Why is MCX unstable ???

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

Bruce,

 

You said you're running Dual CPU's???

 

Have you tried forcing MC to run on one CPU only? RIght CLick on Task Bar, Set Affinity, etc...???

 

Back in the day I ran Dual CPU's often and this cured 90% of the crashes.

[Bruce Caulley]

James,

Yep, tried everything mentioned here. It seems to be the bigger files with multiple WCS in use that are the main culprits, though smaller files are sometimes a drama also. Regening surface rough pocket and/or surface leftover is a nono without running the savebackup.vbs. Same with flow5 and multi5. The biggy I'm working on at the moment has no chance on the PC at work so I am at home today on an older pc having no problems. Normally I don't have much trouble, but in the next couple of months I have 4 or 5 BIG jobs coming up all requiring a stack of 5 axis operations. I am a little worried that I'll be forced to use on old P4 just for the sake of stability.

 

The annoying thing is that it can be perfectly stable for the first 6 hours of a day, then toast after that. Or vice-versa. I have already checked to see if it was happening at scheduled network maintenance/backup/IT guy porn download times, but haven't been able to make a connection.

 

Bruce

[MIL-TFP-41]

I think this thread (and many others) should be a sign to CNC software to start certifing hardware and drivers for Mastercam. Most other CAD/CAM packages already do this.....Think of how much frustration this would save people having problems....if they are having problems, one could point them to the certified driver list (a page that has drivers known to be stable with mastercam)

 

Personally I find X to be stable....not saying that it never crashes, every program does. I am a big fan of Omega drivers ( http://www.omegadrivers.net/ ) and also RivaTuner (among other things, it lets you turn a 6800GS card into a QuadroFX4000)

http://www.guru3d.com/

 

I can't recommend RivaTuner to those who are inexperienced with messing around with hardware & drivers, but for those who are comfortable, use it

 

Omega drivers I recommend to anyone have any kind of stability issues...just use the "performance" setting when you install

 

I also think that running a dual core or dual CPU setup with mastercam is nothing more than a waste of money...Mastercam does not currently support multi-threading, but my guess is is that they will in the near future. Dual core processors are becoming way to common for them not to. Setting processor affinity in no way resembles a multi-threading application...all you are doing is telling the OS to only use 1 processor for running mastercam (or whatever other app you set up to do this) In a few years (lets hope we don't have to wait that long) the CPU companies will come out with something called "reverse hyperthreading," which would make multiple CPUs look like one to a single-threaded program. This would be way cool to have today...but hopefully CNC makes Mastercam multi-threaded very soon.

[Watcher]

quote:

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Ideally many would like to run Mastercam with on board graphics cards because they are cheap. Would it be Mastercams fault that it did not work well with onboard graphics?

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Of course not. The another CAM developers has the same problems with low-end graphic cards. But in the most of times they mention clearly this on software documentation, as well as the supported and certified hardware.

[Saultspics]

A list of certified driver & recommended hard ware would help, but can we find a set up that will work with all of the programs that we run. This is not just a Mastercam problem I have had problem with Pro-E, Autocad, and other software. For me MR1 has been stable, but for others it has been flaky the same thing is true with V9 and other softwares.

[Fig sign]

Cimatron -they usually sell you here their own computer with Ciamtron installed :

all -in workstation .

And they use Nvidia -no on -board cards and no ATI .

They would not deal with your hardware problems -change your hardware ,that`s it and they are right .

Some cards are simply sux because of drivers support and Windows OS sux too .

Now GDI approach of windows may be looking good ,but

you are stick with what you have .

In Linux you can change your kernel to support new libc library and recompile if you need some programs ,in Windows it is not go .

But Windows much simplier for common user .

I am old user of Macs ,although Apple is both software and hardware vendor still they had and have their own problems .

it is hard to tell from the common glance what is software and what is hardware problem and it is impossible to test all OS ,hardware and drivers configuration .

I think CNC software need to define HSL and test it .

If you run certified hardware OS combination yand you have numerous MCX problems than you must bave top priority ,if now ,than you last in the row .

[DC Gorn]

To the people who are having major issues like myself. What is the source of your geometry? Is it drawn in Mastercam or imported? If its imported then from what software? I have begun to supect my solidwork 2006 solids may be causing issues.

 

Funny how some of the problems that are common here I don't have and I have problems I haven't seen here yet.

 

Example: twice now while coping operation my operations manager just goes blank. 30-40 operations just gone.

 

Example2: I have a 50 meg 5 axis pallet for a DMU I am working on over the network and it works as dependable as 125K turning only part off my harddrive.

[Guest]

quote:

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have begun to supect my solidwork 2006 solids may be causing issues.

---

I "doubt" this is your issue. I being in 95% of all my work from SW2006.

 

It seems I keep hearing "network" in a lot of the issue threads.

 

Have you tried moving everything local to see if it helps?

[Müřlıń®]

I am not totally convinced that the video issue is 100% with the drivers or type of video card.

 

I had a SIS chipset that I tried everything to get MC to stop crashing.

 

I even bought a quadro card, it still had random crashes.

 

Then when I used the quadro with another chipset, suddenly I am getting no more crashes.

 

Of course its just a Pent4 3.0 ghtz CPU.

 

I have a PNY high end gaming card at the house and even though the sometimes the graphics is a little glitchy, it doesn't crash every 10 min like the SIS did. I have an Intel chipset on that one also.

[Pete Rimkus from CNC Software Inc.]

Randle,

 

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"A BIG THANK YOU to all of you who actually helped. I apologize if I pi$$ed of any of you guys, especially Pete."

-----

 

No apology necessary. I can feel your frustration, and I hope these new drivers do the trick. I do know now that you have been sending files in, and I know you're just as serious about helping us resolve these issues as we are about trying to resolve them.

 

Does that "Clam" .JPG mean you're now "happy as a clam"?

[Saultspics]

DC Gorn,

Are you running X+?

 

This was causing me a fit after doing a solid drill my ops manager would flake out and the toolpaths would blank out. According Rob at QC it does something to the MTB file. I was not running X+ with MR2 beta but when I loaded MR2 it migrated some of the MTB from MR1. I done a clean install without X+ and the ops manager is working better now.

 

I really like the X+ setup sheet and hope that this problem is fixed soon.

[RandleXX]

Yep, Happy as a clam !!!

 

That is... until the next issue, or the medication wears off..he.he

 

 

161 Posts on this thread, WOW!

 

[gargodude]

This reminds me of the problems that the AutoCAD community had after r12 & r13 came out (DOS to Windows). Lot's of bugs! Didn't get worked out until ACAD 2000. I still think that CNC Software should focus on existing customer concerns and bug fixes rather than try and introduce new features with each release.

[crazy^millman]

dude dig up an old one why you are at it.

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

Yeah, this one was definitely near the back of the line....

[Colin Gilchrist]

Man, I thought Randle was back for a minute. CNC is working on existing issues. Are you sending in bug reports directly to [email protected]? Try being part of the solution, not part of the problem. Take a clue from Randle. Nothing but complaints until he found solutions to his problems, now not a peep. Some of us work very hard to help improve Mastercam and help our fellow members.

 

That being said I can understand your frustration with features in Mastercam that should work, or did work in the past and now don't. I face that battle daily with the regular 5 axis toolpaths. You can't have a seperate clearance/retract value, the entry/exit moves use the retract feedrate, the list goes on. When I do find an issue though I report it and get a bug error number.

[ToolMan184]

And I understand what your saying Colin. But, when you get software that you have paid a nice penny for you expect to have it work properly instead of getting more stuff that doesnt work.

[Bruce Kanzelmeyer]

I was just thinking of starting a new thread when this popped up! Is anyone have issues with MCX2 MR2 (latest update) crashing on Surface High Speed toolpaths? Last couple of days its been VERY frustrating on several projects. Here's typical scenario: After creating a surface high speed toolpath, like core roughing, I copy this operation and when I attempt to go into parameters to change to a waterline op, MC hangs--the parameters page doesn't open and MC freezes. The only way to proceed is to open task manager and shutdown MCX which is "not responding". This happens everytime I reopen MC and attempt to copy an operation. The only solution is to actually shut down windows and reboot the computer. Then I can open this project, copy the operation and modify it as required. But after doing this several times it gets to a point when MC freezes againg and I have to reboot the computer. Is this a known problem with the Surface high speed toolpaths? I didn't notice that this was as much an issue with previous releases of MCX2.

[dgriffiths]

Bruce, I use the HSM toolpaths daily in X2 MR2 with no problems copying exactly how you described. You may want to consider a re-install. By the way how are things there. I have have not talked to anyone in a while.

[Bruce Kanzelmeyer]

Hi Don, unfortunately I think it was a reinstall that that has caused the problem. Am considering a reinstall when I get a few minutes break--they've been keeping me pretty busy. I was just wondering if it was my installation or if anyone else was experiencing this problem.

 

Are you doing any programming in UG?

[dgriffiths]

Yes I am kind of jumping back and forth right now between UG NX5 and MCX2. A lot of the files we receive are native UG so it makes it kind of nice to have the model history on the more complex geometry.