Bolt Circle CNC Program Generator

I have written a bolt circle program generator for CNC machinery. I'll give you a copy if you'd like one. Just leave me a comment and I'll e-mail you a license of the program. It was written in Visual Basic 6.0 and will generate drilling programs for any machine that takes text based (ASCII) format part programs.All you have to do is make a format file for each different CNC controller you have. The program even has an installation/un-installation program for easy setup and removal. No work involved other than making your custom machine format files.

Here is a screenshot of the data-entry & options screen:




Here is a screenshot of the "Preview Output" screen:


Notice that there is one red circle, one green circle, and the rest are black. The green is where the program will start drilling, the red is where it will finish drilling, and all of the others are in between. You can use the program rotation feature to change where the start and stop will occur, however, there is no way to change direction of drilling at the present time.


When the program has been created you will see the following dialog box which shows the path to the output CNC program:



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This is a very easy to use program, and I'm offering it as freeware to pretty much anyone who asks for a license. I only have a few terms of use:

First, you use this program at your own risk; I, the author of this software and this website, take no responsibility, either directly or indirectly, for any damages to anyone or anything which might be incurred during the use of this software, or as a final result of the use of this software. I do not guarantee the fitness of this software for any particular use. You should test it, and if it seems to work the way you want it to then enjoy the cost of the license, and if not, then don’t use it.

Secondly, do not sell this software or the output from this software to anyone, or distribute it to anyone without the express written consent of the author of this software. I hold the copyright on this application and all rights to it are reserved by me.

I’m offering free software licenses for this software application to those who will comply with these terms and conditions. To simplify the terms, here they are again; please don’t expect to hold me liable for any damages as either a direct result or an indirect result of the use of this software, and don’t try and profit by redistributing my software or the output from my software. Use it as you wish for your internal company or personal use only.

Welcome!

Welcome to this new blog for Shell & Tube Heat Exchanger people. I have been involved in this type of work since before I was conceived... I have so many people in my family who do this type of work that I literally grew up learning about it before I went to work doing it myself at the age of 18.

I started in the Machine Shop on a radial drill. I moved up to the CNC drills, then to the boring mills & lathes. Eventually I became a leadman at the age of 23 and then a permanent night shift supervisor. After a while I started drawing the attention of the engineering manager and other supervisors and was offered a job as a draftsman (no cut in pay of course). I took him up on the offer and have worked in engineering ever since. I'm almost 29 years old now and still find many aspects of the design and manufacture of shell & tube heat exchangers both interesting and fascinating.

I have worked over the years on building up my knowledge of engineering & manufacturing, and also my knowledge of computers. I learned how to write computer programs & applications and how to fix computer hardware and network various office machines and equipment.

I have designed, written code, and developed several mechanical engineering & design software applications specific to shell & tube heat exchangers. Among my best is the CAD/CAM software I developed to generate programs for the CNC equipment. The code used for these applications was written in several programming languages; among them is Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 & .NET, AutoDESK's AutoLISP for AutoCAD, and various Microsoft Office applications' programming environments, such as Microsoft Excel & Excel VBA.