X6 Machine Simulation Help

[Rotary Ninja]

I am having trouble getting machine simulation to display my stock, my workpiece, and my fixtures. The machine comes up with the trunnion, but nothing else. I have gone into the machine simulation startup settings and have it setup like this:

 

I have noticed when you use selected components everything is selected when you initially go to select the components. So this is what I have selected for each individual component:

Workpiece Geometry Elements:

 

Fixture Elements:

 

I am using a solid for the stock.

 

When I launch machine simulation I get this:

 

The buttons in Machine Simulation that allow you to toggle the stock and workpiece are grayed out. I have tried a number of settings and I just don't get it. I am actually following a video Jay Kramer did and his initially did not show the fixturing either. But he just went back in and reselected them and it worked. It did not work for me. I have gone back through the video 5 times and get the same results.

 

Any ideas what might be causing this?

 

Thanks in advance.

[TK-32™]

do you have solids models of your fixture? if so put them all in one level

[Rotary Ninja]

Yeah, they are solids. And they are on the same level. I have tried setting the machine sim settings to use the levels for all the settings and chose the appropriate levels. They still do not show up.

[Rotary Ninja]

I wonder if machine sim does not work in the home learning edition.

[MotorCityMinion]

It worked the first time I used it with the Jazz Bass program in the HLE. I had to move the fixture and part above the table to see it. Position / Translation XYZ in the first pic you posted is how I moved it. I just tried it again but had the wrong WCS active for the group I was using, got an error message and a white out. Now it's locked up. I'll mess with it again later.

[TK-32™]

Now I remember, motorcityminion is right, sometimes you have to mess with the origin.

[Rotary Ninja]

That's not making any difference. All it is doing is moving axis' around in machine sim. The components are still not visible. I got the stock to show once. But going back in trying to get the fixtures to display the stock turned back off and will not display any more.

[Rotary Ninja]

Here is the file. If you guys could look at it for me and give me an idea I would sure appreciate it. It is a Home Learning Edition file.

 

CLICK HERE

 

Thanks.

[AlbertZini]

Here is the file. If you guys could look at it for me and give me an idea I would sure appreciate it. It is a Home Learning Edition file.

 

[Rotary Ninja]

That's just great. It doesn't show for me and the options are still grayed out not allowing me to turn those on in machine sim. Anything in the simulator that could be set wrong?

 

I set the Workpiece Geometry to show all elements like you have and now I get this...

[Rotary Ninja]

I may try to reinstall HLE and see if that fixes the problem.

[Rotary Ninja]

I just uninstalled and completely wiped the registry and went into my mcamx6 and my shared mcamx6 folders and erased the 4 machine sim ini files in each folder. Then I reinstalled and I get the exact same thing. I am running a PNY Quadro 2000D video card if that makes any difference.

 

[Jayson Kramer]

Are you using these settings?

[Rotary Ninja]

Yeah Jay. I have no idea what it is. AxelZu said the machine sim worked just fine for him. I have tried everything. Watch the video I posted here.

 

I have even tried to setup the machine sim in other files with the same results. I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling Mastercam. I am going to try it at work and see what I get to see if it is my PC or what. I have given up because I have tried for like 2 hours to get it to work.

[MotorCityMinion]

Shot in the dark. The desktop icon that launches the HLE, right click on it, select properties, select the compatibility tab. Disable Visual Themes and Disable desktop composition. There are a ton of setting in the Nvidia contolr panel you can tweak as well. My crappy 9800gt handles things OK with no tweaks so I know that Quadro should do much better.

[MotorCityMinion]

Just tried your file. Monkeyed with a few settings. The show or hide workpiece button is grayed out no matter what I tried. All Fixture components on their own level. Part on it's own level.

[MotorCityMinion]

I just tried the Jazz Bass again. The show or hide workpiece button is grayed out no matter what I tried. 1st op top + top wcs ran fine. Then tried 3rd op bottom with Bottom wcs. Locked up.

 

Restart MC. In machinesim I selected Transform into WCS and was able to get the 3rd op to work. The show or hide workpiece button is grayed out. I could not get the fixture components to show up as well. I was able to get all 4 ops to run in the same set up. With no lock up.

[Rotary Ninja]

Maybe it doesn't work in the home learning edition?

[MotorCityMinion]

Kev, perhaps just your file doesn't work in the HLE. I cant get it to fly as well. There could be some differences between the HLE machine sim and the X6MU2 machine sim that AxelZu used, that we are unaware of. The Jazz Bass works in the HLE. I selected Transform into WCS and was able to get the all ops to work consecutively on a 3 axis mill. The fixture would not show up though.

 

I just locked it up again going to full screen. I think it's just buggy period.

[Rotary Ninja]

I had my stock show up one time. I haven't been able to get it to show since. I would try STL's because I am wondering if those would work. But I cannot produce STL files until I get to work. I will try it then.

[AlbertZini]

...

[Aaron Eberhard]

Hey guys - I was talking to the tech services people about this, and they pointed out that Solids don't work in HLE with respect to MachSim.. Try converting the solids to surfaces (Create > Surface > Surface from Solids), and use those for your fixture & such.

 

Most likely, the buttons are greyed out, because "there's nothing there" for it to display.

 

Hope this helps!

[MotorCityMinion]

Thanks Aaron. Converting the Fixture to surfaces worked. Instead of the Stock model, I needed to save a STL at the same point in the program to use as stock. That worked as well. Resolution was pretty coarse but we're making progress.

[Aaron Eberhard]

At least you're on the right path! I think it has to do with the fact that you can export things through the Machine Simulation area, so I'm sure that's why it's locked out with the HLE...

[Rotary Ninja]

Yeah, that worked great. Thanks Aaron!

 

Will solids be usable in X7 HLE you think?