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Pitch in your little gems that make mcam life easier


jlw™
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I started with v5 in '95.  Fanboy through v9, hated X1.  Stayed with V9 until at X5 it was was finally usable, now using X9.  Hate 2017+ with a passion.  IMO the ribbon interface was even worse a decision than adding separate machine and control definition files, which we were promised would eliminate the need for posts.

Still waiting for a good version that's reliable and that has enough advances to outweigh the cumbersome ribbon, or that has enough customization options to let me make it behave the way I want it to.

The hammer handle should be made to fit my hand, rather than making me reshape my hand to fit the handle.

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2019  has now proven to be a very  reliable  version , 2018 not so much..... The out of the box version needs in my opinion a lot seasoning , especially as there are a lot of toolpaths 

that are not available from the ribbons.   Also  the RMB out of the box is barely usable.  But when you re-model the interior to your liking things really take off .  

If you'd like to give it one more try , I could send you my  mastercam.workspace file , along with  a list of keyboard shortcuts. 

A lot of the people here in Finland that I have influenced have never even tried the out of the box experience and have immediately  jumped into my version of reality.  I call that easy living , because it took me about 2 weeks to figure out  my ground zero version  and  I have been for the past few years constantly improving it .  As a matter of fact ,

just the other day Crazy Millman just showed off his RMB where he has all his Autocursor and  Autocursor Lock  functions as two sub-menus  in the RMB and I intend to  assimilate that .

 

Gracjan

 

 

 

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Gracjan, I really appreciate it, but Mastercam 2019 cannot be customized to my taste.  My taste is the drop-down menus by keystroke, as I've been using it since '95.  I have 23 years of muscle memory that I do not want to have to unlearn, though I did have to modify it considerably when I switched from v9 to X5.  Using it this way I have gotten amazed comments about my speed from almost every Mastercam user who's seen me work at speed.

IIRC there are something like 600 or so functions in Mastercam, which makes it a physical impossibility to set a hotkey for each one (I mostly use them for functions that are difficult or impossible to get through the drop-down menus), but if I could change the <ALT> keystrokes to something more sensible then I could be happy.  Whoever thought that <ALT> <J> <M> was appropriate for "Toolpaths" needs a padded cell; the moment I saw that I knew that I would not be using 2017+ unless and until I could change it.  As an alternative if the customizable RMB could be used by keystroke, with user control over which keys did what, that could also make me happy.  I've had this conversation with those in charge of the UI at CNC, and I was told that everyone else loves it the way it is so I should too.  I consider that to be not only an insult, but proof that those in charge at CNC software do not have my interests at heart.

I asked if there were any examples of people programming quickly and efficiently using the ribbon, and was told that such videos exist.  I asked three times to see them with no response, which indicates to me that they realized that those programming quickly and efficiently were not using the ribbon, but rather using heavily customized RMBs.

 

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On 7/1/2018 at 3:22 AM, pullo said:

just the other day Crazy Millman just showed off his RMB where he has all his Autocursor and  Autocursor Lock  functions as two sub-menus  in the RMB and I intend to  assimilate that .

 

Gracjan

Yes I have used Autocursor like that since X came out. I had every possible function on the RMB when X1 came out. I realized real quick not a good move.

image.thumb.png.c6d061700559a312572dc665c1d22658.png

QAT has become my new toolbar and customized the ribbons thanks to BenK giving me the idea. I reduced 9 ribbons down to 5. If it didn't lock up Mastercam I would reduce down to 4, but that is not possible to move Machine items from the Machine Ribbon it will crash Mastercam moving anything from it to another ribbon with room.  

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Solid Groups was added to 2019. Yeah Yeah and Yeah. It does take a little thought to us this, but since I have always used levels for origination it really helps to place the solid into groups. I make a group and then need to move the solids into the group. I then select that level and it highlights all the solids in the solids Manager. I then hit crtl and then drag all of those solid into the group. Now my 600 or more solids are in 4 to 10 folders and I can easily see what I have in the solids Manager. Yeah Yeah and Yeah.

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On ‎7‎/‎3‎/‎2018 at 11:43 AM, C^Millman said:

Yes I have used Autocursor like that since X came out. I had every possible function on the RMB when X1 came out. I realized real quick not a good move.

image.thumb.png.c6d061700559a312572dc665c1d22658.png

QAT has become my new toolbar and customized the ribbons thanks to BenK giving me the idea. I reduced 9 ribbons down to 5. If it didn't lock up Mastercam I would reduce down to 4, but that is not possible to move Machine items from the Machine Ribbon it will crash Mastercam moving anything from it to another ribbon with room.  

Hey Ron,

That looks much better than the default UI.....is there a post on setting this up (like what's QAT)? If so what should I search for....?

Cheers

 

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2 hours ago, nickbe10 said:

Hey Ron,

That looks much better than the default UI.....is there a post on setting this up (like what's QAT)? If so what should I search for....?

Cheers

 

The QAT is the Quick Access Toolbar, you can open it up and edit the functions for that toolbar by right clicking in the tabs area.

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59 minutes ago, CJep said:

The QAT is the Quick Access Toolbar

Thanks CJ, I really want to upgrade (still on X9). I had 2018 installed but I backed off after MU 2.

Hopefully 2019 will be more stable, although I notce they have already had an update. Don't like skipping more than 3 ( I went X->X3->X6->X9) so here is hoping things will settle down. I just don't have the time to mess with silly problems (many machines just one progger).

Thanks again

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5 hours ago, jlw™ said:

Dude, I'd go back to running a machine if I had to drop back to X9.

Not everyone likes or can live on the bleeding edge :)

Bring on Mastercam 2020!!!

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My C / Unix guru brother-in-law just clued me in to a program called AutoHotKey that may allow me to use Mastercam the way I would like to, since CNC has no interest in allowing customization of <Alt> keystroke input.  In specific is this function:

Quote

AutoHotkey also allows for 'hotstrings' that will automatically replace certain text as it is typed; the most typical use for hotstrings is expanding abbreviations, such as assigning the string "btw" to produce the text "by the way" when typed, or the text "%o" to produce "percentage of".

https://autohotkey.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AutoHotkey

 

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You can still change the hot keys in 2018, and if you make your own tabs the workplace is fine, with out docking you can not tell what color you are in or move levels with out clic clic (and please,  put a number with the color). We are number people.

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Capture.PNG.e1bd5f73f7ea74afd4ae1a6e6fe7372b.PNGUntitled2.thumb.png.dd9b12b02f5d394ef41f804a84aab6fe.pngUntitled.thumb.png.b0a1bef0e51bb78925d726118643808c.png

Discovered today you can toggle the locking and unlocking of the ribbon bar by a simple double click instead of a right click and checking or unchecking the minimize ribbon. Double click the tab area and it will lock and unlock the ribbon bar on the fly. For instance creating wireframe geometry double click it stays locked open allowing to do lines then circles then points etc... etc.. without having to re-click the tab. Then double click when done and the ribbon bar is re minimized to be hidden.

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12 minutes ago, BrianP. said:

Capture.PNG.e1bd5f73f7ea74afd4ae1a6e6fe7372b.PNGUntitled2.thumb.png.dd9b12b02f5d394ef41f804a84aab6fe.pngUntitled.thumb.png.b0a1bef0e51bb78925d726118643808c.png

Discovered today you can toggle the locking and unlocking of the ribbon bar by a simple double click instead of a right click and checking or unchecking the minimize ribbon. Double click the tab area and it will lock and unlock the ribbon bar on the fly. For instance creating wireframe geometry double click it stays locked open allowing to do lines then circles then points etc... etc.. without having to re-click the tab. Then double click when done and the ribbon bar is re minimized to be hidden.

Mine is always minimized and reduced the number of ribbons to this layout I would lose machine if it didn't crash Mastercam changing it.

image.png

 

Here is my QAT.

image.thumb.png.36d48ae78fd36e8e07991f2b52345fbc.png

Here is my RMB

image.thumb.png.3eea4acf957344e60ba01e1c709d586a.png

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12 minutes ago, C^Millman said:

Mine is always minimized and reduced the number of ribbons to this layout.

image.thumb.png.a06385be82e6f66bd51730041ec69cb4.png

Here is my QAT.

 

Here is my RMB

 

 

I also keep mine minimized all the time. My RMB is bare minimal. I find the more you have on there you end up scrolling almost as much as using the ribbon bar. Seeing as how I have used my computer for years gaming moving the mouse is quick and easy for me. A small wrist movement and I'm where I want to be. I thought this discovery pretty neat because if you have your ribbon bar minimized and do something like create a line it closes the tab after you select create a line. With a double click the wireframe tab stays open allowing you to scroll through multiple commands and then with a simple double click it is back to hidden. I also  have hot keys set up for different commands. I have never gotten why they made such a big deal about the customization of 2017, 2018 and 2019. I have been customizing ribbon bars and RMB since the release of X.

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On 7/13/2018 at 11:45 AM, BrianP. said:

I also keep mine minimized all the time. My RMB is bare minimal. I find the more you have on there you end up scrolling almost as much as using the ribbon bar.

My context menu (aka RMB) everything from Analyze to Edit are fly-out menus

5b50eca3f4228_Mcam2019ContextMenu.jpg.e2bd20d38be07be8601e1f92a3e37a49.jpg

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Small surfaces and small ball mills

I have found when trying to create surfaces, especially with small ballmills in mind to cut...it can be tough to create good clean surfaces....

In these cases I will take the geometry and scale it up 10-15x's.....I find you can create much cleaner surfaces when parts are larger.....once done, I will then scale it back down...

I have found this little trick helpful

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