Lathe CAM Designer

[TDIPower]

I have finally got the Starturn 5 PC up and running. Eventually all the disks and documentation were found.

I have Lathe CAM Designer v1.11 and I am controlling the machine with FANUCSLD.

Now the auto tool changer will change to all 8 positions when under FANUCSLD control but in Lathe CAM it only has 5 out of 6 tools in the menu, the drill being fixed at 6mm.
How can I change this so I can load up all 8 tool positions and change the drill bit size?
I would also like to be able to use a boring bar so I can turn the holes to whatever size I want once it has been drilled.
I am also finding it is not possible to draw things that I would have expected I would be able too.
In lathe cam D1 is at the chuck, D2 is away from the chuck. you can select parallel, tapered, convex of concave curves, screw thread or drill. In each case D1 is closest to the chuck D2 away from the chuck

If I wanted to start with a Bar 25mm Dia
Parallel Turn D1 > D2 at 24mm Dia,
Then add a Taper or curve, It is impossible to have them with a smaller D1 than the D2 of the piece closer to the chuck.
I have tried adding an additional parallel turn so I can drop the Dia down to the required size but the shortest parallel turn it will let me set up is 2mm (although I can do 0.05mm steps above this size).

Am I asking to much from this program?

What could I upgrade to that would give me these features. I have thought about internal threading as well as the external threading I can already do, so if that was possible that would be great!!

Many thanks

[Steve]

LatheCAM Designer is no longer supported and is quite restricted as to what you can design.

It does not allow you to make undercuts or grooves.

QuickTURN 2D Design is a much better option.

[TDIPower]

I have read there is an issue with QT2d and threading on the older machines.
Do you know if it would be possible to draw up in QT2d with threading and then swap out the code for code that would work? Im currently looking at the G code etc to try and learn how it works.
Basically I am drawing a simple object with external thread in lathecam and work out what does what. What I could do with is a series of codes created in QT2d so I could compare them to Lathecam
Say standard bolt sizes external M3 through to M22
Then a series of internal again M14 through to M22

I presume if someone was able to do this for me they would need to know the size/spec of my cutter? The external threading tool fitted to the Starturn 5 I have is the original unit it was supplied with.


Can you confirm that the list of tools in FANUCLSD are just there so you can do a simulation on screen and have no relevance in the real machining? They are however critical for working out the tool paths within lathecam so need to be correctly configured?

I have dloaded the demo of QT2d and had a bit of a play and it looks like it is the direction I want to go. I just want to be sure I can get the threading bit working.

Thanks Pete