Hi to everyone,

I am new in Mach3 (or any other CNC software), and need help.

Friend of mine, recently bought used CNC woodworking machine centre IMA BIMA 100 ( 2x 7 vertical drill heads, 2 vertical cutting heads, and one 4x horizontal drill head for drilling in X+, X-, Y+ and Y- directions) with installed Mach3 on it. This CNC machine originally used some kind of obsolete Siemens software, and former owner decided to upgrade it to Mach3, but didn't finish this upgrade to the end, when friend of mine decided to bought it for a really good price. Some options on the machine are not yet integrated to Mach3, like a turning Vacuum pumps ON and OFF, rising delimiters, etc., and this functions are temporary redirected to the dip switches.

In that condition machine is usable, and we already use it for some basic operations for vertical drilling and liner & arc cutting of plywood and similar boarded materials for manufacturing a furniture.
Problem is driling a horizontal holes on the boards, what is a really necessary in this manufacturing. It is possible to manually create a g-code for this drilling by using a G18 and G19 codes for a XZ and YZ planes and a G81 drilling cycle, but for any little bit a complicated operation (linear and arc cutting, with a vertical and horizontal drilling on the same peace of board) this could be very frustrating.

 I tried AlphaCam and some other softwares, but they can't do that with an existing post processors ( there is some Mach3 posts for them, but doesn't work with a horizontal drilling ), and generic Fanuc code is to different for this machining to manually edit it every time.

There is also a problem with a Mach3 G81 drilling in X+ and Y+ directions, because of " R lees then X (or Y) in cycle in YZ (XZ) plane" message appears, or I am doing something wrong. For drilling in a + directions I use a G87 code, which works, but demands a little more programming, and machining lasts a a triple longer then a G81 cycle.

Is there any CAM or (CAD/CAM) software capable to post a Mach3 G-code, with a rest, for a horizontal G81 (or G87 for + direction) drilling, and using a G18 and G19 planes?
And, if does, which one is recommended?
If there is no such a software, would be a good idea to transfer this machine to some differ CNC software?

Most machines like that use custom or proprietary control software, that handles all the different functionality that they use.
I used to use a Masterwood with horizontal drills, and iirc, the horizontal drilling used special g codes, like G101, G102, G103, G104.

I don't know what controls would support drilling in G18 or G19 planes. Normally, drilling is only done in one direction, but you'd probably need to drill in both directions.

ger21 I agree with you about using custom or proprietary control softwares for that kind of a machines.
Also, on most machines drilling is done in one direction.

But, machines for producing a particle furniture elements from a chipboard or plywood must have the ability to drill in all 4 horizontal direction, because this parts commonly must have a horizontal holes for a pins or screws on, at least two flank sides. Drilling from only one side, and then rotating the plywood element to drill the other side is a wasting of time and money, and, that is why I must find a solution for this problem.

I hope someone know the answer on questions I asked in my first post. Otherwise, my only option will be to try one by one different softwares, in a hope one of them will work... 

Otherwise, my only option will be to try one by one different softwares, in a hope one of them will work.

OR

Learn how to hand code in the different planes. Drilling can be a simple G1 movement at a feedrate.
No hand coding is not my "cup of tea".

RICH

There are a lot of programs that can do horizontal drilling. Most are fairly expensive, like Alphacam, MasterCam, ...

The issue is that Mach3, and most inexpensive control software, doesn't have g-codes for horizontal drilling. You can probably create a drill cycle using an M Code, and have your CAM software call that??

A thought for you. In CamBam I can create a custom drill cycle that is just G code but is modal. Code it once and it repeats for every hole location.  Picture your panel with the edges rotated onto the XY plane. The custom drill routine for the edges would specify drilling in the XZ plane and use G1 on the Y axis to do the drilling. It would then move to the next hole and repeat the motion. Other custom drill routines would do holes on all sides. They can be saved and reused easily.

Thanks RICH,

I already tried G1 in G17 plane for horizontal drilling, and it works OK, but I must manually input all movements, and be very careful to avoid collisions. This is an option too.
But what I want is to create G-code from CAD trough CAM for machining work peaces which demands more cycles on the same work peace at the same time, like a horizontal linear and arc cutting, and vertical and horizontal drilling larger number of holes in the same time. If I want to make some complex arc cut of work peace, and also need to drill vertical and horizontal holes on it, easiest way is to draw that peace in a CAD and generate a G-code through a CAM software. Why not use CAD/CAM if it is possible. There is always a possibility to manually edit some part of code if it's necessary.

Ger21,
Mach3 have a possibility for horizontal drilling by using G81 drilling cycle, in G18 or G19 plane, but what is problem, this drilling is only possible in negative direction (-) regardless of selected plane. Like you said before, on most machines drilling is performed only in Z axis, and negative direction only. It also works by using G87 code for backward drilling, but demands more programming, and machining last longer. Option is by using G1 movement like RICH says before.

Also, I tried to use AlphaCam, and everything works fine in simulation on AlphaCam posts, but it is unable to post a valid G-code for Mach3. In my opinion, problem Mach3 post processor for AlphaCam because this routines for a horizontal drilling, and using of XZ and YZ planes are not implemented in it.

At last, it looks like I'll use G1 code together with some small macros for avoiding of repeating code lines (like linear movement at a feed rate to the bottom of the hole., linear retracting of the tool to initial point at a high speed, etc).

OK Ger21,
 thanks for now. must install CamBam and try this...

Krep,
If you need help with CamBam you will find the user forum extremely helpful.  I would be happy to help as well.

Two things come to mind.
1. Have you looked in dedicated cabinet software like Mosaic?
2. OneCNC can generate code longhand so you don't need to use G81. This would allow you to drill horizontally from both ends.
Since I own OneCNC XR5 this is what I intend to use when I get my SCM Tech 90 Super up and running.
.

Mike