Hi stayj02:
I concur with the other posters who have described a simulation as having limited training value.
A particular reason that has not been broached yet, is that the simulation will provide no feedback at all as to how the cutter will perform...pretty much anything you care to program will LOOK like it could work but the operator will never know until an actual cutter contacts an actual workpiece.
For example; I can get away with truly ridiculous cuts if I have a well fixtured lump of Delrin that I could never get away with if the lump was steel.
The simulation will never tell you that unless they have become far more sophisticated than the last versions I ever ran (Vericut, less than 10 years ago).
There's nothing quite like the bang of a breaking cutter to tell you it's not gonna work out, and I am unaware of a simulator that can mimic that in all it's sphincter puckering glory.
Certainly the simulations for the software I'm currently using for CAM (HSMWorks) can tell me quite a bit; but when I'm pushing it and KNOW I'm pushing it, there's nothing quite like the sounds and sights of impending failure on the actual machine to smarten me up again and make me back off.
That judgement in the programming to me is experience driven...no amount of simulation can get you to that last crucial step, and I do believe it is crucial before you turn the kid loose on the super expensive toy.
Now to be clear, the kinds of guys you are proposing to train this way have been around real machines and have at least some knowledge of how it's supposed to sound and look, but the judgement to decide what DOC and stepover you're going to get away with using a wimpy setup in a challenging material with sub-optimal equipment...not so easy.
We haven't even touched yet, on the best most sensible order of operations, the proper fixturing and etc etc.
Problem is, as a programmer you have to commit to those things and the machine, as you know is profoundly stupid and will attempt to do exactly what you told it to do.
So will stand-alone verification give your trainees something useful...undoubtedly.
Will it turn an operator into a competent or even workable programmer all on it's own...never!
Cheers
Marcus
Implant Mechanix • Design & Innovation > HOME
Vancouver Wire EDM -- Wire EDM Machining