MU2 Lathe

[mayday]

has anyone spent time in lathe since mu2?

first off, face groove op. open the op, change nothing, and it asks me to select a tool to continue? WTF. this happens repeatedly. faceing drops the points selected everytime.

This is why I hate updates. fix 1 thing and eff up 100 other ones.

Lathe is practicaly worthless

[Goldorak]

i don't really seen any major ameliorations in lathe , i still got to restart MCAM about 5 or 6 times a day

 

and import operations is total crap......

[chris m]

V9.1SP2 baby; works all day every day [more or less]

[Jim Evans from CNC Software]

Mayday,

 

i can't seem to duplicate the grove op issues you are experiencing. So can you send up a part with steps to reproduce or just give me the exact steps here.

 

 

Facing drops the points every time, please define drops.

 

If you haven't these should be sent ot QC at [email protected].

[G10X0Y0Z0]

so far MU2 lathe is working ok for me

[chris m]

quote:

---

Facing drops the points every time, please define drops.

---

Pretty sure what Wes is saying is that Facing 'forgets' selected points

[Jim Evans from CNC Software]

Chris, thanks for helping clear it up. Where and when is facing forgetting the points? what is being used that shows the points are forgotten. I'm playing around with it try to get it go forget points and obviously I am missing something because it is keeping my points.

[gcode]

My experience with facing is that

it creates new points everytime

you regen..and you end up with

multiple points on different level.

 

Make Level 1 active

create a facing toolpath

you've got 2 points on Level 1

Make Level 2 active, turn off Level 1

regen.. now you've got 2 points on Level 2

and the points on Level 1 are not associated

with the facing toolpath.

[Philcott]

I just wonder why the things that should be so simple need work arounds. That is the frustration I have with lathe.

[mayday]

Jim, we are working on some files to send to you, All of us are very busy and have not had a chance yet. The file I was having problems with, we did the exact same thing in X2, no problem. I brought the file into X4MU2 and it worked fine and I could also start a fresh file and get it to work. So I dont know if X4 had a default setting issue and the X2 file corrected it. strange

[mayday]

a few pet peeves. lathe rough, select a face rough pass, copy the op and it defaults back to od rough (pain)

select a chain on sub side. geometry needs arrow fliped to work, which also reverses comp from left to right (pain)

I'll need more time to list more

[Jim Evans from CNC Software]

Mayday,

 

No problem. Whenever you have time to get files, great. in the meantime we will keep poking around based on the information above and see what can dig up.

[mayday]

thanks Jim

[Jim Evans from CNC Software]

Gcode,

 

I can't reproduce the multiple points created with facing either. tried both changing the oepration and regening a dirty op, regen cleaned op multiple times, etc. I am using actual point data created by me for my point selection.

 

The only time I can get the system to create points is the first time I create the operation and just sketch pick to locations, then I get 2 points created on the active level. Even here doing regens both on clean and dirty operations I can NOT get extra points or even those points to be recreated on the new active level.

 

If you have an example, please send it up.

 

 

Thanks!

[gcode]

Jim,

I tried replicating this and

couldn't do it.

I did notice behavior that I don't think

is right though.

Create a facing OP with Level 1 active

you get 2 points on Level 1

Make some other level active and

turn Level 1 off

Regen the facing op..

the points move to the new active level.

These points have already been created

on Level 1.. shouldn't they stay there?

Having these points bounce around to the active

level everytime you regen makes geometry management

impossible.

If you have a file with 30 or 40 operations

and delete your first facing points

by accident your whole file goes dirty..

This is very easy to do because they

pop up on whatever level is active..

everytime you regen.

[chris m]

Can I take gcode's question a little further? Why are the points there at all? I have been using Lathe for about [8] years now and have NEVER done anything with those points except work around them.

 

One of the major reasons that I have never made the transition to the X versions of the software is that I have heard ZERO evidence that there have been any substantive improvements over 9.1; add to that all of the new gripes that I read here and you have an excellent sales pitch for staying right where we are.

 

My guys and I get paid to make parts, not to 'stay current' on software; while I know that milling in general, and surface machining in particular, are the bread and butter of the majority of those who are typically posters on this forum [and 2-1/2 thru 4-axis milling is probably the business of the great majority of Mastercam customers], I find it more that a little sad that the turning product has been essentially unchanged for the last handful of 'new' releases. The last real upgrade to MC Lathe was V9.1 over V8 [which was an excellent change]; time to give some attention to it.

 

C

[Philcott]

When I think about Mastercam lathe I am frustrated by the lack of improvements to the package. I understand that lathes can't benefit from HSM features and such, but wouldn't it be nice to have some of the features already there work more efficiently?

 

I am reminded of a speech that was given by one of our times greatest philosophers, Elwood Blues. In the movie, Blues Brothers 2000, the blues mobile had just ran out of gas and the band was getting ready to walk away when Elwood said,

 

"You may go if you wish. But remember this: walk away now and you walk away from your crafts, your skills, your vocations; leaving the next generation with nothing but recycled, digitally-sampled techno-grooves, quasi-synth rhythms, pseudo-songs of violence-laden gangsta-rap, acid pop, and simpering, saccharine, soulless slush. Depart now and you forever separate yourselves from the vital American legacies of Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, Jimmy Reed, Memphis Slim, Blind Boy Fuller, Louie Jordon, Little Walter, Big Walter, Sonnyboy Williamson I and II, Otis Redding, Jackie Wilson, Elvis Presley, Lieber and Stoller, and Robert K. Weiss.

 

Turn your backs now and you snuff out the fragile candles of Blues, R&B and Soul, and when those flames flicker and expire, the light of the world is extinguished because the music which has moved mankind through seven decades leading to the millennium will whither and die on the vine of abandonment and neglect."

 

It seems to me that the powers that be have been letting Lathe "whither and die on the vine of abandonment and neglect".

 

I don't say this to shed a negative light on the hard working folks who have been making the changes that we have seen, thanks very much, but greater things need to come from the lathe side.

[JACK2ME]

For anyone interested I use the Entity Attributes Manager when using lathe and assign all points to one level. I never have that level visible so it's not an issue.