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Is it time to destroy MU1 and upgrade to MU2

Code_Breaker

By Code_Breaker,
in Industrial Forum

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Code_Breaker Newbie

Code_Breaker

Posted
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Posted

quote:
It just seems to me these problems are hardware specific. Meaning only people with certain hardware configs will run into them.

My system that is having all the problems mentions on this site:

 

quote:
Dell Precision T7400 Workstation

Xeon E5430 Dual Quad Core 2.66GHz

WD Caviar 640 GB, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16 MB Cache, 7200 RPM

Window 7 64 bit

12.0 GB of RAM

NVIDIA Quadro FX 3700

Dual 23” Samsung SyncMaster 2333 monitors

Mastercam X4 MU1

Vericut 7.0.1

CATIA V5R19

Unigraphic NX 6.0

Microsoft Office 2007 Professional

SnagIt 8.1.0

 

All drivers update and current ...

 

PS ... 102 wants update ... 40 happy campers

 

quote:
didn't vote you know my vote.

Everyone should vote ...

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Guest CNC Apps Guy 1

Guest CNC Apps Guy 1

Posted
Posted

CATIA stands for Crash And Try It Again.

 

I don't use the 3 GB switch. My laptop only has 4GB anyway.

 

My system is as follows;

Dell Precision M6300

Intel Core 2 Extreme CPU X7900 @ 2.8 GHz

4GB of RAM

NVidia Quadro FX1600M w/ 512MB RAM - ForceWare version 175.75 (keep trying the new drivers and always end up back with this version because the newer versions break my dual monitor support)

Windows XP Pro (SP3) using Windows Classic Theme and normal font size. No Effects other than show window contents while dragging.

Dual Monitors (Dell 2005FPW's) @ 1680 x 1050 and 32Bit Colors

 

Software I typically have running while using Mastercam X4;

MS Outlook

MS Excel

MS Word

Internet Exploder 8

3DxWare (SpaceNavigator software)

ESET NOD32 Antivirus v 4.0

Dell Wireless LAN Card Utility

CAMplete V4.5

Windows Media Player

Terminal Server

... I think I got everything...

 

My Mastercam settings are as follows;

Tolerances;

System Tolerance unchecked

.0001, .002, .0002, .001, 100., .0002, .0001, .0001

 

Colors;

Screen background BLACK. Not gradient, no eye candy bull$#!+ !!!! I'm an engineer not a damn cartoonist! eek.gif

 

Files;

Unchecked - Prompt for File Descriptor when saving and Apply Last Machine Definition. All the rest are checked.

 

And the following;

l_1b5c95ac32434a109730eee9849fd991.jpg

l_dfcf946c76b642eaa55206d04b2c56cc.jpg

l_a8756bb5534f49e698f2f021d7a97861.jpg

l_dbe9dd0496ad417491eaf3016af31dde.jpg

l_169e2fe26cb14d52a119d135ed1ba3b2.jpg

l_6d86c74a2c4f4129afa48799d558179b.jpg

 

I use the thinnest lines when drawing. I cannot stand thick lines. 99% of the time they are solid.

 

Mastercam Control Panel Applet settings -

Startup splash screen - disabled.

File dialog; Mastercam X Style, entity Selection Enabled.

Graphics Support; Enabled, Disabled, Disabled. Toolpath Support - Use New Offset, Enabled, Keep All HMM arcs, Enable Feature, Enabled, Use Improved Lathe Toolpath Comp

 

Like I've said before, I experience relatively few issues.

 

[ 11-19-2009, 11:08 AM: Message edited by: CNC Apps Guy 1 ]

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Code_Breaker Newbie

Code_Breaker

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Posted

quote:
Do you see a fraction of these issues on the other cad / cam systems that you are using on that same computer? Catia, Vericut, or UG?

No problems ...

 

I do have a proble with Microsoft Office 2007 Professional at times ... especially, when using "save as" ...

 

quote:
CATIA stands for Crash And Try It Again.

This no longer applies, but it does with Mastercam ...

May

Another

Stupid

Try

 

Every

Run

Crashes

Again

 

Mastercam

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Guest CNC Apps Guy 1

Guest CNC Apps Guy 1

Posted
Posted

quote:
quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CATIA stands for Crash And Try It Again.

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This no longer applies...
Installed R19 a couple weeks ago I believe, and it STILL applies for me but I'm not about to write it off. At least CNC Software WANTS to hear about issues. Those bastids at Dassault don't give a $#!+ about anyone that does not work for the "B" word IMHO.
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neurosis Collaborator

neurosis

Posted
Posted

quote:
Perhaps from what you see. From what I see and experience, quite the contrary.

Its not just "ME" that is seeing issues. Im glad that in you are having a good experience with the system, but how does that help the people that are not? Not trying to sound abrasive, just trying to make a point. There are more people having problems than what post in this group. I guess I am not sure if you are suggesting that others are not using the software properly?

 

 

I have several acquaintances that work in this trade that use Mastercam that are not happy with Mastercams last few releases. A few of them have been using mastercam since the mid to late 80's.

 

As I have said in the past, not everyone uses the software the same. Not everyone uses the same features. Im not sure if that is part of the issue here?

 

I wondered in the past if it was a driver or computer issue. I cant say for certain that it is not but I have tried to narrow down a hardware problem and was very unsuccessful.

 

We have four computers in our programming room. All of them have very different hardware. Ive installed Mastercam on all four machines and opened a known problem file on each PC one after the other. Mastercam Crashed on all four computers on that same file.

 

Some of the problems that Ive had I was able to overcome by reloading the Machine Def file. "BUT", the problem would go away for a while only to resurrect itself at some point causing me to have to reload the machine def file once again. Ive never understood why these machine def files end up with issues.

 

I also noticed that I had fewer crashes if I hit the save button several times during a session at 5 minutes intervals when on the same part file, if I go for 20 minutes without saving, it crashes on me. Now that tells me that something is wrong.

 

CNC,

 

I notice that you have the auto save on. I would do that myself except that on several occasions, I have had crashes that have 0 byte my files or noticed after it was too late that something crazy had happened in the operations manager that makes me afraid to have it auto save until I am able to double check things to make sure that it doesnt save an error. Call me paranoid, but ive been burned before. Especially where the operations manager is concerned.

 

I work on assemblies that can have 100's of parts in them. I leave the assemblies in a single file and create programs around each part of the assembly inside of a single file. Mastercam has the ability to do this and if someone doesnt mind, am I being too assuming to think that I should be able to use the system this way? Is the system not designed to have this capability? To be able to use the system this way without issue? Was this not their intention when they created an operations manager that has the ability to not only create several Machine Groups inside of a single file, but also Tool path groups and sub groups?

 

What happens to me more often than not, is the more operations I accumulate and the more Groups I set up in the operations manager, the more unstable my files become. Some times to the point that the file will crash with so much as a single click on an operation in the operations manager. There are times when this happens that it 0 bytes my file and I am left with nothing (Thank God for the backup utility).

 

At times I think that I may being too critical of the software realizing that there is allot involved in trying to keep up the technology, hardware, operating systems, etc. But as an employee of this company rather than the owner, I am expected to get my job done as efficiently as possible. There are enough obstacles as it is without having to find Work arounds for every single new release of the software that I use to do my job. Notice that the term Work Around and Mastercam seem to go hand and hand. If there are no issues with the software then why do you see this term workaround used so much in this forum. The name should be changed to WorkaroundCam. Sorry for that little joke.

 

 

CNC Apps Guy,

 

Im going to look through your settings and try to set my config to match and see if it helps. You always give good advise and have been very helpful to me at times with advise and help to questions that you have answered for other people. The only one that I am afraid to set is the auto save. Maybe I should try it for a while and see if it bites me.

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gcode Experienced

gcode

Posted
Posted

Don,

If you havn't already done so,

move your Mastercam temp file

out of its default location

in your Windows user folder and move it

to a folder in the root of C.

I am convinced that Windows permissions

issues are interferring with creation

of temp files and causing crashing.

I we have a crash a month around here,

its a bad month

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Guest CNC Apps Guy 1

Guest CNC Apps Guy 1

Posted
Posted

quote:
quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Perhaps from what you see. From what I see and experience, quite the contrary.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Its not just "ME" that is seeing issues. Im glad that in you are having a good experience with the system, but how does that help the people that are not?
I look at it this way, if people that are not having issues don't speak up, it says in not so many words that NOBODY is having success with the software which is untrue.

 

There are a couple things I wish that CNC would/could do.

1) $#!+ can the "Minimum System Requirements", and create a reccommended system. Obviously this may alienate some people as a lot of IT guys tend to think they are gods and that good gamer systems work well for CAD/CAM/CAE which as many of us know just is not the case. What we do is very specialized and "Engineering Workstations" tend to work MUCH better for what we do that gamer rigs.

2) Work with hardware vendors to try to come up with solid drivers for the various intective devices in play (3D Connexion Devices, Video Cards, Mice, etc...). Put pressure on those vendors and if necessary, elicit end users to contact and put pressure on them as well.

 

3)Get the Marketing Department out of the software decision making process. Of course they should have input based on market research, but at the end of the day, people that have had to program parts for a living are FAR more qualified to make those kinds of decisions than somebody in marketing. How do I know that marketing is steering the ship? Easy. Art? Router? FBM? Are you kidding me? 6 year old kids programming parts? eek.gif ONLY marketing would come up with that.

 

Doing these few things I'd bet could solve quite a few issues.

 

Not to mention there's some serious work that could be done with the tree style toolpaths interface. Some of the choices for where things are located seem pretty asinine to me. But that's JMHO.

 

quote:
CNC,

 

I notice that you have the auto save on.

Yes. But several well respected members have had issues with it. Fortunately for me, I have not. Several well respected members also have/had issues with saving a bitmap with the file. Again, fortunately for me I have not.

 

One thing I have experienced over the years with software in general is when I "get ahead of the software", my problems increase exponentially. I'm not saying that is the case here with anyone, I'm just stating something from my experience. Also because I am a beta tester I tend to do things very deliberately because in case I run into "something" I want to try to replicate the exact keystroke sequence to see if something truly is a bug, or if it was OE.

 

When I first transitioned to X from V9, I had a lot of issues. I found I was getting ahead of the software because I was used to just zooming around with hotkeys because I knew all of them. So I slowed things down a bit, became more deliberate and magically the software got better. Again, I'm not saying that is the case here. I'm just saying that was my experience. With that said, I'm still substantially faster in X than I was in V9.

 

JM2C

 

[ 11-19-2009, 12:58 PM: Message edited by: CNC Apps Guy 1 ]

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bogusmill Newbie

bogusmill

Posted
Posted

I have worked on lots of PC's and found when something works here but not there it's usually something your not being told that's the problem.

 

My step father's Dell simply stopped working he said. So when I turned it on I never heard the beep indicating keyboard will now function. I moved cable to another USB port & still no go. So for grins I picked up the keyboard & turned it upside down. Wine came pouring out. Oh I cleaned that all up he said.

 

Some users may have bad toolpaths but not tell us that there were 2 or more instances of MCX4 running when this happens or it's a network license and there was a network glitch during. It's like we need binary detectives to find why on some PC's an app won't run right.

 

We haven't had much of a problem with X4MU1. We have 2 new dual quad core machines coming so I will not have any previous version on mine.

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neurosis Collaborator

neurosis

Posted
Posted

quote:
it's usually something your not being told that's the problem.

 

Wine came pouring out. Oh I cleaned that all up he said.

 

Thats classic! biggrin.gif

 

 

quote:
Some users may have bad toolpaths but not tell us that there were 2 or more instances of MCX4 running when this happens or it's a network license and there was a network glitch during. It's like we need binary detectives to find why on some PC's an app won't run right.

 

We haven't had much of a problem with X4MU1. We have 2 new dual quad core machines coming so I will not have any previous version on mine.

I never try to run more than one instance of Mastercam at a time. Ive had so many problems with one that many are out of the question for me.

 

I try to send crash reports in every time they come up. Ive sent as many as 20 in one day. I only hope that one day they email me back and tell me that it is something that I am doing wrong or a driver issue that solves all of the problems.

 

quote:
One thing I have experienced over the years with software in general is when I "get ahead of the software", my problems increase exponentially.

Thats an interesting thought.

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Guest CNC Apps Guy 1

Guest CNC Apps Guy 1

Posted
Posted

quote:
quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yes. But several well respected members have had issues with it. Fortunately for me, I have not. Several well respected members also have/had issues with saving a bitmap with the file. Again, fortunately for me I have not.

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I suspect DIVINE intervention...

That was out loud. biggrin.giftongue.gifwink.gif
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Code_Breaker Newbie

Code_Breaker

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quote:
but not tell us that there were 2 or more instances of MCX4 running when this happens or it's a network license and there was a network glitch during.

one instance running ... still have problems

network license ... yes

network glitch during ... no

 

But, it may be something with the NetHasp ... how can I check this out? any suggested test?

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Müřlıń® Apprentice

Müřlıń®

Posted
Posted

Thank you James for sharing your system settings...

 

quote:
I don't use the 3/GIG switch

So you did a forced disable?

 

I am pretty sure XP SP2 is set to /optin

 

Some Windows versions you can't even disable it... headscratch.gif think it is the 64 bit versions that support DEP. Not sure like I says... I am not to unterstood 'bout this stuff...

 

Might be Vista 64 headscratch.gif I am still trying to figure it out...not having much luck...obviously... frown.gif

 

 

 

 

 

quote:
Do you see a fraction of these issues on the other cad / cam systems that you are using on that same computer? Catia, Vericut, or UG?

OMG are you kidding meh?

 

Wildfire 4 running on Unix Sun boxes..I have a core dump on me at least twice daily...

 

I have learned to save every time I do something good.

 

I am so glad Mastercam now has an incrimental save.

 

If you save constantly when you do get the zero byte bug or when your NCI files get nuked you at least can go back to the previous dot....

 

ya know something though, I been harping on using DR Watson and not a single person has even said anything about having your dump debugged. headscratch.gif

 

It is almost like "Oh no, don't try to debug your dump...then you REALLY will find out that the LARGEADDRESSEAWARE is bugged out in X4"..

 

bonk.gifbonk.gifbonk.gif

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Guest CNC Apps Guy 1

Guest CNC Apps Guy 1

Posted
Posted

quote:
Thank you James for sharing your system settings...

You're welcome. Just tryin' to help the cause of programming believe it or not.

 

 

quote:
quote:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I don't use the 3/GIG switch

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So you did a forced disable?
AFAIK, no I did not. Is it enabled by default?

 

 

quote:
... Dr. Watson...

I've not gotten around to it. Perhaps I may be able to figure out why I get crashes when I dynamically rotate "alot" 8-/ with my SpaceNavigator. I say "8-/" because I have not been able to pin it down, to # of rotations. I've not ruled out Video Drivers though either because Dynamically rotating some of the models I'm dealing with (and at .0001 Chord Height to boot), I realize I'm asking a lot from my Video Card. But I did recently get newer drivers for my Video Card from Dell (I know many well respected members here have had troubles with those but... I wanted to give it a shot). Did that Monday and so far so good. Doing complicated Time-Studies on some train wreckage parts at the moment which is a good test because I'm doing some unorthodox things with the software that under real programming circumstances I would not do. It also may help me figure out why CATIA crashes pretty regular.

 

Something that I changed on Monday also was on the NVidia Control Panel, I chande it from the "Use the advanced 3D image settings" to "Use my preferanve emphasizing Balanced". We shall see...

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