Open Files in X4 MU1

[Joe Lalli]

I just installed X4 MU1 and it takes 20 seconds for the File/Open dialog box to appear on the screen. It was immediate in X4 prior to my upgrade to MU1. I also tried it back in X3 and it popped up immediately. Why is there such a lag with X4 MU1?

[Scott Lundin Shopware Inc.]

My files open up right away. Are you opening a file from a network drive, or you local C drive? Sometimes files from a network drive or even a USB stick can open and save slowly. It is always better to open files from your local C drive.

[Colin Gilchrist]

You have a problem with your configuration file. There is a file path that is left over from something.

 

Take your configuration file and move it somewhere. Then start Mastercam. This will force Mastercam to create a default Configuration file and should solve your problem.

[Tim Johnson]

I don't have an answer for you Joe but;

 

quote:

---

Sometimes files from a network drive or even a USB stick can open and save slowly. It is always better to open files from your local C drive

---

If the files are stored on a network drive you should NEVER drag them to the local drive and open them. That is a clusterf#$k waiting to happen.

[Scott Lundin Shopware Inc.]

Tim, I and my students have been copying mcx files from network drives to the local C drives for several years now. I have not seen even one problem occur with this method. If they open or save from within Mastercam, using their USB stick, it sometimes takes over 15 minutes for a simple 2D file. Another problem I always see is when they open a file from the college network drives, Mastercam will quite often generate alarm messages while they are working with the file. We always copy from the network drive using windows exporer, then paste to the local desktop, then open the file in Mastercam to avoid those alarms.

 

Just curious, what problems have you seen specifically when doing this?

[kunfuzed]

Having to copy file like that suggests there's another issue that needs to be dealt with. I do remember an issue at my last job where the file would get hosed while saving to the network in X2, but at my current job there was no issues at all, leading me to believe it was a hardware or network problem. We're not even allowed to save to the C drive, since you never know when someone, even in a different department needs to grab the latest revision of that file.

[[email protected]]

I do that with files larger than 200Mb, but I "CUT" (instead of copy)them from the server and then "Paste" them in a folder in my C drive, not on the desktop. At the end of the day I Cut & Paste them back on the server.

[gcode]

quote:

---

Just curious, what problems have you seen specifically when doing this?

---

Its not a computer operations issue.

Its a file management issue.

The file management issues for a class environment

is different from a production environment.

You probably want to keep you network files unedited so the students don't screw them up

and everybody starts with the same file when a lesson starts..

so they drag a copy to thier desktop and go to work.. this is a good way to do it..

In a prodduction environment this cause disasters..

You wind up with 3 or 4 different versions of the same file in the network and on different people's desktop.

I worked in one shop where working off your C drive ws grounds for disiplinary action

On a modern well maintained network, you can't even tell the difference between the network

and the hard drive untill the files get reaaly big.

I never open files directly off a thumb drive.

A modern thumb drive on a USB 2.0 port will

run pretty good for normal sized files..

but I'm old school and I got burned too many times

with the first generation of thumb drives..

They were WAY too slow for Mastercam and you'd get crashes, lockups and zero byte files

trying to read and write to them.

[Scott Lundin Shopware Inc.]

The situation at the college is a network issue. Students computers can read from, but not write back to the network drive. It seems like Mastercam trys to write back to the file occassionally, even if the student never hits the save button. That is when the alarms occur.

 

This should not be a problem in a business enviorment as the users probably have write permissions. However, if the company network is having issues I have seen it take over 3 minutes to open/save a very simple mcx file. This is exactly the problem I encountered with a previous employer's network which is why I always worked locally from my C drive. The point is his delay could possibly be a network issue. Just something to check.

[Scott Lundin Shopware Inc.]

gcode beat me to the punch.

[Tim Johnson]

+1 Gcode.

 

When a guy comes in with a problem and you open up the network file and find that the tool he's having a problem with doesn't exist, well that's a pretty good cause for frustration. I can defiantly understand dragging lesson files though.

[gcode]

quote:

---

you open up the network file and find that the tool he's having a problem with doesn't exist

---

In our shop all Machine Defs, Control Defs

Post libraries and custom tools are on the networks.

You could install Mastercam on a brand new computer and open a file with a dozen custom

tools and it would open, backplot, verify and post properly.

It takes some work to get there, but with 3 or 4 programmers 60 machines and 15-20 different

machine/post combos, its the only way to go.

[Joe Lalli]

Colin had a good suggestion with the config file. So I tried it and unfortunately it did not work. I checked the contents in the config and all the paths are in folders on my local c drive so definately not going to a network path. Still up for suggestions.

[Slick]

Curious about your network structure gcode. Do you keep your machine def's & post's on the network? too & material library's. It's what we've been trying for but there always seems to be some reason to run things off your C drive. i.e. working at home or out at the machine.

[Joe Lalli]

That's an interesting thought. My machine def's, posts, and library's are local but I do send the nc code to a network folder.