to dos to run the post processor and then use another piece of software (while in dos) to control the machine. so no its not just the machine that you need to buy.. good luck sawzall
1. Draw the part (CAD) 2. Tool the drawing (CAM) this assigns tools and their offsers, nibble steps, etc. 3. Post processor (Post) This converts the CAM information into code for the machine to execute.
The Jalopy Journal
