Small .exe Program We Made for Generating Tapped Holes

Hi Everyone,

We have created a small program that we use for generating the G-code for tapping holes. We have had some jobs come through that require a lot of tapping and our Mastercam Machine file does not support rigid tapping. So we generated a small program to generate the G-code and used a tension/compression tapping head to do the tapped holes.

Currently the program outputs the correct code for our machine (a Tormach PCNC1100) using a G84 Canned cycle. Because of the delay at the bottom of the hole when the spindle reverses direction the T/C head gets stretched a little, but we have had no issues so far. The next version of the program will generate the code to manually plunge, stop, reverse, wait, and then retract, and this should eliminate the stretch on the T/C head. We also want to add drilling to the program so you can do all of the pre-drilling and then tapping without ever opening any CAD or CAM software. Below is a brief description of the program and a few screen shots.

The program is hosted on our website for download FOR FREE, just download the zip file and then run the .exe, there is a defaults .txt file that can be configured to load default settings but we will go over that later if there is interest. We just want to see if this is helpful to anyone else and get some feedback. If it is helpful we can do a instruction video, and a written manual on how to use it. If you have any features you think would be good to add or if you have any questions just contact us and let us know.

You can download the program from our webpage here: Portfolio :: Programming :: Desktop Applications

Soon to come: Drilling code generation & T/C Tapping without using G84 code

Definitely NOT a virus!

(edit: Wasnt sarcastic enough.. Rolleyes emote added for clarity)

A lot of computers don't like to download .exe files but as mentioned above this is not a virus, it is just a programmed executable, if there are any questions about the legitimacy of the program or our company you can read more at our website Evolve Engineering and Software (EES) or contact me directly. We are working on getting our security certificate so we can offer one click downloads and updates without the whole .exe download thing, that was just the easiest way to get it out until we get the certificate.

I just noticed that the images are small and hard to read so here are some better ones:



http://i462.photobucket.com/albums/qq350/gremilli/Step1.png


http://i462.photobucket.com/albums/qq350/gremilli/Step1.png


http://i462.photobucket.com/albums/qq350/gremilli/Step3.png

It's not possible to modify your mastercam machine file to do this for you? I'd want my money back.

rlockwood said:

Definitely NOT a virus!

(edit: Wasnt sarcastic enough.. Rolleyes emote added for clarity)

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I assumed that is what you meant...and believe me I have better things to do than troll machining forums with viruses. If you would like to contact me and let me know what basis you have for assuming I would, I am all ears. If you have no interest in taking your personal issues up with me off of the forum then please keep it to yourself.

dksoba said:

It's not possible to modify your mastercam machine file to do this for you? I'd want my money back.

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I'm sure it is but I am not a Mastercam expert by any means, we are using the Tormach Post file (I don't know if that is the issue or not) and Tormach actually recommends against the use of G84 because it lacks a delay between the up and down feeds (one thing we will add). We have had no problems so far and with my partners programming knowledge it was faster to make this then to learn how to program mastercam to do it (and possibly screw it up). We are using Mastercam X4 if that helps?

EvolveES said:

I assumed that is what you meant...and believe me I have better things to do than troll machining forums with viruses. If you would like to contact me and let me know what basis you have for assuming I would, I am all ears. If you have no interest in taking your personal issues up with me off of the forum then please keep it to yourself.

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PFFFFFFTTT......

You're too uptight. Won't last long around here like that.

Well, this went sour quick. We were just trying to present a program that may be helpful to some people. I thought it was pretty cool when i ran it and had 100 holes ready to be tapped in only a few minutes and didn't even have to open Solidworks or Mastercam. If you don't trust it, or if you don't like it, that's fine. It was an honest attempt at showing something we did.

Even BoBCAD will Spit code out for Rigid Tapping.

Relax. Most things here go sour within ten posts, you're just above average!

That said, the effort is appreciated, but you're talking to a group of people who generally could cad out those holes or write em as a subprogram faster than they could open your program, figure out the new buttons, and post it.

Don't take offense, stick around. Oh, and I noticed a few typos in your website, I'll pm you about them tomorrow when I'm in front of a real computer.

Stick around, have fun, we're a crusty bunch, and we definitely bite... But it's all in good humor.

TeachMePlease said:

Relax. Most things here go sour within ten posts, you're just above average!

That said, the effort is appreciated, but you're talking to a group of people who generally could cad out those holes or write em as a subprogram faster than they could open your program, figure out the new buttons, and post it.

Don't take offense, stick around. Oh, and I noticed a few typos in your website, I'll pm you about them tomorrow when I'm in front of a real computer.

Stick around, have fun, we're a crusty bunch, and we definitely bite... But it's all in good humor.

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Thank you for the reply, when you put it that way it makes sense. I guess I should preface this post with the fact that the program is written for newbies to the CNC world (like myself) who may not have a real good CAM package or be familiar with all of the manual coding. I have plans to offer the program up on the Tormach related forums too since those are more of an entry level machine and maybe this would be more helpful to their users.

And please do let me know what you find on the website. We re-did it a few weeks ago and it is still in need of some editing (some of our friends volunteered to look it over for us as well).

Thanks again for the reply, and I intend to stick around, machining is my passion and this is the best forum for it

dksoba said:

It's not possible to modify your mastercam machine file to do this for you? I'd want my money back.

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If I understand the topic, I believe the point is NOT to open up any other CAM or CAD software at any time in the process.

I am new to machining as well, but I found this application to work for what it is. I created a few circles, grids and extraneous points then generated the G-Code. I grabbed that generated code, placed it in an NC file and loaded it into Mach. I was a bit leary, so I did not put in a bit and I zero'd high, so it would run in air. I ran the code and watched the mill dance. It seemed to have the correct speeds and feeds, moved to the correct locations and ran as it was supposed to do. As was said prior, for a novice machinist or one that does not think in G-Code it is a good little program. I would like to see it do drilling prior to tapping though so that I will not have to have any interaction with MasterCam. It takes me a long time to open up that memory hog because I don't have the most up-to-date computer system.

Thanks for the effort and information.

Back from the dead...and with a challenge

Hello again everyone. I revived this post to give an update on the progress and usability of the program we wrote. It has been updated to include drilling as well as tapping. The layout has been modified too, and graphing of points has also been added. There is an instructional video that can be seen here: NEW EHGG Instructional Video - YouTube

With this program we generated a part that has 462 drilled holes in a TOTAL of 3:30 and that is from scratch to bringing the G-CODE to the mill and it required NO other software so no expensive licenses to buy. At the end of the video I issue a challenge: show me another way to generate the 462 holes for something like this part as quickly. I can send you a solid model of the part if you want or you can just make one similar, it is a 4" x 4" Plate

Well, since HSMexpress is free and works within Solidworks, and you already have the plate modeled in Solidworks , I really can't see why one would bother using, let alone writing, yet another piece of software. I'm guessing that, using HSMexpress and your example plate, it would take all of a minute or so to generate the code and post it.

All this without the need to enter all the coordinate and other information manually, hoping you don't make a typo. Finally, what do you do when the holes don't follow an arrayed pattern?

Watched the video. I think it's neat! Now if you can work a "closest location" algorithm in there you'd be set. Lots of wasted rapid there!

FYI rigid tapping don't need no stinky tension or compression holders. Hence the word rigid!

IMHO down load and install Linuxcnc on your tormach, stick a 100 line encoder on the spindle and set it up and you can do rigid tapping for real.

To Nami: I have not used HSM express and would like to see it in action, it sounds like it has some sort of automatic hole recognition then because it doesn't need XY points? One question i have is could HSM express do it without the solid model, the filter plates shown are all modeled because of the tight dimensions, but this program was really made for bread-board like parts with multiple tapped holes, the idea was to take a customers print and just start working. And you can manually enter data points in the table if they don't fall into a pattern to be generated, you can also turn on and off single points at a time within the table also.

To Adamkinder: You hit the nail on the head, that is the next thing my business partner is going to work on. he is the programmer who did all of this, i don't know the first thing about programming lol he has a few ideas already working to do a couple different sorts like the way mastercam does, the shortest path is probably the best one to use.

To Adama: haha i like the sound of that! When we get a second mill i am excited to start modifying the Tormach, i have some ideas of how to make it more rigid as well. Do you have any videos of this rigid tapping with a Tormach like you mentioned?

Nope not on a tormac, but if you gogle linux cnc there’s some examples. The capability only came out in the last couple of versions though, so a lot of people have not got it setup as yet.

adama said:

Nope not on a tormac, but if you gogle linux cnc there’s some examples. The capability only came out in the last couple of versions though, so a lot of people have not got it setup as yet.

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that's cool, i'll check it out for sure. thanks for letting me know, you learn something new everyday