Metacut utilities

[chip]

Does anyone know how to adjust the graphics for the Metacut Utilities? This interface is quite cool....When I run a program, the tools somtimes gouge all over the part. I run it through ol' faithful (Mastercam Verify) it cuts just fine. The Meta cut says "Use the graphical interface map of the help system" I can't find it.

[Ron Branch @ 5th Axis]

I would email them direct and make sure that you have it set they way they like it and go from there.

 

Crazy millman

[Fig sign]

If it Metacut utilities from ver 9 disk I want to warn you that it can cause you a lot of problems,cause crashes to the mastercam,adds some stuff to the posts and IMHO is demanding a lot of work and changes to be done to be called the class A product.

 

I tried it and said to myself :

Iskander, it`s a waste of time !

[SledGeek]

How do you get rid of it before 30 days is up ?

 

M.O.

[john316]

I tried the Metacut Utilities once myself. To use it accurately I had to define my tools all over again. I already did that in MC9. I decided it was too much time wasted. Always under the gun. Mcam Verify works just fine.

[Harryman]

Had to redefine tools? Already HUGE PITA to define them all in MC9 library. So many B axis and mill spindle orientations

 

Glad to know I couldn't go there... Metacut looked like it couldn't handle Integrex so I ignored it.

 

Always nice to hear about a landmine that I didn't step on first.

[Ron Branch @ 5th Axis]

Harryman Vericut says that the verifry program they have will handle up to 5 axis very well. i was looking at one but for $1000 and axis I was like no way. but fi you think you can warrant it might worth a look at.

 

Crazy millman

[gcode]

I own a copy of Predator and it does 5X gcode

very well, I currently use it for 2 different

5X gantry mills and a horizonatal 5X machining center. It does well on horizontal tombstone work too.

On a daily basis I run into 4 and 5x stuff that backplots and verifies correctly in Mastercam, but doesn't run right on the machine.

Predator running NCI files will make the same errors that MC verify does, but running posted gcode, what you see is what you get.

$1k per axis is about what Predator costs and its worth every penny.

 

edit: Predator can do mill/turn NCI, but not mill/turn gcode so it probably can't handle

an Integrex!

 

[ 09-16-2003, 11:56 PM: Message edited by: gcode ]

[gcode]

Metacut has a switch on the setup page that adds tool decriptions to the end of your posted gcode.That way when you read gcode into Metacut

it gets your Mastercam tool decriptions automatically. You do not have to define tools by hand!!!

Metacut is a pretty good verify utilitly as long as you are doing 3X stuff on rectagular stock.

I like Metacut for its graphic gcode feature.

Its is very useful for hand editing gcode

and looking at unknow code to see what its doing.

 

[ 09-16-2003, 11:14 PM: Message edited by: gcode ]

[gcode]

Vericut is probably the best verification system out there. Its as close to watching a machine run as you can get without eating chips!!

Its also pretty expensive. I really really really don't like their licensing policy and will never buy their software because of it.

You buy your license 1 year at a time and if you don't renew every year (10 or 15%????) your software dies!

I know of a shop that had Vericut. They had a bad year and didn't pay their maintence so Vericut died. They're running Predator now.

[Paul Elliott]

The graphical interface map is in Help|Help Topics, then in the menu, Interface|Interface Map

 

 

quote:

---

cause crashes to the mastercam,adds some stuff to the posts and IMHO is demanding a lot of work and changes to be done to be called the class A product

---

Care to elaborate? I don't know of any instances where MCU causes Mastercam to crash. Also nothing is added to the post; if MCU is told to, it adds standard comment operations that are posted normally as comments.

 

For everything it's designed to handle, it works seamlessly with Mastercam, and if it doesn't, I'd certainly appreciate a bug report.

[Fig sign]

quote:

---

Care to elaborate? I don't know of any instances where MCU causes Mastercam to crash. Also nothing is added to the post; if MCU is told to, it adds standard comment operations that are posted normally as comments.

---

Yet it crashes .

I don`t want to argue a lot , I want to tell that when I installed it first time I was furious !

It changed icons menu order, it`s "standart" comments are only Fanuc standart.

Do you think all the world runs Fanuc ?

OR I must mess with a post at work for such a little thing ?

And more things to tell but I don`t care now , I not installed it for ver9.(deinstalled)

You say about the bug message.

A waste of time for me !

They lost my trust !

And when I don`t trust a thing I am not messing with it !

 

/edit

Stupid me ! You are from a developing company.

That`s a different talk .

I have a lot more to tell .

In the near future cause I am busy now.

Do you prefere a private letter or it does`n matter you ?

/End of deit

 

Iskander teh trust only the backplot.

 

[ 09-19-2003, 01:12 AM: Message edited by: plasttav ]

[mayday]

quote:

---

How do you get rid of it before 30 days is up ?

---

if I remember there is an option page tab over and there is a check box for mastercam. disable it there

[Paul Elliott]

Iskander,

 

quote:

---

I don`t want to argue a lot , I want to tell that when I installed it first time I was furious ! It changed icons menu order,

---

I think I already responded to everyone who was surprised at the install, but I do want to point out that it did warn before doing anything. Since then, we’ve changed it so it’s inconvenient to activate to make sure there are no surprises.

 

quote:

---

it`s "standart" comments are only Fanuc standart.

Do you think all the world runs Fanuc ?

OR I must mess with a post at work for such a little thing ?

---

We don’t insert any particular comment style since we insert 1005 style NCI comments into the operations list. To the best of my knowledge, if the post is setup correctly, the native comment style should work. The only complaint I know of that is valid is that on some controls the comment can be too long.

 

In that case, we make provisions for tools to be loaded via a machine set, so a series of tools can be predefined and loaded all at once. Although not as convenient as inline definitions, it gets the job done. The worst case scenario is you temporarily enable tool definitions, and edit them out before sending to the machine.

 

quote:

---

They lost my trust !

And when I don`t trust a thing I am not messing with it !

---

You are certainly entitled to that, but at least be aware that there are a lot of people who are not having any trouble with MCU, and derive a lot of benefit from what is included with Mastercam.

 

quote:

---

Stupid me ! You are from a developing company.

That`s a different talk .

---

I believe my public comments speak well enough for how we operate. If you have any doubts, you might want to check with some of the respected forum members who have been familiar with my company for years.

 

quote:

---

I have a lot more to tell .

In the near future cause I am busy now.

Do you prefere a private letter or it does`n matter you ?

---

Your preference is fine, although I’d probably prefer public so that anybody else who is having the same problems you have had can get benefit from the exchange.

 

Best regards,

[Roger Peterson]

I don't think everyone is running fanuc or ISO code. Just most of it in this hemisphere. As far as the comments not coming out correctly, I have had to edit posts for people. Many posts, especially older ones that have been updated, do not have the 1005 and 1006 comments formatted correctly. People don't realize this if they never use manual entry. But, if your post is setup correctly it does definately post out the tool list as comments formatted for your control.

 

 

HTH

[Rekd™]

I've alread said my peice on this subject, and it wasn't pretty.

 

Like plastav, I was furious when I opened MC and found that on my install..

 

quote:

---

but I do want to point out that it did warn before doing anything.

---

No.

 

It did NOT.

 

As you said yourself...

quote:

---

I think I already responded to everyone who was surprised at the install,

---

I saw absolutely nothing during the install saying anything about it. I'm not the only one. (BTW, I'm far from being computer illiterate, so my perception of what's going on during an install is better than the majority of users, so a very blunt, hard to miss notice is definately in order for the install!)

 

And to make matters worse, there was no easy instruction on how to remove it.

 

Thus the reason so many users here were just as mad as me and plastav and will never use it!

 

I'm glad you've wisened up in your approach to MCU, but to sit here and deny what we know to be true concerning the original realease speaks volumes...

 

'Rekd

[Paul Elliott]

Rekd,

Maybe we are talking about two different things. Did you see this after the first time you ran MCU?

 

This was the first opportunity to install our Mastercam options. If you had hit the red X button, or selected "No Options", nothing in Mastercam would be changed. Also, if you never ran MCU after installing Mastercam, there would be no changes to Mastercam.

 

Now, the first time a user runs MCU (and I think this is what's in SP2), you see this, and there is no easy way to accidently install our options.

 

Best regards,

[Rekd™]

Paul,

 

quote:

---

Maybe we are talking about two different things. Did you see this after the first time you ran MCU?

---

No, I didn't see this. After running the MC upgrade, I ran MC and MCU was there with no warning, no options or anything. That's what got me so upset.

 

I think what I see here is a great way to do it now, that way there's no mistaking what's going on.

 

'Rekd

[Rekd™]

BTW, Paul, it's not that I don't like MCU; I just don't (read didn't) like the way it was applied without notice. If I had known it was doing that, I might have installed it and ran it to check it out. But to have it forced on me only forced me to NOT use it out of spite.

 

I admint I've played with it a bit since then, and it's kind of neat, but not something I would use very often.

 

'Rekd

[Paul Elliott]

quote:

---

No, I didn't see this. After running the MC upgrade, I ran MC and MCU was there with no warning, no options or anything. That's what got me so upset.

---

That's the part I'm missing. The code that installs the Mastercam related options is never called by just installing Mastercam. The code is contained in our Partners.dll, and the only way for it to run is to hit OK on the first dialog I included above, or to go to our setup pages.

 

If you had some way that MCU options were installed to Mastercam without running MCU (that you know of), then it's something I'd have to investigate. If it's somehow possible, then even the second dialog above probably wouldn't be enough.

 

BTW, if there is something missing in MCU that would make it more useful to you, please let us know.

 

Best regards,

[gcode]

Paul,

I would like to see the ability to use stl files

or parasolids (even better!!!) as stock.

[Paul Elliott]

gcode,

Parasolids: Not anytime soon, I think. Not many people have requested it, although everyone asks about. . .

STL: Already working in house for the next version.

 

Best regards,

[Fig sign]

I was very optimistic about metacut utilities and rushed to try it in haste.

It will speed up verification !

 

But ...

How to crash Metacut Utilities .

 

It is rather simple task !

 

Make some 3-d surface shallow toolpath NCI size approx. 150 K ,transform-rotate it 179 times 2 degrees ,put you mouse at rotate operation and try to close the Metacut utilities window.

TRAH-BUM-CRASH!!!

WTF?

All the job is gone !

It`s good to have a backup.

One more try - the same thing.

You run mc9 without metacat ut. -O.K

MC9 win2000 sp4 . .p4-2400 1024 ram .

Now speaking about pIII 433 256 ram under win98

it was a total fiasko.

I hear cries :

Nobody works under win98 !

I am working with it and has no problems with mastercam ,but metacut utilities crashes it all the way !

So I ask myself :

For what does I need such aprogram as metacut utilities ,

if I only run 3axes ?

I had a lot of troubles with verify and learned to use backplot fast and effective.

I never scrape if I use backplot and I trust it.

I have filtering in MC ,a bunch of editors .

Only to see a state of a part from operation to operation - sorta toy ?

So after getting a good amount of crashes.changed nci 1005 comments(my post is not supporting them ) ,beeng $56e#D at the setup time

(no prob,after reading RTFM and saying a couple of good Russian expressions ) and wasting my time at work with a boss over my back I said :

To hell with it , in reality it`s a funny toy like many.kinda Solitaire ,that you,Iskander.will never need !

Anihow I worked without it before and will work afterwards!

 

 

Iskander teh kinda nasty sob

[chip]

I am all about staying up to date with new and evolving software......I believe thats the only way to stay on top of this industry. In building plastic injection molds, 95% of my work is actually quite complex 3d cutting, although not 5 axis, It is very involved just getting cavity, core, and mulitple pulls (slides) cut. 'Sometimes takes days to program.'

A verification engine that I can build my confidence in my cut, to run all day/night I'm all for it. cause unfortunitally I don't get a setup piece.....I like the way it's headed 'MCU' just needs some tunning. I rely on 'verify' day in and day out. I just can't get 'MCU' to be as consistant as I need it to be before I make a cut. My computer is up to date and runs well.

So editing and adjusting a multiple axis move, and locating a gouge in the middle of two intersecting surfaces translated through .IGES from one of our Engineers. I think It's quite cool some of the capabilities, If I could only get some of the configurations to save. I would use it as much as I use 'Post'..........