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jlw™
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We had recently stumbled upon a heck of a time saver.

Some of our programs could take up to an hour to regenerate (roughly 4k operations, so many pecked grooves!  :P).

That time was cut down to a few minutes by editing common parameters, and toggling all of the tool displays to OFF.

Wish we would have found this a few years ago!

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2 hours ago, JSarge81 said:

We had recently stumbled upon a heck of a time saver.

Some of our programs could take up to an hour to regenerate (roughly 4k operations, so many pecked grooves!  :P).

That time was cut down to a few minutes by editing common parameters, and toggling all of the tool displays to OFF.

Wish we would have found this a few years ago!

Very nice! Thanks

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  • 2 weeks later...

I Recently came across a post which got locked because some kind of war started. People were trashing each other, throwing things at one another tossing tables and smashing chairs across everyones back but in the light of the fallout which looked like something of an aftermath of a RS-28 SARMAT ICBM,  some thing good came out of that thread.

Colin GilChrist (Which I nicknamed Mill-Christ due to his eapprentice lessons because this guy really knows his stuff on a level which I have never seen before) mentioned how to create new toolpath groups and subgroups and me being new to Mastercam I knew how to do this and understood the purpose of this but Colin showed a way that brought it to a whole new level. I am assuming that most people know this already but he showed the picture below.

What struck me in this picture was the subgroups for specific operations.....ie; roughing, drilling, pocketing and so-on. I never thought to use toolpath groups like this before. I only used them to separate different operations. So in it;s simplest form.... the next time I'm drilling a series of holes I will create a group called Centre Drilling another group called drilling, and another group called tapping. The reason why this is recommended is that lets say I need to adjust the parameters for centre drilling I can find them easily as they are in their own group. 

Because of Colin's post my Mastercam files will never look the same again.

Thanks Colin.

I know most of you are s1745943703_EMASTERCAM_GROUP-NAMING_SUB-GROUPS_IN_OPS_MANAGER.PNG.e626745160ec6f206d3e2fea26a8caa2(1).thumb.PNG.940685ca1d8b3cccc2883a58e15a0baa.PNGaying..."well what did you thing the TOOLPATH group was for?? DUH!

giphy.gif

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1 hour ago, Boo said:

Hi there people,

I'm new to this forum but came here looking for a guide on how to use macro's in Mastercam2018.

Can anyone please point me in the right direction?

 

 

Macro for probing or using macro variables in posted code?

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5 hours ago, Boo said:

Neither I guess. I used to work in DEPOCAM before where I had the ability to simply record a series of actions and save it as a macro. But maybe I'm getting the therms wrong here..

While you can't record functions and operations in Mastercam, you can create operations and export them.

You also have the option of including the geometry during export.

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7 hours ago, Boo said:

Neither I guess. I used to work in DEPOCAM before where I had the ability to simply record a series of actions and save it as a macro. But maybe I'm getting the therms wrong here..

 

Ok, I know what you mean then.  You can't record macros but you can use hotkeys as well as build nethooks and chooks.

What exactly are you wanting to do?

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On 2/22/2019 at 5:28 AM, So not a Guru said:

While you can't record functions and operations in Mastercam, you can create operations and export them.

You also have the option of including the geometry during export.

I like the sounds of exporting the geometry during export! How exactly is that done? I've only ever been able to import and export toolpaths WITHOUT geometry attached.

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21 minutes ago, dillon527 said:

I like the sounds of exporting the geometry during export! How exactly is that done? I've only ever been able to import and export toolpaths WITHOUT geometry attached.

To export:

Select the toolpath you want to export, right-click & select Export, check the box for "Export operation's geometry", select where you want to save it, name it what you want.

To import:

Right-click in the Toolpath manager & select Import, check the box for "Import operation's geometry", navigate to where the operation you want is located (If you use a standard location for your saved operations, you should check the box for "Remember this file").

 

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On 2/28/2019 at 7:55 AM, So not a Guru said:

To export:

Select the toolpath you want to export, right-click & select Export, check the box for "Export operation's geometry", select where you want to save it, name it what you want.

You must use surfaces and wireframe to use the export abilities. This will not work with Solids.

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  • 5 weeks later...
On ‎2‎/‎5‎/‎2019 at 4:56 AM, JSarge81 said:

We had recently stumbled upon a heck of a time saver.

Some of our programs could take up to an hour to regenerate (roughly 4k operations, so many pecked grooves!  :P).

That time was cut down to a few minutes by editing common parameters, and toggling all of the tool displays to OFF.

Wish we would have found this a few years ago!

Sorry for the stupid question

 Can you specify   where  is  " tool displays " in common parameters ?  I can't find such of tab  in mc2020

   Thank you in advance

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On 4/17/2019 at 10:30 AM, mig said:

Sorry for the stupid question

 Can you specify   where  is  " tool displays " in common parameters ?  I can't find such of tab  in mc2020

   Thank you in advance

"Tool Display" is actually a "Lathe Path only option". You will only see it if you select a group of Lathe Toolpaths in the Toolpaths Manager, and edit those common parameters.

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I have something that seems to have helped Mastercam be more stable and crash less. Inside task manager there is the ability to set priority of programs. If you go in and set Mastercam to high priority, it seems to be more stable and process things faster (on my computer at least). 

The problem is that it only lasts until you close Mastercam. I did a Google search and there are add on programs that will keep the priority set to high. The program I downloaded is called Prio. It installs and runs in the background. It starts when windows does and now when I run Mastercam the priority is always set at high. All you have to do is start task manager and high light Mastercam (once it's running) right click- Set it to high and also check save priority. Set it once and it's done.

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On 4/25/2019 at 6:54 AM, Corey Hampshire said:

The program I downloaded is called Prio. It installs and runs in the background. It starts when windows does and now when I run Mastercam the priority is always set at high.

I tried this and it stopped my Space Pilot from working until I set priority back to normal and restarted the driver.

Edit:

It seems to work fine with Mastercam and the 3DConnexion drivers both set to high.

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On 2/22/2019 at 12:07 AM, Boo said:

Neither I guess. I used to work in DEPOCAM before where I had the ability to simply record a series of actions and save it as a macro. But maybe I'm getting the therms wrong here..

Mastercam used to have a macro recorder but I think it was eliminated when the X series of MC came out. :(

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On 2/22/2019 at 1:52 PM, jlw™ said:

Ok, I know what you mean then.  You can't record macros but you can use hotkeys as well as build nethooks and chooks.

What exactly are you wanting to do?

The idea was to use it for rough milling parts with similar shapes. But i guess the Feature Base Machining could be used for that. I just haven't had time to dive into that.

What I've seen so far is that you need a solid part to make that work instead of a bunch of surfaces.

Does anyone use FBM and have good experience?

 

By the way, thanks for the feedback all!

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On 2/17/2019 at 4:38 PM, M4573RMZD said:

I Recently came across a post which got locked because some kind of war started. People were trashing each other, throwing things at one another tossing tables and smashing chairs across everyones back but in the light of the fallout which looked like something of an aftermath of a RS-28 SARMAT ICBM,  some thing good came out of that thread.

Colin GilChrist (Which I nicknamed Mill-Christ due to his eapprentice lessons because this guy really knows his stuff on a level which I have never seen before) mentioned how to create new toolpath groups and subgroups and me being new to Mastercam I knew how to do this and understood the purpose of this but Colin showed a way that brought it to a whole new level. I am assuming that most people know this already but he showed the picture below.

What struck me in this picture was the subgroups for specific operations.....ie; roughing, drilling, pocketing and so-on. I never thought to use toolpath groups like this before. I only used them to separate different operations. So in it;s simplest form.... the next time I'm drilling a series of holes I will create a group called Centre Drilling another group called drilling, and another group called tapping. The reason why this is recommended is that lets say I need to adjust the parameters for centre drilling I can find them easily as they are in their own group. 

Because of Colin's post my Mastercam files will never look the same again.

Thanks Colin.

I know most of you are s1745943703_EMASTERCAM_GROUP-NAMING_SUB-GROUPS_IN_OPS_MANAGER.PNG.e626745160ec6f206d3e2fea26a8caa2(1).thumb.PNG.940685ca1d8b3cccc2883a58e15a0baa.PNGaying..."well what did you thing the TOOLPATH group was for?? DUH!

giphy.gif35.214

I use Vericut or check programs for crashes and stuff. But vericut doest like these toolpath groups, if i make to many groups it won't see the tools in the lower groups.

A solution is to make a group on top which contains all tools used in the complete program. It works but its not efficient.. and i like things to be efficient.

Anyone got experience with this?

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