March 14, 2025
SkillBuilders ESPRIT EDGE “Family of Parts”

Learn how to automate your programming workflow and efficiently manage a family of parts in ESPRIT EDGE.

In this exclusive 1-hour webinar hosted by PMT, you'll get hands-on tips for automation to reduce repetitive tasks and while also leveraging CAD software you may already own.

 

  • 00:05 Hey, good morning. Good afternoon everyone. Thank you for joining today's webinar. Uh, my name is George Ndo and I work with PMT uh, short
  • 00:14 or PM Technologies. I'm excited to introduce our topic family of parts where we'll explore how to set up a program
  • 00:22 that automatically sizes for a family of parts with varying dimensions. This approach can improve efficiency, consistency, and accuracy in your workflows.
  • 00:32 We have a great session ahead, so let's dive in. Let's get started. The cool part about using solid works from modeling a family
  • 00:44 of parts is that you can build one model and you can use the sketch values and the dimension values in your, um, building of the model,
  • 00:55 whether it be the extrusions, cuts or sketches. And they can be controlled by these values. And then those values can be controlled from
  • 01:05 a family of parts table. So you can see, I'll show you the table here. You can see each part and then each sketch
  • 01:13 and each dimension on that sketch can be controlled outside of those sketches. And then you can create a table
  • 01:20 that automatically builds you all the versions of the model. And then Espree can use these different versions and you can auto program a lot of the features.
  • 01:36 So as they scale, the features in Espree will automatically scale as well. All right, so we've got Espree Edge open
  • 01:46 and we are just in a machine template file that has my machine loaded, a chuck for main and sub work loaded and some tools.
  • 01:55 So from here we'll want to import our part onto our part layer. So make sure part layer is active, we'll go to file import
  • 02:03 and we're going to go to the folder where we have our step configurations. So I'll just choose one of them to start
  • 02:11 with, right? And then when it, whenever a model loads, you can choose to run CAD diagnostics. For this one, I'll just say yes,
  • 02:24 there are no issues, so we'll continue. So the part looks like, so first thing we want to do, orient our part, right?
  • 02:33 So we're gonna go select the face you wanna orient using and we'll click manipulation tab or ribbon and go to align Z.
  • 02:42 So now my part is aligned and oriented in the space I want in. So we'll go to home part setup.
  • 02:50 Part one is already defined right here because when we loaded it in, it predefined. So now we're gonna add a bar,
  • 02:58 which is our stock for this part. And here we can set in whatever diameters we want. We're gonna set an outside diameter of three
  • 03:06 and an inside diameter of zero. Um, since we're doing a family of parts, some parts may be longer or shorter depending on how you want to manufacture parts.
  • 03:15 We're gonna do slugs here. So I'm gonna have, you know, just a set length that I use for my slug for the set.
  • 03:23 So I'm gonna go to a line top and I'm gonna set a height of four and a top margin of half inch.
  • 03:31 You can obviously do less than a half inch if you wanted. So we'll hit okay there and hit okay from part setup.
  • 03:40 So now our part's in here and we have stock defined. So now we're gonna go to machine setup. And now first thing I'd like to do is kind of turn out,
  • 03:51 turn off the outside of the machine so I can just drag that slider up and see more internals from my machine.
  • 03:58 So now I wanna mount my work piece to my main spindle. So I'll click the main spindle and I'm gonna go to work piece, right?
  • 04:07 And it mounts automatically with the origin of your part at the face of the chuck. For this particular chuck, we're gonna translate it Z three
  • 04:17 to shift it out so that we can machine on the part. We're gonna hit okay there and then hit okay.
  • 04:24 So now we are ready to start creating features and operations to program our part. I'm gonna move back into the part side.
  • 04:36 All right, so let's switch over to features layer. Well, and on our features layer we need to go to our features manager.
  • 04:46 So we can see features as we create them. We're gonna go to the features ribbon and the toolbar. And we're gonna do turning first.
  • 04:57 So let's do turning Select the whole part. Then it's gonna ask for the axis by which you're turning on.
  • 05:03 So we're gonna select this axis right there, right from here. All this is fine with me. I'm just gonna hit okay.
  • 05:12 There's a lot of uh, changes you can make in here if you need to. We don't need to really make any changes
  • 05:17 on this particular one. So it's gonna give us a front contour for the od. A front ID contour for the inside front face Contour
  • 05:28 a back OD contour for turning in the sub and a back face for turning in the sub as well.
  • 05:34 From there, let's select the whole part and we're gonna search it for holes. So we're gonna select the whole part
  • 05:38 and go to the hole on the features ribbon. Um, just let it find all the holes and we're going to, so basically anything less than four
  • 05:48 inches greater than zero with a hole at least 270 degrees of a hole present will be found. Um, combined coaxial hole is, is yes,
  • 05:57 but we don't have any coaxial holes here, so it's not gonna matter. Propagate hole faces, yes, active work plan only, no,
  • 06:04 if we did, yes, it wouldn't find this little hole right here on the top side. Right from there, we're gonna hit okay
  • 06:10 and I expect it to find me three holes that countersunk hole, these simple holes and that through hole as well.
  • 06:21 All right, so from there, let's switch over to our operations layer so we can start building operations. First operation I wanna do is rough the
  • 06:31 front face of my part. So let's find front face contour, which is our feature we're gonna use. And we're gonna go to turning and we're gonna go to roughing
  • 06:42 and I'm gonna system default all once it opens up, I'm gonna say rough face and I'm gonna use my main face rough tool,
  • 06:58 put some speeds and feeds in here. On the strategy tab, we are going to do some start and end extensions.
  • 07:08 Um, a lot of times you can manually type these values in if you're doing one part, but here we're gonna
  • 07:13 be doing a family of parts. So it's critical that we understand that some parts are gonna be smaller or larger than the part we're doing.
  • 07:20 So we're gonna account for that and have espree automatically update the start and end extension for this particular feature, right
  • 07:28 to start, um, let's do the end extension first because I think it's easier to understand what I'm putting into the field
  • 07:35 and then we'll do the start extension as well. So to get to the edit properties for any field in an operation, we're gonna right click
  • 07:43 and go to edit properties, right? I'm gonna pull this to the side so I can kind of explain and show you, right?
  • 07:50 Our chain goes from the face down to the hole right there in the middle. We want our rough face to rough all the way to the center
  • 07:59 of our parts, right? So for that to happen, we need to tell it that we want to extend do an end extension this size.
  • 08:08 The quickest way to do this is we know the end point of our feature and that's gonna change automatically every time we
  • 08:14 load in a new model. So we can use the object search right here and we're gonna search for GI feature
  • 08:23 endpoint, right? And what endpoint is that? That's an X endpoint. So let's select X and then you just take out these little brackets right here.
  • 08:32 And I always like to do the compiled expression. It just validates that it's a true expression and you're gonna get a real value.
  • 08:39 There it is. That's the end extension I need. So I'm gonna hit okay and then hit okay down here.
  • 08:45 Now this field, anytime you update your model, automatically update as well based on the size and the movement of your feature.
  • 08:54 So for the start extension, we're gonna do similar. We're gonna right click, we're gonna go to edit properties, okay?
  • 09:00 And in here we wanna do a couple different things, right? First we need to find out where the start point
  • 09:07 of our feature is and we know that we can get, get feature start point instead of get feature end point.
  • 09:12 But then we also wanna count for the bar stock and how far the bar stock is from that start point.
  • 09:18 So to do that we're gonna search for, let's look for bar diameter that pops up. So we'll double click that
  • 09:25 and then remove the extra carrots you don't need. Then we want to say, okay, we have the bar diameter,
  • 09:32 let's get a radial value. So divide it by two and then we want to subtract the start point of our feature from that so that we're only accounting for
  • 09:42 how much start extension I need from that bar diameter to the start of my feature. So I'm gonna type in get feature start
  • 09:52 point x and then I can just type in feature. Again, you could have searched right here and just put start point X and then search down
  • 10:01 and found it right there and double clicked. But I know the value I need is right there. So let's compile it and find out. Yep.
  • 10:08 And it gives me a good number. Now you, you don't always know if the number's right, but you at least want to get the A number, right?
  • 10:16 You could have a mess up in your thing. Let's try that. Let's say I left the carrots in there, right?
  • 10:27 That's what I'm gonna get. I'm gonna get an error. So that's what the compile is for, not determining whether the value's right
  • 10:32 or not, that's for you to figure out and make sure that you're setting up correctly. But the compile is there to make sure
  • 10:38 that the formula is functioning as intended and that you're not getting an error in your output. So let's hit, okay, so that number output's right there.
  • 10:49 Next we're gonna go to rough and we're gonna set automation. We're gonna leave 20,000 Z and X. We're gonna do a depth, very maximum depth, a cut of,
  • 11:03 let's do 78 thou. And for, let's see, for lead in, we're gonna do a tangent lead in of 50 and a normal lead out
  • 11:18 of 50, right? So now you can see that our start point goes all the way up to the top and we go through the bottom, right?
  • 11:30 So our features there, but we've extended the start and we've extended the endpoint of our feature or of our operation using automated formulas so that
  • 11:40 as we update our model, so will our uh, operation. Alright, perfect. Let's move on to rough od. So let's find our front OD right here.
  • 11:51 We're gonna go to turning roughing and now the system default all let's go to general operation name is gonna be rough od
  • 12:04 and let's do our main OD rough tool and different speeds and feeds. This time do four six strategy. All right, for this one, um, we want to
  • 12:21 basically only do an extension, but it's gonna be a manual one. We're not trying to calculate it. We want to go past this endpoint just so that we have room
  • 12:30 for our turn tool and uh, to clear the area. So let's just go end extension 200 Dow, right? Let's go to rough maximum depth of cut.
  • 12:46 We'll do 78 Dow again and we'll leave 20 thou, 20 thou lead in tangent, 50 thou normal 50,000 as well.
  • 13:12 All right, so now we've got our rough od rough face, then our rough od and you can see them listed here in the operation list.
  • 13:20 Let's save our file now and keep working. All right, so we've got our rough od, all right, so from there let's work on our finish the face.
  • 13:39 So let's go front face contour. We're gonna go to turning and we're gonna go to contour. All right, we're gonna system default all
  • 13:50 and we're gonna say finish face. And we're gonna use our main OD finish tool. Then we're gonna go to strategy and we're gonna use start
  • 14:09 and end extensions again if we needed to. So we don't need to start extension 'cause we've already turned um, the od,
  • 14:16 but we we'll need an end extension and we're gonna use the same end extension we used last time, right?
  • 14:23 Which is the get feature star or end point X feature, right? Just so we can extend to finish the face all the way down.
  • 14:41 There we go, right? So we've got our end extension, let's go to contour. I wanna lead in or lead in a 50 thou
  • 15:01 and a lead out of normal tangent 50 thou for both. That's just so that I make sure across the center line.
  • 15:14 All right? And we can take a preview of where we're at right now in our simulation. So let's go click play,
  • 15:22 let's let the tool come in. So there we are roughing our face, roughing our od, finish our face. There we go. All right.
  • 15:51 So from there, let's see, let's work on our finish od. So we'll go to front OD contour, we're gonna go
  • 16:00 to turning contouring system default, all general, we're gonna go to finish od, let's choose our main OD finish tool,
  • 16:14 put speeds and feeds in again, strategy, um, for the, we're not gonna need much here because we are just finishing our chain, right?
  • 16:26 So we, I've already roughed out a lot of the material. We don't need to do much on end extensions
  • 16:31 or start extensions or end extensions. We will need to do a contour and just set in a lead in
  • 16:38 and a lead out just to make sure that we finish our material and we don't collide the tool anywhere,
  • 16:47 but that should be good. We'll hit. Okay. So very simple finish od pass. There we go. All right, so now we've got most
  • 17:05 of the turning on the main side done. Let's work on doing some drilling. So let's start with our drill in the middle, right?
  • 17:14 We've already got our feature created. So we're gonna go over to this. We're gonna go turning drilling general system default,
  • 17:27 and I'm gonna say drill on center and we're gonna use our half inch drill. I called it a dead drill because it's not live.
  • 17:39 Um, so we're using the part to spin here. So part spinning and we can put some speeds and feeds in here too fast.
  • 17:49 Let's go three 50. All right? And then for whole, we want to go all the way through the part no matter
  • 17:58 what our feature length is, right? Because our part is gonna change in length. So that means our feature's gonna change in which means we
  • 18:08 don't, we want to go all the way through the part no matter what, right? So to do that we're gonna go to
  • 18:13 through depth right here, right? That's only gonna add to the end of our feature. So we need to right click edit properties, right?
  • 18:22 So we right clicked and went to edit properties and now we need to say, okay, we want our bar length minus the length
  • 18:29 or depth of our feature. So we know we can search and say bar length maybe. Perfect. So I'll double click that. So now I've got my bar length.
  • 18:40 Let's go to feature length maybe. No, let's say feature depth. There it is. Get feature depth. So bar length
  • 18:51 minus get feature depth, right? And I'll compile, there we go. So if I hit okay, now I'm extending my feature
  • 19:03 beyond the feature, I'm extending my operation beyond the feature so that it goes through the partner matter what the length of the part is.
  • 19:13 Let's see, that's good. We'll hit okay there. So if I click on that, you can see that it goes through

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