I just purchased all of the learning books for Mastercam 2019. My goal is to learn as much as I can before 2020 and become a master at Mastercam. Any advice to help my journey would be much appreciated. Art

We tried them here a couple of times. Metal removal rates were fantastic, but tool life was about 2 minutes. You need to break your toolpaths into 120 second segments, have 5 or 6 identical cutter bodies set up, a squad of low rent helpers changing inserts, and a Bill Gates sized bank account. To make matters worse, the swarf is a fine abrasive dust that will destroy a machine tool in short order. I know there are shops using ceramics successfully, but I have no idea how they are doing it.

Just went through this process myself and we ended up getting a post from our reseller. It did cost a little but money we save more than paid for post and trouble.

Deep one you just jumped off into. #1 Why don't you want to make changes to the machine group? #2 What is your right angle head? Is it either of these? Are you going to point it X+,X-,Y+ or Y-? #3 You can only apply it is the post has been configured to support it. Has your post been configured to support a RAH? I have not used the internal RAH in Mastercam since about X4. I have use a mi trigger in posts from 3rd party post builders and never looked back. It is suppose to work out of the box from CNC Software, but I have never been able to find a demo to download and work with. Your best direction is to get a hold of your reseller or a consultant and have them help you if you need this done in a hurry. If you have time to figure it out and work with it then move on like your are.

Use the force function. pcanceldc$ #Cancel canned drill cycle result = newfs(three, zinc) z$ = initht$ if cuttype = one, prv_zia = initht$ + (rotdia$/two) else, prv_zia = initht$ pxyzcout !zabs, !zinc prv_gcode$ = zero pcan pcan1, pbld, n$, sg80, strcantext, e$ if (drillcyc$ = 3 | drillcyc$ = 7) & tap_feedtype, pbld, n$, sg94, e$ result = newfs(15, feed) #Reset the output format for 'feed' pcan2 result = force(sgcode, sgcode) #Force gcode output on the next motion line

What control? I know when they first came back this last go around they were putting FANUC controls on them, but now its a FADAL control. I would try starting off with single block on, then single block past the G43 line, that way the look-ahead is limited, then jump to where you want. I used to do this on FANUCs or put a GOTO line after the G43 line to do the jump automatically in the program with. Either way be cautious. The GOTO line should work for pretty much any control. Unless the machine doesn't have the function/ option turned on.

That did the trick! thanks

I've had wacky results with the rctf box a couple times. Sometimes it ignors the new feed rate if you change it in the tool. I've had to uncheck it, Regen, check and Regen.

I don't think you have to have "full admin" rights, but the IT department must set the Permissions correctly for your account. This usually involves giving your User Profile "Full Control" over the Shared Mastercam Folder, the "My Mcam" folder (under "My Documents"), and sometimes also the "Mastercam Install Folder".

Yes.. our big Okuma 5X has a greased spindle I rough a lot of mild steel parts using a Ø2" high feed and through tool air blast instead of coolant. Some genius used a cutter body that had no coolant holes, so the air blast blew out the seals and all the spindle grease. By the time it was over, our spindle sounded like a gravel truck on a bumpy dirt road.