CNC nut from Texas

[PPRINT]

Hello all.

I would like to introduce myself here.  My name is Rob , and I come to you from Texas, USA.

I found this site while searching my Tapatalk phone app looking for a new CNC site to read.  I was quickly hooked and read everything I could on this site, both CNC and not.  I am so pleased to see all of the contributors being very gracious and willing to share their knowledge without undertones.  That is a rare thing on today's internet forum sites. 

My background....
I was first introduced to computers in 1985 when my high school started a computer programming class using the new APPLE IIe.  That first year I fell in love with coding.  I spent the whole summer break between the 10th and 11th grade mowing lawns and doing odd jobs for money .  By the end of the summer I had about half of the money saved to pay for that computer.  My father was impressed by my commitment to get a computer so he agreed to pay the other half.  I spent the remainder of high school mastering Basic, Cobol, and Fortran.  It was the first thing I had ever been involved in that I felt I was a natural. Sadly I was never able to attend college to further my coding interest. I did however attend a trade school and studied in the Tool & Die program. I was recruited by the Boeing Aircraft Company as a trainee in the CNC machining department within a year of starting that program.

Fast forward to today...I have been in the Aerospace machining industry for my whole working career of 30 years.  Almost exclusively in the CNC specialty.  I ended up programming CAD systems for about 2/3 of that time. Today I am a Senior NC Programmer for a DoD contractor in the Aerospace industry.  My software of choice  is CATIA V5 and now CATIA/DELMIA V6 r2013x.

I am working on a CNC router project at my house that I will describe in another thread in the CNC forum.

I look forward to getting to know you all and look forward to learning from you.

Rob

[DMIOM]

hi Rob and welcome - we're a diverse but hopefully friendly bunch here!

Dave (Isle of Man)

[Pete W.]

Hi there, Rob,

Hello and welcome from a UK Mad Modder.

[Joules]

Hi Rob,  in my yoof...  I bought an Apple II+ when my mates were all out buying cars etc.  I didn't get on with the programming side as well as the hardware, and that led me into computer controlled devices and eventually a job as computer engineer at a local University.  That got me into CAD CAM, Rhino and stereo lithography in the early 90's.  I had a good head start on 3D printing without realising it.   I currently work as a freelance prototyping engineer.

Welcome to the Madness, look forward to seeing your work.

          Joules

[krv3000]

hi and welcome

[awemawson]

Hi Rob, nice to have you onboard sir 

[PekkaNF]

Warm wellcome.

How is catia 6? Any fun with connection to PML/PDM and componenet constraints?

Pekka

[PPRINT]

Pekka,
V6 has been a real love/hate relationship. After working with this version for the last 4 years I think I am finally at a point that love out weighs the hate. 
Somehow we ended up not buying Engineering Central so the full functionality of PLM and PDM is not there.  The two biggest things we are missing is having our Design Change Request system integrated into ENOVIA, and we are not able to fully release anything.  We can Revise files, but not fully release them.  What this means to a programmer is that the Engineer with Design Authority can open the original file and edit it.  Any file that uses that edited part now needs to be opened and updated.  All of that is great in theory, but there are some problems if the Engineer deletes a feature that is used for an Engineering connection or linked to a tool path.  We develop our own products at this company so you can just imagine how many revisions take place.  I cannot tell you how many hours I have spent rebuilding PPR's because of a very slight modification to a 3DP. Things have  gotten better now that all the users know where the pitfalls lie and how to best utilize the strength of the PLM system.  In the beginning I was spending days to rebuild a PPR to recover from a design change, and now I rarely spend more that 20 minutes on it.

Hopefully we will be able to upgrade to 3DExperience later this year.  Supposedly everything wrong with V6 is fixed in the new release.

Rob

[mexican jon]

  Hi Rob

[PekkaNF]

Rob, all that sounds very familiar. I don't do cad but all the door and cubicles around me have one (and sometimes two using Catia v5/v6 and trimmings). Due to legacy work and die hard designers. Some last v4 users are phasing out old version. And don't get me started on PDM that does not work reall well as PDM, because corporate people wanted to build there everythig they could not cram into ERP.

I use PDM all day and cassually export one poduct out of project for further processing. Small ones have 15k parts, some more, some parts are nuts and bolts and some are hydraulic units with 5 fair size pumps pumps and I'm supposed to make sense out of it.

Pekka

[howsitwork?]

Hi Rob

sorry you lost me on the technical stuff . I'm still getting to trust I pads etc ( actually starting to like em even to my amazement )

welcome to the collective.

Ian

[Biggles]

Hi Rob and welcome. 

[AdeV]

Hey Rob, welcome! I think you'll like it here...

Sounds like you & I got bit by the coding bug at about the same time... I guess I'd have been 10 years old the first time I even saw a computer (in 1983, that would be). I was lucky, I got to follow my ambition through senior school and on to college (well, Polytechnic, which is a kind of University-lite....). Spent the last 20-odd years writing software!

Funnily enough, I prefer to do machining these days, and thoroughly enjoying using my CNC mill. Sure, it's ancient & uses an obsolete programming language, but it does for me. And I'll have to learn G-code anyway, when I get my Mazak lathe going... one day.

Anyway, welcome to the mad modders! We're all mad here, but in the very best of ways 

[Doc]

Welcome Rob
  We have a similar problem with the original file (master model) being edited instead of being locked and a rev copy being edited. We use Siemens NX and Team Center to supposedly control it but some designers have found ways around  releasing (locking) the master and creating a rev file. Saves them a few seconds only to cost use hours getting back to the master.
   We actually use 3 different design software Catia, NX and FeatureCam used in he tooling room.
  Anyway welcome aboard!