Using Creo 2.0 to drive an AXYZ CNC Router Table

[ChrisPerivolari]

I am a High School teacher and use Creo 2.0 to teach Design. I am trained in architecture so bear with me. I am also the lead mentor for our FIRST robotics team.

We have an AXYZ Millenium (2005) CNC Router. The computer driving it went blue screen. We are replacing the computer with a Win 7-64 machine. I wish to use the Router table to make parts (sheet and tube cutting) from plastic and aluminum for our robot. We have done this in the past with software called Toolpath with 2D cutting. The workflow was very convoluted, i.e. Creo>Solidworks>DXF>Toolpath. The .dxf from Creo didn't work with Toolpath 2005 on an XP machine (RIP).

How do I drive the router from Creo? We have a Commander SE 2D200220 controller on the router table. Also circa 2005.

The CNC Router table has about 5 inches of z height so it can do 3D machining. Any advice would be appreciated.

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[dschenken]

I am concerned about your controller. I can't see any documentation on it that indicates it is more than a direct motor controller. Is there some link to supporting documentation for it? All I see is that it controls motors, but doesn't convert any language (g-code) into movement. The only doc I've found is that you supply speed, direction, and ramp; there's no position feedback.

You should contact http://www.axyz.com for help with determining what other hardware/software is required to talk to the machine. From 2005 it could have been designed earlier, so you are looking at 10 years ago for info. Not easy on either the computer or controller side.

You'll need new translation software to convert from DXF to (I hope) G-code that the controller requires.

For example: https://code.google.com/p/dxf2gcode/

Over at CNCzone were the following suggestions

http://www.ncplot.com/

BobCAD

http://www.vectric.com/ Cut2D and VCarve, and several others.

CamBam is also a popular intermediary.

Here's a general purpose page for CAM software. http://www.shapeoko.com/wiki/index.php/CAM

[ChrisPerivolari]

Hi David,

Thanks for the reply. I have more info for those that know more about this. I openned the machine up and saw what looked like a control board. AMC 0004G 4G RRH 1468

I am concerned with work flow. We have Creo 2.0, and hopefully 3.0 soon, on our labs computers. I would like to go from Creo right to the CNC Router machine.

There was a product called Pro/NC that I came accross from PTC; I am not sure if it still available to High Schools or if there is an updated version. We have a FIRST Team at the school so the machine gets used a lot during build season. Mentors that come in have mentioned we need to make the work flow better.