Just plain turning issues?

[DC Gorn]

Most of the programming I have done since switching to X has been 4 or 5 axis mill. Today I am trying the Turning side and I am not happy. I have had two fatal crashed in less then 2 hours. Both costing about 20 minute in lost work. First crash I was switching from one size groover to another and X just shut down and one those email requesting info windows poped up. This required a reboot cause when I reopened X I could not regen any operation and I got no reason why. Reboot fixed it.

 

Next I just changed a operation from OD to Face and the software just closed and I got the popup window again.

 

Neither error is repeatable.

 

Anyone else seeing this kind of instability in turning?

[chris m]

V9.1 SP2 runs the nuts

 

I never loaded X

 

Sorry

[DC Gorn]

Thanks for the informative post Chris. It turns out I was wrong in the first post in that the switching from OD to Face in the turning operation in this model causes an instant crash everytime. I just did it 3 times in a row.

[chris m]

I typically don't post 'no help' responses, but there aren't that many lathe guys here and the ones I know well don't run X.

 

Nice Camaro

[Hymen]

Just for the record I don't have any problems with it. But I would sugest using the lock function after you've made a toolpath you like. Lock and toolpath edit are 2 feature that make X work for me.

[Tim Simmermon]

DC

 

I've done similar things on my turning programs and I haven't had any crashes. Are you programming from a solid or 2D entities? In Lathe I never use a solid for programming. I think there is a lot less "thinking" that way (both the computer and myself). I can't recall having any crashes using Lathe.

[chowquoe^]

I have no problems with crashing at all; I use Facing ,OD turning, grooving and cut-off quite regularly. I am programming for a Mazak Integrex, so I use the lathe paths frequently, I have not notice any issues at all in MR2. Maybe a re-install of MR2 would help????

 

[garyg]

I've had several crashes while doing a groove.

[Chris Rizzo]

I'm a relative mcx lathe rookie too and have had more crashes than I can count. The kind of instant-pull-the-plug type of crash, too. Here is my latest thread cutoff crashes

 

I finally figured out what the repeatable pattern is, and sent it to qc. My regular mcx installs have been nothing but stable and good, and that includes beta testing...so I'd like to rule out my system as the culprit.

 

However mcx lathe seems to be a different story.

[gcode]

I do a lot of lathe work, all in X.

I don't even have V9 installed on my computer anymore. Crashes are rare, in fact I can't remember the last crash I had running lathe.

[chowquoe^]

Chris for cut-off routines I usually create a point at the intersection of the 2 surfaces and select that point as my geometery. I use the options to create any chamfers or radi.

[Reece L Gibson]

Been having real good luck Lathe and Live tooling so far.

Good code to boot.

Humm....Send the file over or put it on the FTP if you can,I'll look at it

[DavidB]

I use X Lathe and would not consider going back to V9.

[chris m]

Glad to see some positive X turning impressions; maybe I'll install it someday!

[DC Gorn]

I have been a Mastercam user since 98 and I have to tell you I am about to give up. I have beta testing software since 92. I have never seen so many errors in programming. Their error handlers are almost none existent. Even AutoCAD 13 (which was only out like 11 months) was not this bad. I have at least 4 bugs that where unknown before I logged them at this point and this is the 3rd non-beta release? How can you have a button that allows you to switch from OD to Face operation and never test it using solids? How can I cut and past two drilling operation and the software get the points mixed up? I have been trying to use the Lath program for 2 days and I have had a dozen or so crashes to the desktop. I don't even want to hear its your PC Mine is a intel box with 2 gig of memory and it runs Solidworks and Vericut. In fact I can not remember a crash in either of those softwares.

I know if I work at it I can "Find a way" to make the part without crashing but why should I have to. I should not be able to crash this software to the desktop if I tried and believe me I am not trying. When you crash to the desktop it means you did something that CNC did not think could be done cause they should have a handler to give you a clue what you did wrong and you do not crash. A friend of mind is a software developer and he will tell you the different between a professional programmer and an amateur is their error handling. He told me that 12 years ago. It is still true today.

 

[ 06-13-2006, 08:41 AM: Message edited by: DC Gorn ]

[chris m]

I certainly understand your frustration and I have always felt that the Lathe product sucks hind teat with CAM software developers because the majority of their users are machining center guys. I really like V9.1 SP2 Lathe which is why I still use it a year after I have had X available to me, but I know this is not helpful to you in your case. You may want to reload X to see what happens because I have had some .dll issues in the past that caused some crazy sh!t. Somewhere on this forum is a thread started by me because my box was crashing all of the time back when 9 or 9.1 came out and I could not figure out why. I feel your pain, but I'm not sure that you are going to get much help here for this; what you probably will get is the CNC suckup crowd telling you how hard it is to write software and how great Mastercam is and how much better CNC Software is than all other software companies on Earth, as though you give a sh!t when you have a feature which is not working.

 

C

[DC Gorn]

I am a little worried about reloading cause I had to do that twice already to get my 5 axis working right.

[chris m]

Have you talked to your reseller on this? They should be able to provide some kind of guidance here

[DC Gorn]

I am sure they will log all the issues that I define and they can repeat and they will tell me that the non-repeatable ones are flukes and I should re-install yet again. You know what I am tired of it. I paid a lot of money for this software and did not sign up to be a beta tester. If CNC is willing to let my company bill them the ridicules amount they expect me to generate every hour I am sure we could work something out. As it stands now I got more hours invested in getting X working right then I do in any one project.

 

I finished the turning part of my current project and looking back I think it would have been faster to program the 2D stuff by my HP calculator. I now understand your first post and will heed your advise Chris on the next lath project.

[chris m]

quote:

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I think it would have been faster to program the 2D stuff by my HP calculator

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This is often the case with simple turning operations. Believe me, I understand what you are saying; when I first started with MC it would take me 4 hours to program a turned part that would take 1/2 hour with my TI-82 and a scratch pad. I really like the software now but I am definitely NOT into d!cking around with simple stuff for hours to make it work. I'm sure things will be right in time.

 

C

[Guest]

quote:

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Glad to see some positive X turning impressions; maybe I'll install it someday!

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C'mon on in the waters fine chris.

 

Taking the lathe class yesterday and today.

 

[chris m]

Has anybody over there ever actually turned a part? Sorry Peter

[DavidB]

I agree Lathe has been left behind.

I started this thread in Jan and got no replys.

Lathe

 

What was the latest thing added to MCX Lathe?

Mill gets 7 new HS toolpaths and now in MR2 new multi axis toolpaths.

I supose that's where the majority of uses are.

 

That being said MCX Lathe is better than V9 Lathe.

Give the C-axis toolpaths ago, no need to craete any Cplane. MCX Lathe seems smarter.

I have made some very complex parts lately with MCX Lathe using C and Y-axis toolpaths.

Not to mention you can now in MCX have your Lathe and Milling machine ops combined in the one MCX file.This is a big bonus.

It's not perfect but I believe it's better than V9.

[gcode]

quote:

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Has anybody over there ever actually turned a part?

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Daily

[chris m]

Do you work for Services Four Automation now, gcode? That's where John was taking his class, hence the wisecrack.