5 axis kinematics and coordinate transformation

[piv]

I should add that Topsolid and Mastercam can do the kinematics so they just output axis movement, not the tooltip.

[BR549]

Sorry but Mach does not do kinematics so it cannot Jog in world mode( Tooltip mode)  All kinematics MUST be accounted for by the CAM software for running the gcode side.

(;-) TP

[piv]

Yes you are right, Mach3 does not do kinematics.  But some CAM packages can do the kinematics. But you cant tilt the tool and then jog in the tool direction. But you could write a macro that could do that kind of manual move if you needed to.

[benergybenergy]

As long as the 5 axis toolpath is short straight lines mach3 can process poor man's kinematic motion with tool length compensation, even compensation for bad rotary head alignments, provided some vector formulas are inputed, the downside is no  true jogging. Unless you use mdi, what would be good is a step based mdi jogging routine(10mm at a time?), i ll look into this when i get some free time and its raining.....
Piv, i never noticed mastercam having kinematic computed outputs, where are the head values set?  I assume It wont do kinematics for heads with b and c offsets like CNC toolkit? ...or did you mean 'cant' rather than 'can' in the last post.
I really do like toolkit...
I still swear by indexed head machining for big curved open surfaces on routers...it's like overdirve on the autobahn compared to 2nd gear round the back streets.

[piv]

Mastercam needs the right post for doing the kinematics.  We got one and the head axis offsets and pivot lengths etc are all variables in the post setup file that can be set. It was about 7 years ago for a customer so its testing my memory.

When you say for Mach 3  the vector formulas need to be input, can you give a short description and example of how that is done please? Is it through the formulas menu?