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sharles

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sharles last won the day on July 31 2023

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  1. I rarely jump up to the new version quickly, but I did this year and was an early supporter of it...but the longer I used it, the more bugs I found. One was quite catastrophic: Mastercam repeatedly changed my custom WCS workplanes. One time I posted a drilling program and the tap drill and tap for the same holes had workplanes 90 degrees different from each other. My reseller told me about 'locking' the planes, and that did seem to fix it. But the fact that Mastercam is on update #5 should say something about the bugs they've been forced to fix as I have NEVER EVER seen more than 3 updates of any yearly release that I can remember (correct me if I'm wrong). That said, I feel kind of trapped in the never-ending cycle of new releases and constantly having to find work arounds for the inevitable bugs which seem to be a feature of those releases. All of us who have used Mastercam for any amount of time have complained to no effect about these bugs...and why they won't take just one year off from offering new bells and whistles and instead really work hard to stabilize the core programming and constant bugs...but eh, that's in a perfect world...
  2. Not totally sure. I create ALL my tools in the stand alone library. Are you saying if you create an assy/tool inside Mastercam, and then you want to save just the tool? If you are in the internal Tool Manager (Toolpaths--Tool Manager) and right click on an assembly, you can save that to the stand alone library (I think), but I couldn't figure out a way to save just the tool from that assembly...maybe I missed it...
  3. Actually, you can simply drag a tool onto the assembly and it will accept the new tool....I do it lots when I'm just changing from steel to aluminum but using the same diameter drill. And so, I thought I'd try doing the same with a completely different tool before I replied to you, and it still worked.
  4. don't know if this would work. They are our Mastercam reseller, and if I understand correctly, they developed this themselves: FASTProbe | FASTech, Inc. (fastechinc.net)
  5. yeah, that's why I always do it in surfaces and move EVERYTHING except the actual shape of the nest and the patches to fill all the cutouts and slitters to other levels until I need them. I typically spend an entire 8 hour shift just doing geometry creation to prep it for toolpathing. They are the most complicated things I do, and I enjoy them for that reason, but as I get older I'm struggling to hold all the information in my head like I used to do, and so I chop it up into a lot smaller steps than I did in the past.
  6. Yeah, that's a pretty typical range for me, too, but when I do a lower dash inner trim receiver casting I often hit a gig or more, but on a good year I only do 5-10 of those...
  7. I think it's a systemic issue with the software. I don't use hotkeys, but when I'm doing a lot of geometry creation to prep a model for machining, I notice the same thing. Sometimes it gets so bad, Mastercam will barely move. Close and restart it and it's back to what is normal for it...My co-worker literally just told me this morning he's struggling with the same issue down on his computer when he was simply using analyze contour to find gaps in the curve he had to use for a check fixture he's working on...
  8. just literally got done adding 'A2' tools to our library...Now we've got AL, FE, A2 and a few REN tools, and 1500+ tools to wade thru. Personally I'd rather just change the sfm if I'm in tool steel rather than add more to my library, but I'm not in charge...
  9. We use the stand-alone manager and have our tools, extensions and holders separate (other than shrink fit holders which are standard 50,80 and 110mm lengths). Once you build your holder assy in the stand alone and then import it into your toolpath operation you can easily edit the length of the extension on the Holder page. Simply right click on the picture of the holder and it will take you back to a copy of the original drawing of that extension, and then you can modify that drawing (without affecting the original in your library).
  10. Yep, that happens all the time with us even working in surfaces and moving all the useless stuff off onto another level. Heck, a lot of the NX parasolid files I read in from my engineers start at 100-200megs. And it's downhill from there as far as Mastercam getting slower and slower until I will 'limp' to the end of the 3axis stuff, and then I start a 2nd file just do the 5axis stuff so I'm not waiting 20-30 seconds, like you said, just to have a window or operation open that I click on...
  11. I'm Terry's co-worker. Solids are useful, but they also have a ton of useless information in them when we are working with huge castings or even molds and other things which have a bunch of internal stuff like gundrilled holes and waterlines which we don't actually do ourselves. So, I like to work in surfaces and move all that extraneous information that I either won't need at all, or won't need until the very end when I'm doing the side work, onto another level. Then Mastercam doesn't have to mess with it when calculating our toolpaths to do the surface contour on top. It's also helpful to have the 'top' and 'bottom' surfaces on different levels so that when I'm backplotting I can see more easily if I hit anything that might be hidden below, or if I take drills from the bottom too deep and hit the surface 'above.'
  12. When we first set up our own, customized holder library using the stand-alone manager, the guy who helped us downloaded a bunch of the holders from the makers, but he never really showed me how to do that, and the few times I've tried I haven't had great success. So, since that original time in 2019 when we set up everything, I draw most of the holders and extension we have added to our tool crib. They may not be perfect, but we've never had a holder hit a part unless it was an oddball holder that was made slightly different by a different maker of a similar holder. Honestly, I wouldn't mind a good course on how to customize tooling and holders. We have a Frankenstein library of generically generated Mastercam tools and others which I have drawn the best I can, but like I said, when I download stuff...idk...it will have the internal shapes as well as external, and it's just not something I've felt like delving into deeply to figure it out...and our library works 'well enough' and like everything, it's never something our employer cares enough about as long as things 'work'....
  13. thanks everyone. I appreciate it. Like I said: it wasn't our IT guy. He literally left the company because the grandson thought he knew more than our IT guy. After a year of things falling apart so badly (phones not working, computers not working and more), the grandson got the boot and our IT guy came back. He wasn't happy with the gaming computer I was given, but it's mostly been working, but I've sent along your suggestions and perhaps he will be willing to get me a new card. I know those were supposedly on the list of things to get replaced this year...

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