Harry, Check out Emuge and their STI-UN series taps. They have both Inch and Metric sizes. No Druck (Pressure or Forming) taps available but I would rather use one of their cut taps than use any one elses roll form for a screw thread insert anyway - the strength advantage on the threadform would be non value added as the insert would see the service. Good luck and happy tapping.

Advanced Posts can be encripted to specific sims - this prevents you from buying the post and giving it to your friends. There are other mechanisms that are available and I am sure that they are accomodating to multiple points of use within one customer site.

quote: Make sure that the magnet will still work if the power goes out, not just an electromagnet. That's right - you don't want to have to stop machining just because the power goes out! I know the reason you suggest this Peter but I had to post this reply - Jack would not have let me live it down otherwise...

The incremental upgrade from 9-9.1 is nothing - call your local dealer for the new CD and they are obliged to help. Failing that, I am sure someone will help you download the update.

Modelling threads is a waste of time in a solid application. Inside of Pro/E we model these as "Cosmetic" features as the generation of a helical sweep for something so trivial is just a waste of resources on the PC. Every regen will have to calculate a billion points of the helicies of the threads. My suggestion is to assign a unique colour or hole size that describes the thread and just cut it.

Post the order code infromation and we will assist.

Arc center on the gemenii uses absolute coords of the centerpoint. Check the manual but I think that is what you need actually. The felix guy that I met was Jeff Clear - Great guy and I think he comes from your area. He will even open up his laptop and get you some code to help. There is a felix c'hook as well I think. Nice tool, my vertical wouldn't drive it though. quote: N275G3X3.2128Y.0000Z3.2930I.0984J.0000 N280G3X-3.2128Y.0000Z3.2530I.0000J.0000 N285G3X3.2128Y.0000Z3.2130I.0000J.0000 N295G3X-2.6516Y-1.8142Z3.3539I.0000J.0000 N300G3X2.6516Y1.8142Z3.3139I.0000J.0000 N305G3X-2.6516Y-1.8142Z3.2739I.0000J.0000 Top one works nice as you are only starting at one of the noble angles - 0,90,180,270 The bottom one is an oblique angle and it is having some trouble there, maybe break arcs into quadrants and that will fix the trouble. The other solution is to linearize the helix and make 3 million independant small moves in simultaneous X,Y,Z. Good Luck and let us know how it worked. [ 11-21-2003, 01:36 PM: Message edited by: Andrew McRae ]

K&T - Not fun to run... Did the controller get reinitialized. Those gemeni are finicky. Ever have a problem with Excess Following Errors? The encoders on the machines I had were junk and alway prone to trouble and this sounds like a machine's electromechanical problem. -- Greenfield Villiage, great place and I think that they would even refuse an old piece like a K&T! [ 11-21-2003, 08:42 AM: Message edited by: Andrew McRae ]

Great thread - I might add that I have some great SmartCAM experience and loved to work with the product, posts were much more intuitive and the ability to customize and use macros far outdid anything I was able to do in Mastercam. If it continued in development, I never would have transitioned away from it. Now that bit of pineing is over, I must confess that my job is process/toolpath and post Gcode. To do this, I needed an offline program, so I made the move to Mastercam. I was then able to continue doing what I do. After using Mastercam for a few years, along came Pro/E and now Unigraphics. Much more power there and there is a hefty learning curve to get to into it. This was in part facilitated by knowing all the other levels of CAD/CAM so even if you try to sell users on the Benefits models and take your competitors seat count down, remember that the skills are transferable from one software to the next.

"I aim to kill you Dole..." Great Movie, MmmHumm.

Brent, You have to say this in his brogue accent to make the full effect.

Here's One - Not for the content but for the delivery "Isn't that just like a xxxx, Bringing a Knife to a Gunfight..." [ 11-17-2003, 11:18 AM: Message edited by: Andrew McRae ]

There are tools inside the software to do MultAxis stuff, but remember that the price point of the software is well below other packages that do the same thing so arguments can be made that you get what you pay for...

I have shorted out my mouse from salivating all over my desk. Send me via email as well, I need to know this.

Check a local electrical supply house or automation supply house. On the other hand, what is the cost of a scrapped part due to your failure, and how much lost machine time are you under while you try to find one??

quote: what happens when we learn to travel at the speed of light, then turn on our headlights? The question needs to be massaged a little, given that you are travelling at the speed of light plus 1 mph, will the guy tailgating you on the freeway be able to see your tail lights??

Again, the forum touches upon daily controvercy, we are currently replacing the Sodium Vapour lamps in our plant with high intensity halogens, there is a noticable difference in the emission spectrum and as you can imagine, there are camps both for and against the new bulbs. It took Three Maintenance Guys, A Subcontractor and a Displaced Machine Operator to Change 4 Bulbs. This is just how things work here.

Dave, Make sure that Lisa Knows! She sent me some nice stuff... Thanks

I must admit that I am a little culturally ignorant. Please explain this reference.

Thanks Dave, This is just what I have done and when posted I had code that only went as far as the wrapped diameter. I should have indicated that I am using a Surface Rough and then you would have come to the solution that I just found - Cut Depths when set to Absolute must reflect the actual depth below the wrapped line to make it work properly. Thanks to all.

How can I get a wrapped path to go below the rotary diamter? For example, I want to wrap about the adendum diameter and use the distance below the centerline to control the depth that I go into the part. Communication with other Wrapped Path users is appreciated. Thanks

Thad - Operations Defaults are just that - settings that appear with a new session of MC. These defaults can be changed and are saved within the MC9 file after they are modified. Legacy files with settings other than the default will make you think your defaults are wrong, but you need to go and change them to what you want, then do a quick save. Those two files will then never be a problem again.

quote: I read the programs ! It goes from my operators days and do you know how many times it saved parts ? Look for patterns - this is the only thing you can accomplish - but with a morph tool path - it is just a waste of time to do so.

Keep in mind that what you will see in the demonstration is a polished and out of the box presentation that has lured many successful sales into their software. I actually enjoy ProE more than Mastercam and find I can control more of the basic tool motions and have more control over the final outcome. Mastercam is easier and faster to program the simple little stuff and so this is why I have both in my department. Use the tools that will get the results that you need.

I have delt with difficult operators and in order to get them to buy into what I have provided them, I get them into my office and then show them the tool path running inside of Mastercam. I then post the code in front of them and show them the posted code. If there are questions on the code, then I answer them there and send ot to the machine. With your operators looking thru the code line for line - get your boss to call me and I will expain to him that with every set up, people are simply wasting time. There is no way that someone (at an operator/setup) can look at a line for line program on and then say at some arbitrary point that there is a problem, chances are that there is something 1500 lines form now that will address their concerns (Tool changes and advance/retract are exceptions but with a stable post those go away). In today's global competitive manufacturing marketplace, I bet that you could get rid of at least 3 people by streamlining thereby making your own company stronger and more competitive. Eliminate the non-value added tasks - you are doing a good job so why are they checking something that you know in your heart to be right?