Am I crazy for thinking conversational CNC code is getting out of hand?

Last Thursday at my shop in Portland, I sat through a 45-minute training video where the software kept saying 'let's take a journey together' before every toolpath move. I swear it talked more than my actual coworkers. Has anyone else noticed these new CAM programs acting like they want to be your buddy rather than just cutting metal?

3 comments

3 Comments

hollyl251mo ago

Our Haas VF-2 has this new conversational mode my boss made me try last week, and I gotta say it called me "friend" about 37 times during a single facing operation. It kept asking if I was ready to "explore the pocket" and honestly I almost threw my calipers at the screen. My fix was digging through the settings menu and turning off the tutorial assistant and voice prompts completely, that took about 90 seconds and now it just shuts up and cuts. Those help files are useful for beginners I guess, but for anyone who knows their way around a machine they're just noise.

william_harris1mo ago

Yeah EVERYTHING lately thinks we need a pep talk to just do our jobs.

torres.thea1mo ago

Huh, you know I used to think those conversational interfaces were a step forward? I read about them in some trade mag and thought it might help the new guys get up to speed faster. But after hearing you say the machine called you "friend" 37 times, I'm really rethinking that. It's like the software engineers have never actually stood in front of a machine and just needed it to do its job without all the chatter. I can totally see how quickly that would get annoying, especially when you're just trying to knock out a simple facing op. Honestly, I'm glad you found the settings to shut it off in 90 seconds, because that kind of noise would drive me up a wall too.