Controlling Mastercam from External Program

[Karl@CP PISTONS]

This may be a dumb question but is it possible to control MC from an external program? Or is the only solution to create a c-hook / nethook to run inside mastercam? For an example we can use VB to CreateObject("Wscript.application") to connect to the windows scripting engine. Then use the object to do some useful work. Sorry if I did not use the correct terminology but I hope the question is clear.

Thanks

Karl

@ CP-Carrillo

[Pete Rimkus from CNC Software Inc.]

Karl,

 

You can adding command-line arguments like a file to open as well as a C-hook to run. You can even use /exit to terminate the Mastercam session when it's done.

 

For instance:

 

C:\Program Files\MCamX8\mastercam.exe myLocalPart.MCX-8 trimetric.dll /exit

 

You can do this from an external program you've written by making a call which launches a process.

[Karl@CP PISTONS]

Thanks for this info Pete. Is there a any documentation on the available command line options anywhere? I knew about the part loading and launching a c-hook / script but that's all I knew about.

 

Karl

[Pete Rimkus from CNC Software Inc.]

Most of the command-line arguments cover licensing (using /M3, for instance, to check out a Mill Level 3 license from your NetHasp at start up), but as you noted you can use it to open a file or launch a C-hook... as well as loading a .CONFIG file.

 

I don't know where all this is documented, but if you'd like to learn more, take a look at the MastercamLauncher.EXE - it doesn't describe the arguments per se, but lets you create shortcuts based on licensing choices. and you can then look at those shortcut properties.