pic: New toy, help.

[Cory]

Haas has the best control documentation of anyone in the business. Read the entire manual-it's actually super useful as it contains tons of example programs for many g-codes, work coordinate systems, etc.

I would get comfortable with writing some basic programs by hand to lay out hole patterns, drill/tap holes, and maybe some simple milling toolpaths like a circle, square, etc just so you can recognize and understand how all the G/M codes are being used by your CAM program. I took two courses on purely hand programming before learning CAM software. Even though I never code by hand other than quickly facing a part or drilling a hole, it's invaluable to know exactly what your CAM software is doing. I think it's much harder to start working with CAM and trying to go backwards and decipher what the program is doing as you go.