when you say "btw, i never use MC's stupid solid pickup, always curve all edges" tells me that you have not had proper training because if you were properly trained you would most not think that way and would be using solid chaining and making your job easy instead of doing all the edge curves. So i would suggest getting some training and revisiting mastercam powerful solid chaining options. I am not saying that everyone that creates edge curves does anything wrong nor am i saying wireframe chaining is bad, im just saying that in my opinion you must not have properly learned the solid chaining in mastercam if you think that way or made a statement like that

How big is the shop? If the shop is 3-4 employees ERP would be a tough sell because it requires a significant amount of time and resources to implement and run. At 3-4 employees the cost is lost productivity would outweigh the benefit from ERP. If the shop is 10+ employees and there is a management structure starting to form ERP becomes a valuable tool the the benefits outweigh the cost. We didn't have ERP until this year and we use Microsoft's Business Central which is bad@ss. It is a LOT of work to set up but it is extremely configurable and powerful. MUCH better than E2 or Jobboss, etc... Prior to this year we used Quickbooks for accounting and that was enough. As for managing the tool crib and other shop related stuff. We have detailed SOPs (standard operating procedures) and employees are expected to follow them. If they don't follow them they get fired pretty quickly, end of story. We have ZERO patience for guys on their own program. If they don't like how things are we discuss how to make them better but they are always expected to follow the processes in place. We are an aerospace shop and we run a really tight ship and all process violations are documented and resolved. Three strikes and off to become another shops problem. The result of this was quick turnover initially but we now have a very stable group of employees that operate at another level. I wouldn't trade one guy (or gal) in my shop right now for anyone.

I'll say it is pretty badass to be able to slap a first op part back in the vise, probe it back into perfect alignment with respect to all degrees of freedom, fully defined in the offsets. Then run the same full 5-axis program on it to near perfection. Your average smartphone is probably more powerful, but the industry has come long way in ease of use.

We also jumped on to this system when it came out. We saw a drastic decrease in purchasing tools when the cabinet went live. No tools were misplaced, we knew where everything was. Since then, we have added 2 more to our shop for a total of 3. I now keep everything in them, tool holders, pull studs, collets, er, sk, mega, drills, endmills, taps, thread lock, carvesmart softjaws, citizen collets, and so on. Recently pushed our coolant and oils into the system for the ease of ordering. I have 2 more cabinets on order to add to a station, 1 station can control more than one cabinet. The system pays for its self in keeping over ordering down, and now with collets added. Speed of setups and not searching for stuff.

Not a good idea to ease into a tool crib management system, We tried it and failed miserably, to many people walking in and out grabbing tools, taking spares, over riding the system and what we ended up with was a tool bill that was double our usual monthly! As others have mentioned best bet is a tool vending/drawer system that can be provided by your supplier, inventory everything you plan on using set min and max and lock that baby down. Its a one man job, and has to be that way! On the back side standardize what you are using, create tool libraries and always try to find a way to use those tools. At the end of the day a well balanced system can save you money, you will rarely be holding tools that you do not need, our vender sees what we are using most and keeps stock at the local warehouse, so we can keep our min max low but get tools same day. Your the boss now buddy, don't flirt with anything, make a decision and then pull off the Band-Aid, We use the the FTS system from Western Tool, its only as good as the person implementing it, but that being said after 6 months we got it down to a science. Integration into Mastercam? Come on Man, you are one of us now, you should know better.... LOL

You can adjust the depth within your geometry selection of the toolpath. Right click on the point or arc entity when inside the geometry selection.

Not to derail the thread, but what do you suggest for training if your reseller is....less than capable? I'm totally self taught and I think I could benefit from real training. However, we've done some training with our reseller and it did not go very well at all. It was definitely not worth the $$

Your dealer is more than willing to help. When you reached out to them what was their response?

I'm so glad you like it and have found ways to apply the knowledge it contains! Seriously, that makes me so happy to hear. I had a similar reaction of feeling like "there was something missing in my manufacturing knowledge (the itch inside your head), and this book is like a "giant back scratcher", but it's able to reach inside your skull. As I've mentioned in other threads: this book is worth many times its own weight in gold. If I remember correctly: I have the late Tim Markoski to thank for recommending this book to me in the first place. If you're browsing Emastercam up in heaven, I just want to say thank you Tim, and I'll always keep paying it forward.

So I recently purchased this book directly from Moore tool and I cant thank you enough for recommending it to me on a similar post a while back. Its as if its itching a scratch that I've been reaching at for years. I'm not even half way through it and have been able to reference it in regards to helping others at work on multiple occasions. As someone that started their career doing everything "the old school way" (manual lathe / mill) I think it should be a prerequisite read for those entering the trade today.

We do a lot of lathe profiles defined by points. Creating curves defined by these points yields splines If we chain the splines the resulting code is thousands of tiny linear moves and an unacceptable finish The solution is to use the command "Break Many" We launch the command , chain the spline, select "Curves" for output and set Tolerance to .0002" This will break the spline into small arcs which yields an excellent finish I do not know if this approach will work with a wire EDM toolpath You will need to change one setting in your System Config for this to work On the Tolerance page you will need to set "Curve choral deviation" to .0002

I also love "Foundation of Mechanical Accuracy", by Wayne R. Moore. (www.mooretool.com)