How did you guys get sooo good

[MotorCityMinion]

Best learning experience? Try running in demo mode for a few months. This will put a damper on careless oversights very quickly.

 

A supervisor of mine, who has no experience in MC what so ever, responded to a problem I was having with MC by stating "Maybe you just need to flip some switches". LOL, he was so right, I've been flipping switches so often and seeing new things so frequently that they add exponentially to my skill set, always applicable to potential challenges in the future.

[Midwest]

quote:

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Pete Carroll says "Always Compete", I say "Always Learn". You'll always be competitive that way. [big Grin]

---

 

Just had to get a usc thing in there didn't ya James............

 

 

 

15 yard penalty no make that 25.... and loss of down.

 

off topic penalty

 

 

[Midwest]

Now back on topic

 

 

Seat time

 

Didn't have time to learn.......just sat down and did it.......had a mold to build.....learned as I created the mold design then started creating programs.

 

It was a challenge and I made it fun......that was back in the ge3 days.

 

Soak up as much info as you can from this forum.......you might have to read thru a few off topic things.......but a few laughs neva hurt anyone.........just ignore the Iowa jokes.

 

If I remember right James answered my 1st question on this fine forum.........

 

Thanks James

 

 

 

 

Off topic

 

 

James.........your usc nonstarter quarterback for the Patriots needs to step it up a little and get me more points.......he has this week off to work on a few things.

 

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

Well, since I've been charged 25 yards AND a loss of down, I'm gonna get my money's worth...

 

quote:

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...James.........your usc nonstarter quarterback for the Patriots needs to step it up a little and get me more points.......he has this week off to work on a few things...

---

Yeah, he does need to step up. Randy Moss better not be mailing the season in, because the rest of the O will key in on that and it will cause things to go to hell in a hand basket, IN A HURRY.

 

 

At the line of scrimage now...

Glad I was able to help you Midwest.

[Jayson Kramer]

Same here guys "seat time" and playing with files.

Oh and ask everyone and any one that I could.

But when I started as a wax investment tool maker is when Mastercam came out and as I was learning to be the tool maker I was also learning MC from the floor up.

I had asked a few years ago for some of you folks to put and files or prints you had on the FTP. This was for my students to be able to have other stuff to work and play or should I say practice with seat time.

The folder on the FTP is as stated for Drawings so people can work with and ask questions here.

 

So please feel free to add to this folder at any time.

 

As for schooling this good real good if you actually have an instructor that does know what he is teaching.

In Cali there are lots of schools teaching MC. But I must say there are allot out here that really don't know it or how to teach it. So try if you go to any public type of school to get any info on the instructor. Will he or she teach you or throw a book at you and say there the computer.

 

Just a few of my thoughts.

[dvaliket]

I can't believe working on work at home, even sensitive, is discouraged at all. I work for a guy that is as protective of proprietary information as anyone and he got me a M90(on top of the workstation at the shop) just so I COULD take work home. Its a great back-up computer and I can get work done while the kid is playing or whatnot. Also, along the lines of printing the topics from here, I like to print out the pdf files that come with the software as well as the help files, and keep them in my bathroom. I always learn new stuff in there! Plus the .pdf that comes with Mastercam is often times better and more complete than other books.

[Colin Gilchrist]

Gotta give props to the M90

[Robert Bell]

Dead Money, I would be a newbie here but I am going to throw my 2c in anyway. This forum is a wonderful source and I have learned a lot in a short time reading here. Welcome

Setup Time: sound like you may have a lot of smaller issues not necessarily one big one and you are not going to have time to stand around figuring out what they are, you need feedback. try getting floor personnel to take notes on what they believe held up any given setup. take a glance every night and you may be surprised to find half the crew looking for the same thing 20 min a day or fighting the same type of problem each day.Pick your battles and fix as you go. In some shops 12 ratchets and sockets will save many hours in a month (simple example but true). Do something good with the input and you will begin to get more of it in better quality from your people.

 

I believe the earlier comments on seat time are absolutely true, takes time and it is worth it.

 

You will find operations libraries will save a lot of time on similar parts.

 

A standard set of roughing and finishing tools for each machine could help save you a lot in the long run as a programmer. Like someone stated earlier, find what works for you in each material and be consistent using them, you've already seen them work and know what to watch for, every success builds more confidence, with that comes speed.

 

A simple man makes a complex part by planning ahead and taking many simple steps one at a time.

 

I hope you can get something good from this as I just put most of the guys that will be helping you to sleep!!!

 

Best of luck and never be afraid to ask...

[Mike Mattera - TFM]

You may have heard the phrase "The more I learn, the more I realize how little I know". I think the best users of Mastercam will tell you, that on their best day, they still only know about 65% of what Mastercam is capable of doing.

 

These are also the people who are referred to as Experts, but rarely refer to themselves as experts. I'm always suspicious of anyone who calles themselves a Mastercam Expert or "Guru" (I hate that word the most. Picture a guy with a Maastercam bag wrapped around his head like a turbin).

 

There are several things that will make you more talented with Mastercam.

 

1 Dont be afraid to play.

I had a guy tell me he never hit the Advanced options button, because he wasn't an advanced user. That's how you get to be an advanced user. Experiment.

 

2 Different types of parts and machines = Experience for future projects.

Mastercam is fairly consistent with techniques for doing things. Knowing Vertical Rotary, Horizontal Indexing and Lathe Live C-Axis, will help you understand the principles of other machining options you may need to use in the future.

 

3 Listen to everyone. You never know what your going to pick up. Two programmers in the same room will learn faster than one programmer alone. Put 3 programmers in the room and it's exponential. When you find something cool (most people) want to share their discovery.

 

Start a user group in your area. Get your boss to offer a conference room 1 evening a month for all the local Mastercam tech weenies to get together and share ideas.

 

And of course I'd be a fool for not saying it here...

Consider Video Training as a way to gather the knowledge of others and learn at your own pace.

http://www.tipsformanufacturing.com

 

4 Always Read The "What's New in Mastercam" and take the time to look at the sample files.

 

Mike Mattera

Tips For Manufacturing

[Rick Henrickson The Boeing Co.]

Ok this is fun

 

Neilj you may be good or maybe not I do not know you personaly but lets be decent here!

 

1992 is not that long ago I started working for my dad in 1981 of course that was just deburr and cleaning the bathrooms but it was a start.

 

I think you are right that there may not be experts in mastercam and as long as I have been using it I would say I probably only know 70% of it to it depends on the kind of work you do as to what part of mastercam you know. I am very lucky to know the people I do I work directly with colin who is very good at mastercam and we bounce things off each other all the time and try new stuff just to see if we can get it to work.

 

I do not know your beef with James I do not know him personaly but I think he is a good guy we have discused things in the past he seems to know what he is doing.

 

Working as a an aplication guy is probably one of the best ways to learn you either do a good job and learn things you don't know quickly or use your resources to find out or you will not have a job in the machine tool industry.

 

ok just had to get that off my chest.

 

Now the first thing like I said before don't even start programming till you have a plan if you go at it one thing at a time and have not thought out the process you may box yourself in a corner.

 

Next program safe and efficient.

if you need help just ask I will share anything I know!

 

Documentation!

Setup sheets are key you need them to always look the same and have the information in the same place each time If you want some examples I would be happy to share.

 

You are right the skill level in the shops does seem to be going down but remember if you can explain it clearly and in the same format it will help them and in turn you.

[NeilJ]

quote:

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I think you are right that there may not be experts in mastercam and as long as I have been using it I would say I probably only know 70% of it to it depends on the kind of work you do as to what part of mastercam you know. I am very lucky to know the people I do I work directly with colin who is very good at mastercam and we bounce things off each other all the time and try new stuff just to see if we can get it to work.

---

I agree that Colin is very helpful. I also agree that you are very lucky to work with him. Colin's points on making Mastercam less modal make a lot of sense to me.

[Fig sign]

:more popcorn:

[ak762]

quote:

---

And of course I'd be a fool for not saying it here...

Consider Video Training as a way to gather the knowledge of others and learn at your own pace.

http://www.tipsformanufacturing.com

---

 

watching video I am learning both Mastercam and english even

[Fig sign]

Privet ,Alex !

[ak762]

quote:

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Privet ,Alex !

---

who is Alex from us two?

[Fig sign]

who is Alex from us two?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I think none of us or both

BTW ,cool Norway team .

What is it ,paintball ?

[ak762]

it's taken from comedy

http://www.langeflateballer.no/

[Dead Money]

Thank you everybody for all your replies. I printed this thread out and will highlight some of the suggestions to follow up on. I am looking forward to spending more time on this forum searching topics and asking questions. Please be patient if my questions are too basic. I hope someday I will get to the point where I can contribute to this forum.

[NeilJ]

You're contributing now!

[TuxedoMask]

My best advice would be to play around with it. Believe it or not I have absolutely no formal training at all. My uncle showed me a couple things in Mastercam and trusted me to make programs in less then 2 weeks.

 

Now a couple months later I can program 4-5 axis machines and edit my own posts.

 

Just play around with it. It'll come naturally soon enough =)

[Dead Money]

I had great intentions on focusing more of my time to Mastercam after reading your replies. Unfortunately other responsibilities have kept me from doing so. Today is the only day I am working this week. I would like to bring home my hasp, get Mastercam loaded and play around.

 

Will I have problems running Mastercam on a Vista OS?

 

What files can I copy here at work to make the new install at home look and act the same?

 

Thanks in advance,

Dead Money

 

[ 11-24-2008, 07:32 AM: Message edited by: Dead Money ]

[strabe]

From what I understand from reading other threads as long as you're running X3 you won't have any problems with Vista. If you're running X2 or less you will.