Dumb lathe question

[CamLost]

I have mcam v9.0 at work. There are only two of us on our shift and neither know how to use it. I'm trying to learn it and have a most basic question.

 

What is D??? I'm trying to start a drawing from the very beginning and always get the zero line length warning and no line.

 

Should i be starting my drawings in top, side or front view for lathe?

 

Also, when i try to get a line started from an endpoint, shouldnt it be able to snap to and have a little box at the end of a line I want to start the next line from? I have autocursor on, but it only highlights the entire line. I vaguely remember in mill it used to snap to the line end and have a box appear at the end of the line.

 

I took mcam 4 years ago in college and havent used it since and we only did mill, not lathe. I dont get a lot of time at work to play around with it, so I'm here asking dumb questions.

 

Are there any settings i should have set or need to change before i start? Cad, screen config etc..

 

Mostly i just need D explained.

[gcode]

D = diameter... in V9 Mastercam Lathe that will be a horizontal line (z- to your left, Z= to your right)

[kunfuzed]

Top view.

 

 

And welcome to the forum

It is one of the greatest resourses you'll ever come across!

[chris m]

I don't use autocursor but if you pick the line toward the end whose endpoint you want you'll get what you want

 

quote:

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I dont get a lot of time at work to play around with it, so I'm here asking dumb questions

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A lot of us started working on the Lathe product that way so don't sweat it. The forum Search feature can help you out quite a bit, and there are plenty of us lathe guys here that still use V9

[JDowe]

Top view use d c-plane use create line multi

and just give the coordinates of the next endpoint - ie: 0,0 d2 z-1 d3 z-2 d4 z-3