We are not getting clear results in the 3DX help files in regards to what all the options are inside of the various machining workbenches and their operations and how these setting affect the machining output. Is there any books anyone has produced that will show the various machining operations and give thorough details on what each of the options do and how they affect the programs? We have been going through the EDU space and it will run you through the programs but just tell you what options to choose to make that operation run. It would really help to know how all the various options you can choose will affect the machining operations and what the settings are designed to do. There is a ? next to most options but it just gives a small pop up with a graphic you have to try and decifer its meaning from. This can be very difficult and rather frustrating. The trial and error learning process is slow and tedious and many times you can select various check boxes and change the setting and it will have no effect of the outcome of the machining program. There for some sort of a cheat sheet we can have access to while NC programming that goes into greater detail for each machining operation and what its internal settings do would be invaluable for not only helping to get the machining programs to run optimally but also as a learning resource. The more I would access that information and be able to reread what the options do the faster this knowledge will get learned so the programming becomes even faster as well as cleaner. Time is money in machining so if you can write your NC programs and save a minute or two off each operation that can equal an incredible amount of money when producing thousands of parts each week. There are so many options in each program that vary the outcome, yet we are having a hard time figuring out exactly what all these options do. There is also the issue with crashes. When you start select options that the program does not like it is far more likely to lock up and crash. Then it is a gamble if the restore feature is going to work and possibly loosing all your work up to a certain point. Just like every designer once you start getting into a groove it is easy to forget to save often. The rendering of the machining operations is slow, so it is also easy to waste a ton of time testing the various options over and over to see how they will affect the programming. Detailed instructions here would be invaluable if anyone has taken the time to produce such a thing.
If the F1 feature or help docs would allow you to select these various options and then jump to the browser and give details and even visual examples how each option works that would be incredible. It would be an ton of work to implement that kind of machining help and info into the 3DX help system so I doubt it will ever get to the point it gives that level of detailed help results. But I figured there maybe someone who has published a book somewhere that details these various machining operations and all the settings and options they include while programming. I thank you in advance for anyone able to offer help in this matter. Thanks, Greg
PS. Any chance Dassault Systèmes is looking to hire people to work on a project like that? I would love the opportunity to take part in helping to improve the training system inside of 3D Experience and especially the NC Programming side of things. Having a reliable CAM package as part of a CAD system is crucial to its success in the future of CAD design and machine programming. Its going to get to the point where drawings will not be needed to produce parts and will only be used to present projects. Much of a programs CAM feature success falls on people being able to learn how it all works. The training offered on EDU space in regards to NC programming is a nice start, but it is more of a demo of how the operations can function than a true learning system that can teach people everything this program has to offer. I have seen NC programmers with many years of experience on other systems try to use 3D Experience and they just struggle trying to figure out how to make the operations function. The same goes for users of V5 to 3DX. It shows there needs to be greater detail implemented into the help and training docs and how they function and people can access them. Also having machinists and NC programmers on the development team would be crucial to make sure things are setup to function the way the users expect them to and not just have a design and interface that works from a developers stand point who has never machined a part or used other CAM software. There also needs to be consistency from one operation to the next. For example there will be a button to flip the part you get used to using but in the next operation its a check box located in a different position that does the flipping. These little inconsistencies add up across a program and just slow people down by adding the amount of information the must memorize. Anyways I think Dassault Systèmes should consider revamping much of the help docs and update the training videos to include the newest features, setting and how they all work. There is nothing worse then trying to watch a training video made on 2016 edition when you are running 2021 and none of features look and operate the same. It leaves you with the trial and error training trying to guess how it works and hoping you do not program and operations so badly it causes 3DX to crash.
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