Why oh Why

[MrFish]

1 hour ago, TERRYH said:

Here is something new I have never seen before, when we do our trim dies we cut the trim steels and punches leaving .02 on the trim edges, then the die is assembled and we put the whole assembly back in the machine and do what we call a hard cut (remove the .02 stock on the trim edges) this had 6 different tools total, and a total of 26 programs because we have them run all programs and give finish points for them to check to verify stock and then we give them programs to use as "spring cuts" with larger step downs so they run faster and they can us new tooling if the others were dull or chipped. in 2023 all program names match my instruction sheets and all tools match corresponding programs, all programs were posted at same time 1 thru 18 were fine BUT 19 thru 26 all had the wrong tool numbers and wrong tools for the corresponding programs not sure how that even happens. the operators seen it when they started the programs watching the header info in single block so luckily nothing but time was lost. I re-opened the part double checked my stuff did nothing but re posted them with zero changes in MC and they were all correct. stuff like this drives me crazy because we don't know why it happened, and just continues to add to the list of things we have to watch and worry about. 

Is this in MC2023, we had something similar where an operation was effectively dirty, but didn't show as so and posted incorrectly. A regeneration of the toolpath fixed said error.

 

Also while we are all having a rant, why does a transform toolpath operation still post out a ghosted operation from the source operations. How if that operation is ghosted and the transform operation looks to its NCI does it even get posted out, this is in MC2022 and 2023

[TERRYH]

Yes this is 2023

[Thad]

When changing levels:
Select the entities
Right click - Change level
Not quite sure what level to move to, so click Select to see my options
Type in a level number that's not being used
Click the Name field to type in a level name and "Encountered an improper argument."

Eventually the error will go away with enough tries. Then it will be fine. Start a new session and repeat the steps above...you'll get the error again.

[Brad St.]

We've had level issues pop up randomly and yesterday it was issues with the transform also just as stated above.

 

[byte]

18 hours ago, MrFish said:

 

 

Also while we are all having a rant, why does a transform toolpath operation still post out a ghosted operation from the source operations. How if that operation is ghosted and the transform operation looks to its NCI does it even get posted out, this is in MC2022 and 2023

The posting of ghosted operations is there by design so that the post all selected feature can be used safely in a file with ghosted ops and transform ops, 

the caveat is that the ghosting feature is not useful in the context of transform the way you are wanting, to avoid regression, a second type of ghosting would be needed, at least that's how I see it,

Toolpath nesting has the same behavior, if you nested an external file with ghosted operations, the ghost flag would be disregarded, as nesting already applies the ghost flag to imported child operations...

[byte]

20 hours ago, TERRYH said:

Here is something new I have never seen before, when we do our trim dies we cut the trim steels and punches leaving .02 on the trim edges, then the die is assembled and we put the whole assembly back in the machine and do what we call a hard cut (remove the .02 stock on the trim edges) this had 6 different tools total, and a total of 26 programs because we have them run all programs and give finish points for them to check to verify stock and then we give them programs to use as "spring cuts" with larger step downs so they run faster and they can us new tooling if the others were dull or chipped. in 2023 all program names match my instruction sheets and all tools match corresponding programs, all programs were posted at same time 1 thru 18 were fine BUT 19 thru 26 all had the wrong tool numbers and wrong tools for the corresponding programs not sure how that even happens. the operators seen it when they started the programs watching the header info in single block so luckily nothing but time was lost. I re-opened the part double checked my stuff did nothing but re posted them with zero changes in MC and they were all correct. stuff like this drives me crazy because we don't know why it happened, and just continues to add to the list of things we have to watch and worry about. 

I have a quick question, did you access the file via the recent file list prior to posting? This sounds similar to an issue I had to make a patch for recently..

[Thad]

Change an entity's color:

Select the entity

Right click - arrow dropdown of wireframe color

Select More Colors

Select a color from the old MC color grid

Why does that color NOT show up in the recent color list?

[Jobnt]

On 2/17/2023 at 11:29 AM, Prototype_guy said:

The V9 I started on was so simpler quicker and dirty LOL.

Did someone call me?

[TERRYH]

On 3/1/2023 at 9:42 AM, byte said:

I have a quick question, did you access the file via the recent file list prior to posting? This sounds similar to an issue I had to make a patch for recently..

No I have only ever opened them from the folder that were created in. 

[byte]

2 hours ago, TERRYH said:

No I have only ever opened them from the folder that were created in. 

Do you use a setup sheet? 

If the tool info is wrong in the nci, i would expect the setup sheet to be wrong too,

If the setup sheet was correct, perhaps this is a post issue of some sort..

[TERRYH]

On 3/7/2023 at 9:00 AM, byte said:

Do you use a setup sheet? 

If the tool info is wrong in the nci, i would expect the setup sheet to be wrong too,

If the setup sheet was correct, perhaps this is a post issue of some sort..

No we do not use any sort of internal setup sheets, we have a Excel template we use and hand type it to fill in info. we do use Varco reports for tools build sheets for the tool crib but thats it.

[Jobnt]

On 2/16/2023 at 5:39 AM, TERRYH said:

change stuff just to change something and not make any improvements in the change

Since you brought it up, Imma pile on a bit. We'll start with stock settings (yes, there are many ways to set stock, and my point is not about the best method, it's about keeping settings between sessions when nothing else changes).

Why does my stock keep changing when I open a file?

I use Simulator Options / Components / Stock / Solid and select my solid. I do some xxxx, I save it, close MC and go home. When I come back (hung-over or not) I have to keep resetting my stock. 

[TERRYH]

OK this really is aggravating we do check fixtures for some of the parts we do, they have grid lines every 100mm in the X and Y axis as well as the actual trim lines some of our customers requires a recessed tolerance band 1mm deep with the nominal line scribed down the middle and as wide as the +/- tolerance and others just require 3 scribed lines on the surface the +/- and nominal in the middle. we program them with a Harvey engraving tool and have the operators adjust the Z to get good consistent lines scribed into the surface. This is done in our 5 axis because it all cannot be done vertical.  So our process is to go thru the part and break the lines into segments so that we can select what we want to do vertical and the rest at what ever angle is required. when breaking the lines into the different segments it will not always allow you to break them where you want, and sometimes it will create duplicate lines which is a whole other headache if you don't catch it right away.  Does anyone know what causes these 2 issues? other than it just being Mastercam.

[byte]

5 hours ago, TERRYH said:

OK this really is aggravating we do check fixtures for some of the parts we do, they have grid lines every 100mm in the X and Y axis as well as the actual trim lines some of our customers requires a recessed tolerance band 1mm deep with the nominal line scribed down the middle and as wide as the +/- tolerance and others just require 3 scribed lines on the surface the +/- and nominal in the middle. we program them with a Harvey engraving tool and have the operators adjust the Z to get good consistent lines scribed into the surface. This is done in our 5 axis because it all cannot be done vertical.  So our process is to go thru the part and break the lines into segments so that we can select what we want to do vertical and the rest at what ever angle is required. when breaking the lines into the different segments it will not always allow you to break them where you want, and sometimes it will create duplicate lines which is a whole other headache if you don't catch it right away.  Does anyone know what causes these 2 issues? other than it just being Mastercam.

Have you tried the break many function>? it's great for dividing entities up into segments, trim/divide to point always/nearly always works when the other stuff fails and doesn't make duplicates afaik...

[Fred @ Slate Industries]

I had to back up my workspace after getting hosed the first time.

After 3 months I had enough.

Im using 2022 until 2024 is released. First time I've ever had to go back a version since 6.1

[byte]

7 minutes ago, Fred @ Slate Industries said:

I had to back up my workspace after getting hosed the first time.

After 3 months I had enough.

Im using 2022 until 2024 is released. First time I've ever had to go back a version since 6.1

 

a lot of the users are using a batch script to copy the workspace file over from a backup location on startup, 

the workspace getting xxD is a long time issue, 

 

[TERRYH]

On 3/10/2023 at 6:30 PM, byte said:

Have you tried the break many function>? it's great for dividing entities up into segments, trim/divide to point always/nearly always works when the other stuff fails and doesn't make duplicates afaik...

No I have not tried this, I need to break the lines/curves at certain points and not into say 10 equal lengths. Will this do that?

[byte]

6 hours ago, TERRYH said:

No I have not tried this, I need to break the lines/curves at certain points and not into say 10 equal lengths. Will this do that?

I was actually successful in duplicating your issue in 2023,

if you use divide break and click on the segments indicated by the arrows, there is overlapping geometry

 

break at points 2023 3-14-2023.zip

[byte]

6 hours ago, TERRYH said:

No I have not tried this, I need to break the lines/curves at certain points and not into say 10 equal lengths. Will this do that?

trim to point should work in some difficult cases, break many gets rid of splines, if you use break many with a .002 tolerance, then break at intersection, you will more likely get a good result, in the example file, using break at intersection gives a consistent result, where as divide/break leaves overlapping geometry,

HTH

[byte]

I exported this to dxf, in Mastercam 2020 it divides fine

, in Mastercam 2023, there is overlapping geometry as a result

break at points 2023 3-14-2023.dwg

[TERRYH]

In my example the picture I showed we get the trim lines and grid lines from or designers they are single entities, and when I create the boundary to do our recessed tolerance bands I create curves on edges and then  analyze the chain to make sure there are no breaks or overlapping geometry and then I use  spline from curves to create a single good entity, and break it where needed so there are no over lapping or double surfaces, and it at random times will not break where I want it to and I have to figure out a work around to get what I need. It's just aggravating when in past versions it worked flawlessly.