Thread: Fanuc Manual Guide V Seimens Shop Turn

Hi All,
Looking at CNC lathe controls......

Anyone got fanuc Manual guide, and do you like it?
My impression is that it seems very longwinded compared to a standard OT control.
For example, G74 for drilling is 2 x lines, Manual guide requires loads of input for the same result?

We looked at Seimens shopturn. To me, it seems miles more user friendly than the manual guide, and loads quicker to program a part. I can best compare it to our prototrak control (which is excellent), but with more power.

Anyone got any experience of using both?

Cheers

I've used them both and they are fairly similar. They both allow you to write a program quickly without too much training, neither runs as fast as a g-code program once written.

Glenn @ Metro North

IMO, maual guide is not worth the memory it takes to store it, shop turn/mill is more user friendly and if you look at the history of siemens any of there shop floor programs are exelent. i think RAP on the A-2100 was the best though. they should bring that control back, just without the minor hard drive issues.

I use shop mill, for what it's worth. I love it. I can only imagine how intuitive it would be with shop turn.

The only think I hate about my siemens control, is it won't add or subtract your offsets. I hate that. Such a powerful control but it can't add offsets? Who thought this was a good idea? Anyway, maybe on a lathe it will add and subtract offsets. Watch for it. I would find it even more irritating if it didn't add and subtract on a lathe.

Barbter, I train people on both controls and both have their strong points.But all in all I would say the siemens is a better control. WAY better graphics! Better options. Also more expensive. I tell people if they are doing medium complex parts and under go Fanuc. If they are doing more complex parts use the Siemens.

just to add, have you ever noticed in the options that siemens 2100 can handle up to 60 axis. i dont ever forsee needing that but having 9999 work offsets is handy. no more need for g10 huh. i built a grid table for my arrow 1000 series 2 and have my vises on sub plates with the back master plate on the vises pinned so all my fixture jaws will repeat when i install them within a couple of tenths. i think the most offsets ive used so far is 70 or 80.

We have found Manual Guide ona 21i to be useless. It is far easier to go straight g code

I found the responses to this thread to be rather interesting. For the Manual Guide haters, I am curious as to why the product is so disliked, and the haters don't seem to have qualified their dislike with any explanations. What doesn't work? How much training was given? What type of machine was the software used on and was it well integrated? I am mostly curious because I have found it to be a rather reliable tool to write programs, and I am able to write programs with CAM, g-code, parametric or Manual Guide. I have run both types of software for 3+ years each and I don't really remember a huge functional difference.

Glenn @ Metro North

For cnc lathe work, programmed at the machine, Mazatrol is the best, hands down.

Sorry for not elaborating. We are Running Manual Guide on a Glidemeister CTX-410C 3 Axis Lathe. The control is a 21i. When the machine was installed, we were given three days of training through DMG. It is a fairly easy sotware to navigate around, and it's layout is intelligent. Our main prolem was trying to decipher the terminology being used. It was never clear to us what information the control was looking for. Once it was figured out (usually by trial and error) the programs were littered with various shape and tooling alarms. Long story short, it was far easier / cost effective to program using straight g-code on a three axis lathe.