There are hard lessons to learn in setting a datum below a part highest point. There are as many ways to accomplish a part as there are stars in the sky. In the end, you want something that runs in a reasonable time, produces a good part and is easily understandable by anyone that may be looking at your processes. That's why you see the suggestions on tool holders, adding notes in operation fields etc. etc. The more diligent and obsessive you are with this, the more successful you will be. Learn good habits now so you don't have to retrain yourself later.

Nevermind, I figured it out. Setting mr9 & mr10 correctly fixes it.

I do now its working

We had something similar in the 2019 version. it would show our small arcs as whole circles when backplotting and collision detecting. not sure if this will cure your issue but if you want to try it I hope it helps. __________________________ 1. Start TruePath. 2. In the ribbon bar, go to "Manage > Tools > Options". 3. Click "File Types". 4. In "Additional Options", select "NCI - Circular Interpolation Move - Add Linear Move For Small Arcs". 5. Enable "NCI - Circular Interpolation Move - Add Linear Move For Small Arcs". 6. In "Additional Options", select "NCI - Circular Interpolation Move Tolerance". 7. Set "NCI - Circular Interpolation Move Tolerance" to 0.001 in. 8. Click "Close". 9. Shut down TruePath. Create a fresh TruePath project and the arcs should be correct. Hope this helps.

Hi Bill, The "Moore Tool Company" is the same company that made the original Jig Bore and Jig Grinding machines, that now produces these super accurate diamond turning machines. They are the same company, but have specialized in hyper accurate lathes. Which is a shame, because I can only imagine what they could build. It is the greatest book about manufacturing that I've ever read, and recommend it to everybody in the trade, whenever the subject comes up. (I bring it up a lot. Lol.) https://mooretool.com/publications.html The book is "Foundations of Mechanical Accuracy", by Wayne R. Moore, 1970 It isn't cheap, but honestly it would be a bargain at 10-times the price... The "Moore" book, above. If you haven't read it James, it is worth a gander. I am pretty sure you're at a high enough level of knowledge with the Matsuura training you've done, that it wouldn't be as big a benefit to you, as it is to most people, but there is a lot of great stuff in that book. It is basically > how do we make and measure the highest of mechanical accuracies, and build machines to hold 0.0001 tolerances, without electronic compensation? Well, Moore Tool Company did it by building every component of their manual milling machines to +- 25-millionths, and matched the ball-sets to 10-millionths. This book is a wealth of information on how to manually measure and produce the most accurate parts.

Ours wasn't checked. I'll try it out.

Do you have "Display Toolpath" enabled on the Screen page of System Config

Machining is truely becoming a lost art. My recommendation would be to get to the basics and get out in the garage and make something. Get in to a manufacturing job and learn the ground basics. L:ike millman says, it's not a video game, it's a computer interface with real world ramifications. By all means keep learning and asking questions!!! Being inquisitive is a huge bonus. I have been doing this a very long time and I still do a huge percentage of troubleshooting and finding out "why" something isn't working.

Wellll....your decision might already have been made for you. Can't really comment on your question directly however, it looks like Mastercam for Solidworks is in "sunset" status starting w the 2024 release. Meaning v2024 is slated to be Standalone only. This is information I received from my Reseller recently. Personally, on a "lesser" computer than I have today...and older versions...running Mastercam for Solidworks was not a "solid" experience for me. And we're not doing anything terribly complex. My workflow is pretty much how you describe - parts and fixtures in SW...and paths in Mastercam. I usually get fouled up when trying to merge new revisions when I'm working on the Standalone version - but that's a "me" issue I think more than Mastercam. I wouldn't say it's a bulletproof system [Standalone]...but for me its been significantly more stable than within SW and not bad compared to other software I use. I'm looking at you Hexagon...

Since you have the Depth set to Absolute and the way the part is set up it is cutting -1.0 below the origin, so it is cutting -2.5" deep in total from the front surface. The front surface is positive 1.5" above the origin. If you want to go -1.0 deep into the front surface use "Incremental" with this set up.

Goto System Configuration - Screen - Check box for Display toolpaths.

Let me strip some of the bulk from the file and I'll PM you a link tomorrow.

You can try contacting your reseller. X5 is a really old version of Mastercam at this point and it possibly suggests it could be a pirated version.

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