Rotary Axis indexing with Vector XI – Jobs

1) First we will prepare some macros to be used to add indexing to a job.

In Vector-Cad, NC-Jobs-Job table or press “J” to display the Jobs toolbar and the Job table

Click the M-Macro button on the job toolbar

Enter index90 exactly as shown, and OK

Repeat this for each 90-degree increment: index180 index270 index0

2) Next create a special post processor that will use these macros.

Click Insert NC button on the Jobs toolbar

Click New

Select isov10us or isov11us for NC-Setup Based on, and enter indexing for the new NC-Machine Setup, OK

Select indexing, OK

On the NC menu, select Options-Macro

Enter index0 in Menu Text and click Change

Click on the blank line below index0

Enter index90 in the Menu Text box

Click Change and repeat until all 4 macros are entered:

Then select index0 and click Edit

Type: “Space A0.0 enter” then OK

Check that you have a blank line after the A0.0 by using the keyboard arrow cursors.

Repeat this for each of the 4 macros. (A90.0, A180.0, A270.0)

Then Click OK on this dialog to save all your work:

Clicking Generate NC-Codes for jobs button creates an NC program that looks like this:

Activating or deactivating each of the Macros on the job table will include or exclude the corresponding A axis index callout in the NC program.

At this time it is a good idea to save all your work. In the CAD side File-Save-As

Select files of type .CCT, Vector drawing template, and navigate to the VECXI/cct folder, enter index and click SAVE:

The next time a File-New is entered, index will be one of the selections. This will preserve the 4 indexing macros and will contain a Vector NC object with the indexing.cfg post processor selected.

3) Create 4 axis-positions to help with drawing and orienting in 3D indexed space.

Draw a wireframe cube:

Change-Axis-Reset

Draw-Other-Curves-Rectangle default to 4 x 4 and Center and Z = 2, OK

Edit-Repeat or F4

Same settings, except Z = -2, OK

Click the View Ball

Select Default View

F2 to unselect all

Carefully select a top-front line pointing to the right and the bottom front line pointing to the left.

Switch to closed chain mode F3 or Special-Close Contour

Draw-Line-Connect

Unselect by clicking on the top and bottom lines:

Edit-Copy (CTRL-C)

Edit-Paste (CTRL-V)

Click Reset and set Y displacement to 4, OK

F2 to unselect all.

Left Click and drag the coordinate axis to the closest corner.

NC-Job-Define Job Axis

Left Click and drag the coordinate axis to the bottom corner.

Change-Axis-Rotate, Set the X axis to 90, OK

Note the Z direction is now perpendicular to the face of the cube.

NC-Job-Define Job Axis

Repeat this process for each of the two remaining corners, rotating 90 additional degrees each time.

Then F2 to unselect all and Change-Axis Reset

Dragging the coordinate axis to any of the 4 job axis locations will automatically orient the coordinate axis to the pre-defined rotation and position. This permits development of toolpaths on any of the 4 indexed surfaces. Save your file at this time.

If you press J and display the Job table, you will see that there are now 8 entries. 4 from the macros and 4 from the job axes. Use the move up move down buttons to palce each job axis immediately after the corresponding Macro.

Clicking on the name of the Job axis in the parameter box below the tree view (@jobname) will permit each one to be individually named.

Now design the geometry to be placed on each face, snapping the coordinate axis to the corner Job axis on each face. Create toolpaths with NC-2d, 3d, and drilling routines.

Move each job step so that it follows directly behind each associated index axis on the job table

Create a Box stock and run a simulation. The simulation will be oriented to the box stock orientation, but the displayed tool motion will show correctly on each face.

To generate the CNC code, activate only the steps that apply to a single face, orient the coordinate axis to that face’s job axis and generate CNC.

Deactivate and activate the next series of job steps for the next face, dragging the coordinate axis to that face’s job axis as well.

Generate CNC for the job steps associated with that face and continue until all 4 indexes are complete.

Download Indexing.zip for cfg and cct files.