X3 Mill suggestions and improvements

[Thee Rickster ™]

+1000 on climb/conventional mix, great to have for

HSP waterline

[cncfrank]

I'm all for programming feedrate at IPT in fact that is how I save all my tools feedrate, and changed the post to only post G95's the big problem with that is I can't get a time in Backplot. How about being able to change the depth of a drilled hole using incremental.

 

Frank

[Bob W.]

Fix the bugs!

[neurosis]

I definitely agree with fix the bugs. My signature picture isnt a joke. I cant think of a three day stretch thats went by that I havent had a crash costing me lost time.

 

Another thing that would be nice, and this may just be ridiculous to some, but it would be nice to see a way to lock the speeds and feeds in an operation so that you can have different feed rates without worrying about changing them by clicking to the tool in the operation again. I'll use one tool to do several different contours at different feed rates and some times spindle speed and its too easy to accidentally lose these by clicking on a tool.

[specprogrammer]

I want flowline to ignore the UV directions.

[PeterM]

Here are some little suggestions.

Hex creation should allow size entry as full/or rad as in circle creation, as of now the dia/rad button is locked.

The check arrow on color selection should be at the top, this would reduce cursor movement.

There should be a cancel selection button, or an undo button in line/circle... etc tool bars, then I wouldn't have to accept and undo after screwing up.

[specprogrammer]

In toolpath countour after you have selected the chain it would be nice to have an option to reassign the start point. I know you can go back the geometry tab right click on the chain and select "start point" but, I don't want to go back, I want to go forward.

[Guest]

on the geometry selection menu, there is a down arrow in the top left corner, if you pull that down you can deal with start points during the geometry selection process.

 

It's already there

[Elmer Fudd]

How about a slider bar in verify like the one in backplot. Dan

[Bob W.]

When running a pocketing toolpath there is a speed and feed override for the finishing cut. Why not have this feature in all 2D toolpaths (contour, circle mill, etc...)?

[Hardmill]

quote:

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I definitely agree with fix the bugs. My signature picture isnt a joke. I cant think of a three day stretch thats went by that I havent had a crash costing me lost time.

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PEACE

[specprogrammer]

Pink to the rescue! I hate to say anything because I know its probably something I already missed.

[Thad]

quote:

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In toolpath countour after you have selected the chain it would be nice to have an option to reassign the start point. I know you can go back the geometry tab right click on the chain and select "start point" but, I don't want to go back, I want to go forward.

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spec, when chaining, you could always just click on the entity that you want to start on. Or do you want to change the start point dynamically?

 

Thad

[shazam/TPP]

my suggestion is when working with a 4 or 5 axis milling, have the MC consolidate the A axis moves. whenever i mill a surface diameter whether using axis sub, or rolldie or the advanced 5 axis, the code always has several A moves that can be added together to have one move

then the next XA move then A then XA and so on..

[Guest]

Instead of all the piddily azz stuff, I'd still much prefer a real leap forward....

 

 

COLD BEER!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

C'mon Pete

[gms1]

I havent read all 5 pages of this thread so im sure some of the stuff I bring up here has already been discussed.

 

- The ability to define my mill tools (facemills, mills, drills etc.) similar to lathe. I want to be able to show inserts, insert type, dimensions, body type and size and have verify tell me if I programmed my toolpath to go 1/2 doc when the insert I picked only allows 1/4 doc (like collision). This would be huge for setting up set-up sheets. Yes I know I can draw this but Id rather have it setup like lathe does it with its libraries or bodies or inserts and I can then plug this info into my sheets.

 

- Allow me to make a facemill 90 degrees with a radius without giving me a big red X :/ So many different types of facemills out there and the interface for facemills is horrid.

 

- More control over defining radmills. Setting 1 diameter doesn't cut it when you can have so many different body styles for them. It should have a nose diameter, body diameter and shank diameter. Also let me define where I program the radmill to. Top of tool or the point past the radius. Allow me to also define a radius on the tool if I need it.

 

-More control over defining counter boring tools. Setting only 1 diameter doesnt even define a counter bore. Where is the pilot diameter? Im tired of just defining an endmill and skipping the c-bore layout.

 

-Remove the dependency of material to calculate feeds and speeds. Let me input the chip load and surface speed myself. Like you have done with your HSM toolpaths. There are many more toolpaths besides HSM in mastercam dont exclude them.

 

-Add the tool holder dialogs like HSM has for the rest of your toolpath package. I dont want to go the route of drawing tool+holder. Give me libraries I can use and make a tool + holder in the tool definitions.

 

Im just disapointed with the entire tool definition layout for mcam. I was really hoping for changes here for more control with the release of X, but it hasnt changed since what? Version 7? Before any of you go blowing your horns about drawing the tools myself and saving them to a library just stop. I've been doing that and it sucks. I want this info in each tool definition right in the tool page itself without having to stop programming to draw some off-the-shelf tool mastercam can't even handle in its definitions. These types of changes will go a long way to making better and quicker setup sheets as well. Running X+ style with the ability to pick and choose what fields are included in the setup sheet and exported to excel would make my tasks much easier.

 

Bug fixes should be taken for granted also. I shouldn't have to pay maintenance to get a fix for something you broke. I would gladly pay for new features but paying for a buggy program to get a bug fix only to break something else is silly. The two bugs that drive me nuts the most:

1. The crash to desktop associated with pressing the backplot button, then pressing "S" for step backplot before the backplot dialog fully loads introduced with sp1 sucks. It hasn't failed to crash yet so it is reproduceable yet there is no fix for this yet. FIX IT!

2. My gawd verify sucks. I select "Use last size" And mastercam usually ignores this. And not to mention its completely random when it will ignore my settings. Sometimes I open verify and I get "Failure in stock definition" even though I just selected my solid body or selected the corners for stock and I see $$$$$$$$$$$$$ in every size defintion (min point, max point, margins). Why? How? I do realize you are using a third party software for this module and all I can say is you need to fire them and get someone new.

[Thee Rickster ™]

JP, mine already has the cold beer enhancement

 

It is an add on though.

[3rdstring]

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JP, mine already has the cold beer enhancement

 

It is an add on though.

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Don't forget the weekly (if not daily) maintenance costs.

[Thee Rickster ™]

I and possibly Hardmill, really hope X3 will

run on a Mac.

[specprogrammer]

Yes Thad,I meant dynamically. I had completely overlooked the tab J Paris told me about.

[gcode]

quote:

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really hope X3 will

run on a Mac.

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good luck with that

[Thad]

quote:

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1. The crash to desktop associated with pressing the backplot button, then pressing "S" for step backplot before the backplot dialog fully loads introduced with sp1 sucks. It hasn't failed to crash yet so it is reproduceable yet there is no fix for this yet. FIX IT!

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gms, this was fixed in X2 MR2 SP1.

 

Thad

[Guest]

quote:

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Before any of you go blowing your horns

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Gee Thad, you just HAD to do it, didn't you?

 

[Thad]

 

John, I'll bet you're the kind of guy who'll let his buddy walk around with a booger hanging out of his nose and not tell him.

 

Thad

[Guest]

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John, I'll bet you're the kind of guy who'll let his buddy walk around with a booger hanging out of his nose and not tell him

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and then I'd laugh my xxxx of at as soon as someone else pointed it out.

 

 

Hey, what are friends for, right?