Is anybody running Mastercam with an ATI Radeon card? I can not see my zoom or delete window in the graphic background screen. I was wondering if anyone knows how to fix this or a driver version that will take care of this. I am using a new Dell XPS laptop and ATI was the only options I had to choose from.

Does anyone have a V9 post processor for a Fadal VMC15 with a Fadal CNC 88 control? It would be greatly appreciated.

I have been running Mastercam on Win2k for almost a year now. I haven't come across any problems with Mastercam not working with other apps. running or when I minimize it. I am always running 2 session of Mastercam due to their slow toolpath calculation. I set the performance setting to background so win2k uses the same processor resources for all apps. that are running, not just the one in the foreground. I have a dual processor Dell Precision 420. Works great!

How about a slope angle from and to option in surface>finish>contour strategy, so the cutter doesn't channel through uncut stock in the shallow areas.

gcode makes a good point. Our 3dlabs card (oxygen) works great with any software we use. If money isn't an issue and you want a smokin' card check out 3dlabs Wildcat line, even better.

If it is a Heidenhain 426 or 430 I have a pst file that has been modified and works real well. Let me know and I can email it to you.

Another thing to try is to have your unigraphics operator extract > face > general B-surface, than iges the b-surfaces to Mastercam. The model will come in a lot better and the UG operators will be able to see what the surface model they are creating really looks like. UG is great at misleading the operator with their shading.

What controller does your Deckel Maho have?

We have 2 workstations running Mastercam, 1 using a 3dlabs and 1 using an Intense 3D Wildcat. You may already know this but Intense 3D was acquired by 3D labs. Both card work awesome. We can shade with a .0001" chord tolerance with models containing over 600 surfaces, medical implants, without any hesitation. If you have complex models with tight tolerances, I suggest a 3DLabs Oxygen or Intense 3D Wildcat. Good luck.

Does anybody know how to output points on a surface with the surface vectors included. ASCII format preferred.

Kathy, With you part in isometric veiw, you can create 2 coons surfaces. Use coons, auto and pick the the upper left corner first, than pick the bottom right corner and it will autochain. Do the same with the green geometry for 2nd surface. Let me know if this helps.

I suggest you contact Jabro. They are a cutter company out of the Netherlands. Our distributor is C.W. Vordenberg (513)742-0933. The cutters are specially designed for cutting highspeed. I have not found any brand of carbide cutters that can keep up or last as long as Jabro's. They also have info for different strategies. You have to take a lot of variables in consideration for speeds and feeds, ie. tooling, cutter geometry, type of cut, material, rigidity of machine, and so on. Remember not to get caught in the "industry standard" mindset. Highspeed machining is new and believe me you can do far better than what you find the industry is doing!!! Email me at [email protected] and I can give you my phone# to explain what I am talking about in better detail.

I asked the same question a few months ago, Mastercam said there isn't anything that could "unroll - straighten" a surface yet. Good luck.

Sometimes when I can't get a surface to trim with curves, I will extrude a surface using the curves straight up and use the trim to surface function instead of curves

Can you use boundries or depth limits to isolate the difference in stock thickness you are machining? I rarely use roughing strategies. You can get a closer to net shape if you rough using finishing strategies. You will increase the amount of operations but the result at the mill will be improved dramatically (that is what companies will see). There are many different ways of going about it, just stay open minded and don't feel you have to machine by the "standard" practices.

Are you doing high speed machining? If you are there is a better way to machine a trough. Using the right tool you can raster through over 150ipm. And if it is soft material you will be able use a zig-zag pass. If you are interested in more details email me at [email protected]

Also, try turning off "optimize toolpath" in your gap settings.

V8 has a lot of nice enhancments and is very user friendly. The only problems I have found with it is the optimize toolpath has a bug (leftover, scallop, and shallow toolpaths). Mastercam said this will be fixed in V8.1. Also when you use small tolerances and collapse zones with complex models, Mcam will either have a fatal error or a "unable to determine collapsable boundry". If you like to use optimize be prepared for errors in the toolpath or wait until V8.1.

I also had the problem and sent it to Mastercam support. They informed me that this will be fixed in V8.1, but do not know when it will be released.

Been running in windows 2k for 4 months. Mcam will crap out periodically but seems to run o.k. Use Autosave!

Does anyone have a tool library for highspeed machinging that they would like to share or know of any documentation on speeds and feeds for highspeed machining?

Have you tried changing your settings for verify. Set your moves/step and moves/refresh to their highest possible settings. You probably already know this, but no tool or wireframe tool make it run faster than solid tool. Good luck.

YES it will!!! I have a Dell Precision 420 with 2 Intel III 733mhz processors, 512mb rdram, and RAID 0. The computer screams. You can work on other applications while running toolpaths or verifying. After this purchase all our workstations will be dual processors. It takes less than a week to make up the extra cost of the 2nd processor, just by the production time you saved. I am running Win2k pro also. I also suggest getting a high end graphics card, ie. Intense 3d Wildcat 4110 or 4115. The Gloria II is also a good card. Good luck!

I use moldplus to make electrodes and most importantly I use it to assist with parting surfaces, it works good for that function and saves me a lot of time. I have only had it for a few months and expect to understand it more in the next couple of months, I like it so far. Our Mastercam dealer teaches a class, maybe you could check your dealer or dealers in your area. Good luck!

I do not have a line 1502 in my post processor and there isn't any line asking whether to write to a binary file. Do I need to create this line or is there another way?