The force tool change does work, thank you for the advice, now to get this post worked on...

Just starting messing around with MC. I have been to a few classes and I have done quite a lot of tutorials. I know how to create geometry, apply toolpaths and generate g-code. I have written one program and ran it on the machine and it worked. But, I cannot figure out how in the hell to import an Autocad (.dwg) file into Mastercam. We have all of our .dwg files on the servers "L" drive. Anybody help? Thanks

I use these settings as a default, values are metric, So far I have not had any issues Roughing - G131 F11000 J2 E0.05 D0.01 I2 L20 R0.3 K0 P0.01 Q5 Finishing - G131 F11000 J1 E0.02 D0.01 I2 L20 R0.3 K0 P0.01 Q5

I see 2020 holding onto several things like this I was posting a drill program yesterday and it told me when posting I had 2 different tools with the same number when looking thru the program in MC there was no same numbers everything was in order like they should be but when posted it actually had two # 12's for some reason it was posting T4 and T12 as T12 no matter what I did. I completely shut MC down restarted and posted like it should. IMO 2020 has some neat new features, but has so many bugs someone needs to call Orkin.....................

Yes I know of a concert hall that bought a $500k piano for the Violin player to play. After 1 year it was never played once and the management group was upset and fired the violin player. On the exit interview they asked him why he never played the the Piano that was bought for him. He replied I spent 35 years playing the Violin. No one ever asked me if wanted lessons or if I even wanted to play the Piano they just bought and expected me to be able to play it. They said well your a musician said the person who never played an instrument in their life. He replied back what if someone bought you and INDY car and told you you must beat the best racers on the planet or loose your job? How long do you think it would take you to beat them with no training or help? Anyone can do what I do is my feeling. I am no one special, but I have something 99% of the other people don't have. I have 30+ year of experience in well over 1000 different shops having programmed well over 300 different machines. I wish I could sit down and play the Piano like someone who has played it for 30 years could, but I cannot. Maybe with years of practice and training I could play twinkle twinkle little star. If your owner is not smart enough to understand no one can get to where they need without the proper and correct training it might be time for you to find somewhere that understands training is the most fundamental aspect of the manufacturing process. That said I spent many hours when I was younger on my own time learning and growing my craft. The concert Pianist doesn't sit down not having spent countless hours practicing and honing their abilities. We as machinist and programmers should be doing the same. Honing and perfecting our abilities. The Piano or any instrument for that matter make such amazing sounds when played by the right person, but make terrible sounds when played by the wrong person or a novice. We all need to think of our work as our own Masterpieces of our abilities, talents and God given abilities. Excellent putting something up to get better keep that attitude and you will surpass me in what you can program and do.

They basically split up Trim/Break/Extend into separate functions. Where you used to be able to trim entities together, trim to a point, extend entities (positively or negatively) all from one dialogue box, you now need to accept and open up a new dialogue box for each function. I also dislike how they change "Extend" to "Modify Length". You used to be able to enter a negative value to shorten the wireframe, now you must select either Lengthen or Shorten and are only allowed positive values in the box. A very good workflow that used to contain a lot of functionality has, in my opinion, been completely neutered.

There is a lot in 2020 I like I HATE HATE HATE what has been done to the Trim function though

You have a software guy? Jealous.

I specifically made a folder with only one file in it to make things less confusing, it is an .dwg file. Mastercan will not open a .dwg? I have MC X5. I went to "Sreen-Statistics" after I thought I opened a file. Dialog box said "Current Mastercam File has NO entities". I opened up Level Manager, it said I had a boatload of entities on 12 levels, I checked the box to make them all visible. No dice.....It is almost time to go home. Thanks anyway. I have a Mastercam class tomorrow, maybe my instructor can walk me through it.

FYI Caps Yelling. Do you have a file you can share so we can see what you are refering too. How did you drive the toolpath? Did you try changing the chain direction? Did you try repicking the toolpath in a different operation? HTH