EXCELLANT Chris! You da man! I was convinced it was something like that. but do to poor mental faculties was unable to prove it. Can't wait to get X2 now.

I'm having dirty ops problems bad today. I hadn't had any problems for a couple of weeks then had to run 2 sessions yesterday and today and boom they start up again. I can't even guess how much time this has cost me.

count your blessins. Former 49er, former Eagle, soon to be former cowboy.

quote: I'll be in Shipping ROFL

quote: I THINK THIS IS A FATAL FLAW IN X what say you I actually like this feature in X. I usually break up my programs into daytime runner and nighttime (unattended)runners and it works great. +2 hardmill, those guys have helped me more than I've helped anyone else.

You've got to find a way to work with a guy like that. If you don't one of you will either get fired or quit, but at every shop there is a guy like that. So the next move won't necessarily be better. As much as I hate to admit it, Lazy and outspoken operators have made me a better programmer. (this is a programmers only forum right? I'd hate to say that in front of any of 'em)

quote: BobCAD supposedly has been rewritten from the ground up for Version 22. It's a safe bet that BobCAD development isn't being done in the U.S by people with a manufacturing background. A place I worked for back in 1994 bought a $200 seat of BobWire to run their new $250,000 charmilles. Needless to say they had problems. The wire programmer called up BobWire tech support and had the guy on speaker phone. They were going through some of the problems when the programmer said,"I'm sorry, what was your name again." and the guy sounded a dumbfounded at the question and said BOB! We could hear a baby crying in the background along with some women talking. They were at least american developed back then.

I actually used Bobcad once and figured out how to draw in it. problem was everytime I started a new drawing I had to erase the pencil marks off of my monitor.

quote: Thats horrible, did Iowa shut down cause you were using "THE PHONE" I know you guys got 2, but the other is fer 'mergencys got tired of climbing the pole to answer it I'll bet.

I'm writing these programs for another customer's cnc department. They want me to use filter arcs on. It is a HSM path. cascadeclimbr, how does the post not support the control def. I've never heard of this. The post is a fanuc post from MR2 that was modified for their machines.

I have checked "no helix allowed" in the control definition, however when I post a file it continues to output helical arcs. Must be something done I'm doing but I can't figure it out. any help?

I like the hsm paths because they don't bury the cutter. they give you consistent stepovers, always climbmill and swing a radius in the corners rather than slamming into them. Our inserts last longer and the machines tend to run unnatended more often. hth

thanks, Thad. I can't believe all this time I was one button click away from easy street.

I put a file on the ftp site of a simple little fixture with 72 identical holes (blue) and when I select mask on arc it only picks 12 rather than the entire 72. I can't see anything about them that is different. I have this problem from time to time. I opened the tolerance up to .005 and it made no difference. The file name is "MASK ON ARC.MCX" can someone take a look at it and see what I'm doing wrong?

Mano, you've got mail

Me too. we have Dnc-b and use the Cimco Edit. Paid little to nothing for a stand alone version and it does everythng we want it to.

quote: This isnt a contest. pitting one software against another sort of.... turns it into a contest. which is better? let's put them head to head and see. yep, sounds like a contest to me.

I use cimco edit on our DNC-b every day. I'm not sure what you mean by special protocol. It worked right out of the box for me.

You can use the new highspeed machining path called Rest roughing. you can model up your casting with the machine stock and save as an STL file. use that as your stock model and pick the faces that you want to cut to. Rest Rough will find the differences and machine them off.

the worst thing about mr2 is it has ruined a lot of my old excuses.

interesting question. I'm anxious to hear an answer on that.

the filter is in the "total tolerance" dialog box

Darren, I just noticed that if my holders have a 45deg chamfer on the bottom of them the holder clearance works. If they have a sharp corner the holder clearance (for whatever reason) doesn't work in Z.

Mark, you have mail.

Mark, I just tried it and he's right! I tested a cutter 5mm long and used 3mm holder clearance. I picked every surface on the part and the holder went right to the top of the part.