Clear Colors - A poll from CFP data

[Bob W.]

The molds were very simple shapes with maybe 180 surfaces. The cavities were shaped like a "X" and they were pretty big by my standards (15" x 15" x 4" deep). The walls were vertical with shallow sloped surfaces at the bottom. I tried a waterline high speed toolpath for the walls and flowline toolpaths for the remaining surfaces. The waterline puked on the vertical surfaces and there were large patches with no toolpaths. These blank patches were about halfway down the walls and there were some toolpaths above them.

 

I had to switch to the traditional surface finish contour toolpath for the walls and the results were great but it crashed on a regular basis while recalculating. Overall I spent about 4x as long to program these as I should have. The geometry was dead simple but I was fighting Mastercam the whole time. Mastercam really needs a high speed flowline toolpath. I use the flowline all the time and they are very efficient with NC file size if used correctly.

 

Another issue was due to the size and slight curvature of the surfaces I needed to really tighten the tolerances (.0001-.00005) and Mastercam didn't like this much. I had to settle for a looser tolerance and there was some faceting as a result.

[mayday]

another irritating color changing PITA.

change a color of a surface,untrim it and it always defaults back to the original color

[Roger Peterson]

tight tolerances shouldn't be an issue other than it will take longer to crunch. HST waterline likes to have non vertical drive surfaces below vertical walls, use the angle limit to keep it from machining what you don't want.

[Rocketmachinist]

quote:

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LOL @ Bullet Bob....How about this one?

 

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Hey Bob,

 

You get that because Nortons is one of the worst computer protection program I've ever come across. It doesn't protect your computer any better than free programs and hogs way more of your system resorces.

 

I reformatted my hard drive one time and installed nothing but Nortons. I got online and found myself a little nasty spyware. I ran a full system scan and it said that everything was alright. I installed Spybot and it found it almost immediately. Every time I see friends using Nortons I can't help but laugh at them. The only reason that they are soo widely used is because they have a good marketing campaign.

[Rob @ Target Machine]

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Hey Bob,

 

You get that because Nortons is one of the worst computer protection program I've ever come across. It doesn't protect your computer any better than free programs and hogs way more of your system resorces.

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That's all I had at the time to put on my T3500. I didn't want to use nothing at all.

 

I just bought a personal seat of MC and was strapped for cash. Then my lappy $hit the bed at the worst possible time, so I bought a Dell refurb. No A/V comes with a Dell if you go 64 bit.

 

I don't see any native 64 bit A/V programs available that haven't been complained about already.

 

 

Any suggestions?

[gcode]

If you're running XPx64 Kapersky is your best bet. XPx64 is Bill Gate's unloved xxxx step child though and gets very little support from any vendor.

Antivirus of any brand or price is not enough anymore. An A/V package will not protect you from web based malware. For that you need a security suite.

I've got Norton Internet Security running on all my computers and Norton 360 on all my wife's machines for all its automatic maintenance and backup features.

They are both low overhead install and forget

products, a huge improvement on past Norton products.

Norton haters can laugh all they want...

I have never ever had a virus or malware on any of my machines, and Norton's new scanning routines are so low overhead you don't even know when they're running.

 

Here is a PC Magazine review of 2010 Securtiy Suites.

 

[ 05-23-2010, 05:08 PM: Message edited by: gcode ]

[Rob @ Target Machine]

Thanks gcode. I'll check out the link.

 

I'm running Win7 64bit with Norton Security Suite installed and I'm behind a NAT firewall. I was considering Kapersky, but I saw a thread complaining that it doesn't play well with MC.

[gcode]

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I'm running Win7 64bit with Norton Security Suite installed and I'm behind a NAT firewall.

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That's exactly the same setup I'm running.

I have no trouble at all with it and can't see any reason to change. I thought about switching to Zone Alarm but I really like Norton's

Card's and Login utility.

[Rob @ Target Machine]

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I really like Norton's

Card's and Login utility.

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That's why I'm using Norton. I have too many login/password combos, Credit card info, Tool Vendor accts., etc. that I don't trust windows to manage for me.

 

I think I've got my bases covered. I'm installing a NAS unit(for offline backups) and a dedicated backup drive (in case I have to rebuild my raid array).

 

Ahh, I feel safer now.

[gcode]

A couple of months ago I swapped out my old

70gig Raptors for new 300 gig Velociraptors.

I downloaded a free 30 day trial of Acronis

True Image and used it to move my old hard

drives to the new ones.

I liked it so much I wound up buying a copy.

This is really sweet software. It can handle nearly any backup senario you could ever dream up

[Rob @ Target Machine]

The Matrix Manager software/firmware that comes with the Dell T3500's and up seems to be able to do all that if you have the spare drives. I just bought a second 10k 300gb Velociraptor. It'll be here Tuesday. I'm ordering the NAS and a 2tb backup drive Monday.

[Thad]

quote:

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I downloaded a free 30 day trial of Acronis

True Image and used it to move my old hard

drives to the new ones.

I liked it so much I wound up buying a copy.

This is really sweet software. It can handle nearly any backup senario you could ever dream up

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+1

 

Acronis True Image rocks!

 

Thad

[Rob @ Target Machine]

I'll try it out. Does it support striped volumes?

Home or Business version?

[gcode]

I'm using the Home version.

I think the business version is for full on business networks..

If you decide to buy, google Acronis Coupons

It'll save you $10..

[Rob @ Target Machine]

I got Acronis Backup and Recovery 10 Workstation today for $74.00.

 

Acronis Backup and Recovery 10 Workstation

 

A little more dough, but the "Peace of Mind" is worth the price difference. IMHO

 

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.