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How long does it take you to program?

Let’s say someone gives you a metal part with 150 dimensions. How long would it take you to study the print, figure out fixturing, create a setup sheet, and program it? You’ve never seen this part before and it’s somewhat complex. Assume the print makes complete sense to you after studying the print—so you don’t need to ask the designer any questions.

Also, would the program run perfectly the first time? If not, how long would “proving out” the program (making adjustments) take you?

I ask these questions because I get them a lot being the only programmer at a significantly large company with 3 machines. I’m curious what other people’s experiences are, and I’m open to any tips. I will state my answers to these questions in one week. Hopefully I get a lot of responses.

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  • Wow, thanks for all the replies, everyone! Some people made some great points, like how it takes a few hours to "prove" out the program. Some people in this thread gave some pretty short quotes. I can program 150 dimensions in a few hours if I really tried, but the program would be a flop 20% of the time. Either the alignment would need to be redone, or even worse, I could get to some features and realize they're unreachable with my probes, so I would basically need to redo the program with a different part orientation.

    Here's my answer: I usually quote a full 8 hour shift for any program. Some short programs may take me 3 hours, and some long programs (150+ dimensions) may take me 8-16 hours. I try to give an average of "one work day," because a part with not many dimensions could take a while if it is hard to design fixturing. Also, sometimes I have questions about the print I am given. Either the datum structure is not stable (or makes no sense) or some dimensions don't match the model nominals.

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  • Wow, thanks for all the replies, everyone! Some people made some great points, like how it takes a few hours to "prove" out the program. Some people in this thread gave some pretty short quotes. I can program 150 dimensions in a few hours if I really tried, but the program would be a flop 20% of the time. Either the alignment would need to be redone, or even worse, I could get to some features and realize they're unreachable with my probes, so I would basically need to redo the program with a different part orientation.

    Here's my answer: I usually quote a full 8 hour shift for any program. Some short programs may take me 3 hours, and some long programs (150+ dimensions) may take me 8-16 hours. I try to give an average of "one work day," because a part with not many dimensions could take a while if it is hard to design fixturing. Also, sometimes I have questions about the print I am given. Either the datum structure is not stable (or makes no sense) or some dimensions don't match the model nominals.

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