Uddeholm will have some good cutting data parameter sheets. Stuff is tough so I would recommend a P30-P50 grade of carbide and run 200-400SFM with a nice chip load.

DF Good point, the G40 will cancel the cutter comp and the length compensation values. The way we ran this on the 7M was just to leave the cuttercomp active thru the moves and when the cutter moves in a Z-Axis direction, then the cuttercomp deactivated itself somehow. Just try it without the G40 at the end of your profile and reposition to the next cut with Z moves intermediate and give her a try. Let me know how this works for you. HTH [ 10-18-2002, 12:49 PM: Message edited by: Andrew McRae ]

I think if you have the soft touch buttons on the bottom of the screen, you can change the mode of measurement. IE REL, ABS, MACH. Check this out or use the pgup pgdn keys to see if this helps. Contact Fanuc and they will gladly send a book to you for a nominal ~US$150.00

DF You poor, poor xxxx. I welcome the company to my life of misery and discontent. I had a Makino horizontal with this anarcist type of control. Let me guess, the board fried and you lost all the canned cycles, sound familiar? What is the nature of your inquiry?

Chris, Please restrict all movie related references to F.F. Copalla's "Apocalypse Now". Your reference should have been "The Horror... The Horror..."

If you are connected to a network, set all the tool libs and posts and mc9 files etc on remote drives and have the software loaded locally to point to the new drives. This will allow any PC to access the required files.

If you paste the cpied text between the html on/off codes, then the quote will be between the lines.

Make that 3...

Use the powerfull cut and paste method. Highlight the text in another exporer window, right click and use copy command. Now on the Instant UBB code below, click quote button. quote: between the quote and /quote insert the text quote: ive been wondering for some time now how i get other peoples remarks " " into my replie without typing them in myself????or are you retyping looking for easy ways always -------------------- MACHINEMASTERG and low and behold... it just works. One thought though, if you have been retyping other peoples posts, do you still make all those spelling errors?? (This is for yours and James' benefit... LOL ) [ 10-17-2002, 12:39 PM: Message edited by: Andrew McRae ]

This post was inspired by the gentleman requesting metric c-hooks. Have a mechanism inside of mastercam to compile chooks and also to have all the legacy code of all the old chooks so that we have in our directories, so that we can make such changes ourselves. This will add great value to the software and justify at least a 30% increase in the list price of the stuff!

Andy, Sorry for the confusion on the incremental posting style. I was suggesting that by adding in the functions of the layer manager to this technique, you can sort the entities by type and now use the layers to select the features that you want all at once.

Add in the layer manager and change attributes - only arcs - layer 100 then turn all layers but 100 off, create the toolpath, and have some fun!

MMG - I concurr - Great method. Looks like there is a definite reversal in the pattern of holes, however I would like to see more control on the sort method for these chains as Eric is requesting. Any other thoughts out there for this??

Eric Post a file for us to play with and we will see what it is that you want. 100 chains eh, must be the tops of the holes that you want to contour or chamfer. Is the diameter outside the possibility of using an axial feeding chamfering tool rather than a milling style of tool?

Also do a search on the knowledge base here for "APT" and you will find many postings that deal with this. APT is an intermediate format - do you have any machines that will accept it? Mastercam will give the root level gcode which does away with any need for APT.

If you are using Holes - Use the hole sort options and this may give the control that you are after.

Show me the code that you want so that I can see what a higbee is. Anything is possible given enough time or money...

If your cutter choice permits, and the geometry is a pocket, use the power of ramping and watch the chips fly. I love to watch the machine do a helical move into a pocket but if the control will only accept linear line segments for this feature then the code can get kind of long. Use of a bull mill style tool with a depth of cut a little below 1/4 of the insert (ie .118 doc on a .500 button insert) will allow impressive feedrates with the most secure edge known to man. With the cry of the valkeries playing loudly in the background and some maniac yelling "Charlie Doesn't Machine!!" you will have the most fun of all your life.

James- Did he sign a licence agreement with that one?

Allan, Lathe9.exe is there under the following entry a reg_sz lathe9.exe Glenn is coming in this week. He may be able to fix this. Thanks,

Buy it once or pay for it again, and again, and again... No Maintainance Fees, Upgrades are only 15% of the current value of the software - and are not manditory... I ran SmartCAM for years as well and made the transition to MC no problem (Tutorial Book and I was cutting chips inside an hour - 2D Profiles). Gibbs, Esprit, Hypermill, wouldn't even look at em. BTW I love Pro/Man but you really have to have your head screwed on tight to drive that one. On the other hand, my 2 year old son could run with Mastercam and make great parts! (Canadian labour laws prevent us from exploiting children for those who were concerned.)

Dave, Slipped one by the goalie eh! Good Show! Now all you have to do is sit in the box and wait. If anyone asks if you have video of the birth, answer "No, but we taped the conception if your interested." Shuts em up everytime. Ying - For a communications guy, you sure miss a lot! Better check the parity or change the number of stopbits... [ 10-15-2002, 03:14 PM: Message edited by: Andrew McRae ]

Asking James what CAM system to use is like asking a fat guy where the best place to eat is! Every CAM system will give you what you need (GCode) and the differences are in the way you get there. There are some excellent features that Pro/E has over Mastercam and vice versa. For example, if there are shortcomings with the tool paths inside of mastercam, a level of customization is available inside the post. If you want bulletproof design thru manufacturing with the most stable parametric CLData - Stick with something in the order of Catia, Pro/E or UG. There are a few market lurkers for other specific applications but for decent value and return on investment - For the Hack and Bash (or Mom and Pop) Job Shop - stick with Mastercam. Some would say that the other systems have a snob value attached to them but this is just a specific enduser perspective. For the overall Enterprise wide Parametric Design, Testing, Validation, Approval, Manufacturing, Inspection - Mastercam is not that type of a product. If you just want to quote: "Show up and cut it", then Mastercam is a useful and fantastic tool for this.

Win 2000 Pro In the explorer window, clicking open with and selecting Lathe9 - the systems reports that it is not a valid win32 application. Mill9 works though! Any Thoughts?

Have you cut this yet?? Waiting for an update.