CAM between Inventor and LinuxCNC

Any one here use Inventor and linuxcnc together with any CAM ? I am about to invest in mastercam X as it generates toolpaths automatically from Inventor. But there is no Post-processor for EMC2 or linuxcnc in Mastercam. Is it possible to use any Fanuc post like Mach3 is using ?

Thanks.

BigJohnT wrote:

Mastercam should have an EMC2 post processor, if not they should provide you one when you purchase it. That is what the value added (more money for your product) dealers are supposed to do for the extra money you pay them. I've used mastercam in the past and had an EMC2 post for it so I know they are out there... have you looked on the wiki for the post?

John

Thanks John.

I have not asked to the dealer about it whether they will provide post processor for it or not. somebody can give me an idea how much they can ask or charge to provide the post for EMC2?

One more question that if we invest on that value added post processor then will it produce g-code for any type of machine running EMC2 as a controller ? For example Lathe, Boring Mill and Milling etc.

And I have seen wiki for the post. There is a custom made post-processor for Mastercam but we have to modify the g-code with that post.

which changes do you make to the gcode , the mastercam post processor , can be adjusted to make this permanant ,
you most probably will end up with 2 post processors optimised for mill and lathe , as the mastercam post processor is a txt file , then then changes are minimal

let me know what changes you need and i'll have a look into it further ..
i have not had to pay extra on paying for a post processor , when your paying bucks . if they want a sale they can add it free !

which changes do you make to the gcode

Actually I was referring to a link where there is a post-processor for MasterCAM and have have mentioned that you have to change first line and some A.0 bits.
wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?Cam_Post

the mastercam post processor , can be adjusted to make this permanant ,
you most probably will end up with 2 post processors optimised for mill and lathe , as the mastercam post processor is a txt file , then then changes are minimal

let me know what changes you need and i'll have a look into it further ..
i have not had to pay extra on paying for a post processor , when your paying bucks . if they want a sale they can add it free !

That's the good news and I assume that it's not as difficult to get posts from their dealers and modify them as per our requirements in future.

Thank for your response cncbasher.

yes , they are easy changes to make permanant in the post processor .

For what it is worth,there are betterr Cam programs out there for the money then Mastercam.If your goal is to generate code directly from a solid model.then you would be better off with a system that runs in Inventor itself.It seems like Hypermill does.if you have access to Solidworks,you can import your Inventor model and use any of the several cam systems that run in side Solidworks.Camworks comes to mind,it is very powerfull and about the same cost as mastercam.

I was very impressed with Visual Mill for the money,and I have several friends that love Gibbs and Featurecam.Your work will dictate your needs.Vector is a great lowbuck package,but has its limitations.My experinece with solid models is they are not as easy to work with as the cam salesman will lead you to beleive,just a word of advice.I have tried to cut both solidworks and step files in Mastercam and had poor results,I resaved the files as iges,and saw sucess.

As for the post,most posts are tweek able,a generic Fanuc post should get you going.Some systems have post generators which can be used to write a new post from scratch,its a learning curve,but its about the only way you are really going to get exactly what you want.Actually,if you dont plan on using sub routines,a Fanuc post should work fine with EMC.

Pro E used to have a version of Wildfire that ran in Linux.I dont know if Pro NC will run in Linux,but if so,I think you could get both packages for about then same 10k you are gonna spend on Mastercam.Id look at Visual mill at 5k complete.Good luck!!!

Thank you JR1050

Cam software is not like CAD. As you said it's not easy to decide which is going to help you in easy and better way. I have decided not to invest in any CAM package untill I try some of them practically with my machine.

I saw Hypermill site and they look promising. And most interesting thing is that it runs inside inventor. Can anyone give me an idea about their pricing for 5axis please ?

I need an opinion about that isn't it a good idea to start with 3axis heekscnc and pycam initially ? Because according our road map, We need 5axis CAM after 6-8 months.

IMO going initially with heekscnc and pycam is that you don't have to struggle with post-processor and you can gather experience for better decision about your CAM investment in future.

Hi
This might be not the best implementation but at least I get some results

Just I have to delete the G28 's lines ..... otherwise I can't run the program.


Sorry I'm very short in time these days, so I simply collected a bunch of files I have and zipped them


P.S.
As fare as I remember I had to start from the version 9 ....... pst

Mike