great questions. I appreciate the chance to give input.

Thanks everyone for the quick replies. But I ended up having to reprogram it. That was a sinking feeling but I stayed till 10:30 last night redoing it. Pete, after I thought about it. the file was a 158 meg, I'm not sure I would've ever got that uploaded. But I really appreciate the offer. I had the bitmap option turned on. When I backread some posts, they said that could possibly be causing this. So I've turned it off. Hope that makes a difference in the future. thanks again everyone.

there's got to be some way of restoring this file. Pete Rimkus? anyone?

I have a 158meg file with the toolpaths all but done. and I did a file save I got the error "corrupt or invalid file" I have gotten this error before but was able to call up my backup file this time auto backup corrupted my backup file as well. Now when I call up the file there are no toolpaths inside and my solid models are gone. these solid models were imported parasolids and have been fine for 2 days what would make them corrupted all of a sudden with nothing being done to them except applying toolpaths. Meanwhile the cnc is halfway through cutting the backside and will be looking for the front side program shortly. Is there ANYTHING I can do to keep from reprogramming this thing? and how do I keep it from happening again?

1

I just got this error also. Nothing I've tried fixes the problem. It is happening on a 2d contour. when I analyze the chain it reports to be good. Gcode, how does ramsaver help? Is it because of some corruptedness that is being removed?

I like to setup several paths to generate all at once. Is there a way to suppress the warning message that says a toolpath has been gouge checked?

quote: 8. Use of profanity including acronyms involving profanity will not be tolerated. when does this rule go into effect?

a Makino rep told me that OKK is their scariest competitor

I was put in charge of analyzing visi for 1year at a place I used to work at and hated it. But that was 7 years ago. I thought they had really good ideas but their american support was so bad that we couldn't get anything done. They even sent an italian to our shop who had, in part, written the code and he couldn't program the part that we had because of the english translation. It's probably better now but it was a real hair yanker back then.

storkman, do you mean suppressing multiple features of a single solid? that works for me. I never tried suppressing several entire solids.

quote: machinists don't need spotting presses It's not that they don't need them it's that they wouldn't think to try it out before shipping it.

I had this happen to me too. I had it set to minimum clearance and I changed it to full clearance, and have never had another problem.

quote: Machinist makes the part to print, QC checks it sometimes Machinist re-makes/re-works part. Ship it. Toolmaker takes nice looking QC'd part and makes it work/fit by sometimes butchering that part to make the assembly work. WOW!!! If this represents In-House Solutions way of thinking, then In-House in a very simple minded place to work. It seems an apology might be in order. Work in a tool shop with no toolmakers and you'll be looking for a place whose keys still fit in the door soon.

Don't make Kannon angry.....you wouldn't like him when he's angry...

Flint Hill...wow that is close!

quote: p.s. who do you work for? Menne Tool & Die in Moscow Mills, MO The point method is just the cursor option at the top of the DPM. When you pick the center of the arc instead of the arc itself there is no predetermined labeling on it so it drills them in the order they were selected.

I wish CNC software would buy them and incorporate some of their technology. That would be sweet.

I've been doing some tests too. if I use the point method they are drill in the order that I picked them if I use entity method (which is the only method we use here) it sorts them by their creation order just as Mark G said. This is something I'd really like to have fixed if at all possible.

quote: Any idea what Cimmatron pricing is ball park???? over 20 I think.

be careful comparing tolerances. .001 in mastercam is equal to .0005 in cimatron. They base their tolerance on a "per side" basis. where as mastercam is based on a total tolerance basis. If cimatron is set to .001 and mastercam is set to .001 mastercam is twice as precise.

Roger, are you using the entity method or the point method?

Roger, I've been getting the same thing as Mark. It seems to order them according in chronological creation order not the picking order. I have turned all sorting off. it makes no difference.

are you talking about a RAM edm or wire edm? I've never seen mastercam used for ram edm. but I might be living under a rock, i dunno.