Auto Cursor

[kb30]

When I am using the Auto Cursor how can I leave it on. Example I was to use the arc center for 3 different Arcs, Right now I have to turn the Arc Center in the auto cursor on 3 times. So how can I make it stay on????    Hope this is clear question...

[crazy^millman]

Use lock arc center what is was designed for.

I have that on my RMB.

[MWearne]

There's also a lock beside the selection you can use.

[crazy^millman]

14 hours ago, mwearne said:

There's also a lock beside the selection you can use.

Yes, but on the RMB less mouse movement and allows the programmer to stay focused on the task at hand verses having to go pick the auto cursor they want from the drop down to then go pick the lock. By having it on the RMB programming time and being able to stay focused is greatly improved. Shown this and help a lot of programmers with this setup and they all liked it. Do some of the Jacob's ladders and other CAD work I do for 5 Axis tilt lines having that on the RMB is huge when doing any CAD in Mastercam. Also helps when doing toolpath selection for drilling. I don't have to turn off quadrant in the setting I leave it on, because I can right click lock arc center and then when I do want quadrant I still have it as a natural selection.

[cruzila]

I made a keyboard shortcut Alt L

But I like the idea of the snaplock in RMB

[DC CNC]

How did you et up the snap and snap lock on your RMB

[crazy^millman]

It is a little bit of a process in 2023. In Previous versions doing this was not such a pain.

Step #1 File/Options

Step #2 Click on Context Menu

Step #3 On the Choose commands from drop down pick the selection as the active dropdown

Step #4 On the Right Mouse Button Menu add a separator where there is already a separator. Extremely important to position the cursor in that window to highlight the upper separator.

Step #5 Using the Mouse and Left Click the Autocursor Functions you want added to the RMB. We lost the CRTL ability that was in previous versions so this process has to be done one by one now. Pick the order you want them to be in. I use certain ones more that others so they are at the top of my list. Any user can follow the dropdown from the Autocursor as a guide.  This will have all of the Autocursor functions you want to turn into a sub menu added the RMB section the area between both Separators.

Step #6 In the RMB section we Shift grabbing the upper and lower Autocursor functions. When then right click with all of them highlighted and click Create submenu from that right click dropdown. Now I have named this SNAP since the V9 days over 20 years ago when someone created a Chook that allowed us to customize the RMB back then. I would recommend naming it Autocursor. Now here is where the fun being with the dysfunctional part of doing this in Mastercam. Remember our separator we added? It is gone and remember where you added this? That is also not where it was. Now we have to add another separator back into the RMB and then drag this newly created Submenu back to where we had it. (I have done this on well over 100 different systems and seen the same thing 99% of the time since X was released)

Step #7 We repeat Step 4 this time picking all the Autocursor Lock functions we want to turn into a sub menu. Have to be careful to not add them to the Autocursor submenu. The other option is to create a submenu first then add them to that submenu. We need one item to create a submenu and yes the above problem with jumbling up thing can still happen. While I will normally get my submenus all made then go back and fix things after they are created.

I have included a Video, 2023 Workspace File with this added, a copy of my workspace file using no ribbons and a PDF with Pictures in the zip file. Sorry it not a fancy link, but copy this into your browser and you should be good to go. My workspace file has RDB_ in the extension just copy your existing one and then delete it from the config folder for your user account on the computer you are using. I do this to keep a copy of my workspace file should it ever get corrupted.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/pwj1lmw6akruzji/5th%20Axis%20AutoCursor%20and%20Lock%20RMB.zip?dl=0

 

[nickbe10]

On 8/23/2022 at 2:26 PM, crazy^millman said:

I have that on my RMB.

Sorry Ron but I am going to blatantly crib that one, nice.

[DC CNC]

Thankyou for posting how to set it up, that will save a ton off time for me once it's set up.

[crazy^millman]

15 hours ago, nickbe10 said:

Sorry Ron but I am going to blatantly crib that one, nice.

14 hours ago, DC CNC said:

Thankyou for posting how to set it up, that will save a ton off time for me once it's set up.

My pleasure glad to help as many as I can.

[Corey Hampshire]

I tried this in Mcam 2022 and was unable to get it to create more than one sub menu no matter what I did. I opened 2023 and it worked as expected. I then copied my .workspace file from the 23 folder into the 22 folder and it was actually backwards compatible! Therefore, I now have several sub menus and it cleaned up my RMB a ton. Thanks guys!

[#Rekd™]

20 hours ago, crazy^millman said:

I have included a Video, 2023 Workspace File with this added, a copy of my workspace file using no ribbons and a PDF with Pictures in the zip file.

Hi Ron,

How do you make your mouse pointer large and highlighted as shown in your video?

 

[JParis]

Previously, in 2021, the workspace file that pre-dated to an mtb file, would not take any edits in 2021....so I wound up recreating it...PITA that was....

There are oddities in how editing works in 2023.....typically, you create a folder and place things in it...in this, you have to place a function and then create the sub-folder on top of the function which ends up in the folder at completion..

Then I got them positioned in the menu where I wanted them...when I restarted Mastercam, they were in a completely different location......I dragged tham back to where I wanted them, closed/reopened and that time they stayed put...

I too, added Ron's option to my workspace file as well...

[crazy^millman]

10 minutes ago, #Rekd™ said:

Hi Ron,

How do you make your mouse pointer large and highlighted as shown in your video?

 

That is a function of the Camtasia the Video recording and editing software I use. I can add all kinds of effects to the mouse and pointer. What I will do when I am making demo videos or bug reports. I will add a Highlight the mouse and then the different color rings for the left or right mouse clicks.