Paperless Process
 

We took our first crack at a paperless process, (CAD to Mill without drawings), and I was wondering how many other teams do this regularly?

vid of process... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrkeA6DFAK0

For those that do, what are you using to create the tool paths?

We've been using Inventor for the CAD and then translating to stp so that tool paths can be created in Key Creator (school's CAD), but the loss in associativity in the transfer creates a pinch point in the work flow waiting for tool paths. Anybody got alternatives out there that work with Inventor?

Re: Paperless Process
 

Several members of our team (and a few other local teams) took a machine shop class at the local community college (El Camino College). Now that we've passed the class, we have full access to the school's machine shop.

They use Mastercam, which imports directly from Inventor. We also tried Inventor to STP to Mastercam, which was a mess.

So far, we've made 2 parts paperless, and redrew a third.

Re: Paperless Process
 

With the exception of parts made on our lathe and drilling simple holes with a drill press, all of our processes are completely paperless. Parts made on the lathe are not paperless only because its CNC capabilities leave a lot to be desired -- though the potential to use it as such is there.

Nearly all parts are designed in Solidworks, though sometimes we'll use Microsoft Visio for simple, two-dimensional parts.

For parts made on the mill, I use MasterCAM V.9 to create all of the toolpaths. We have a license of MasterCAM X as well, but I prefer V.9. The mill has onboard software to execute the code.

For our plasma cutter, we use SheetCAM to automatically generate toolpaths. It's a very fast process, as SheetCAM is very good at determining kerf compensation on its own and generates the toolpaths in less than a second. The plasma cutter is driven by software called Mach3. It's pretty easy to use, though the interface is a bit cludgy.

Finally, our laser cutter behaves as a printer, so we can print parts to it directly from within Microsoft Visio.

We're able to make parts reasonably quickly and they're accurate. It's enormously helpful and we've been able to eliminate a lot of work remaking parts that aren't up to snuff because of human error. I don't know if I could go back to doing all of this any other way.

Re: Paperless Process
 

You can use Ace DXF converter for 2D machining to make G code from a DXF file. It is free. I like SheetCAM too. It is like $150 or something like that.

Re: Paperless Process
 

The newest Key Creator can import directly from Inventor, but a nice alternative is Surfcam...

Re: Paperless Process
 

My team is in the same class..

Just to make it easier on the machinest that go there, I give them inventor files, step files and a paper drawing so there is no confusion. They say they have had the most success with inventor files though.

Re: Paperless Process
 

unfortunately our machine shop is very limited, so we make tons of .idw files

Re: Paperless Process
 

Yeah, only problem is it's like $15,000 :p

I like GibbsCAM, but probably because it's the only thing I've used.

Re: Paperless Process
 

Our team mostly has drawing in Inventor and CAD so we can just use the CAD files and use GibbsCAM to machine them. We used inventor to gibbs one time to machine our frame but most of our CAMing is done from CAD files.

Re: Paperless Process
 

I've since discovered that the school is a couple revs behind in Key Creator and plans to update this summer which wil help for next season. Thanks to everybody for thier feedback. MasterCAM looks like the ultimate solution though... anybody tried for a donation from them before?

Re: Paperless Process
 

FlashCut seems decent too for 2D stuff.

Re: Paperless Process
 

We're still using paper for everything :D
I wish we had a CNC mill (anyone got an extra?)

Re: Paperless Process
 

Nope, our printer runs all the time.

Re: Paperless Process
 

At our school we use edge cam its like master cam.