Thanks ColoN the worst thing about the whole situation is I love mastercam and want to really get good with it. I’lll keep making programs on the free version but it would be nice to find a way to play with the full Version again soon. Again thanks for all you did for me, I'm extremely grateful.

Well, long time no post. Bad news about Mastercam and My crazy life. I was really loving to learn about post processors too. Colin you are the man and thanks again for everything! https://youtu.be/bJF8iD2cbQs

Thanks Ron, Ill peek and see what you found.

Looking all over I found info on leadscrews that almost matched up to mine. The info is as follows Its a 2 Start Acme thread .25”/.635mm lead, OD is .442”/11.23mm, root diameter is .325”/8.26mm. The overall length is 22-15/16” inches. It has a turn down on one end that is .625” from the end and OD is .312 (its drilled and tapped with a small button head cap screw). The other turn down is .800” from end with an OD of .375

I don’t know the correct way to measure and order a new leadscrew. I did Google information on the subject, but I cant find anything that matches mine exactly. I made a short video showing what my leadscrew looks like. If anyone can offer me sone tips to get a new one ASAP

Colin Gilchrist taught me how to do a point operation in a free tutorial on his YouTube channel. Now I can put the tool wherever I want between operations to clear anything I need to.

Thanks guys

Hey guys, I need to build a new PC,. A desktop that can run Mastercam well. Where is a good place to find what spec are recommended for a PC to run Mastercam well? I was thinking Desktop, do you folks use desktops or laptops? Please elaborate on what specs you are using. I am assuming the more threads the better, lots of Ram, and lots of GPU speed. I'm thinking a workstation for 3D rendering is what's needed. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Yes, I was speaking to the default planes. Maybe they are locked in and the reference to which all else is mathematically calculated?

Well I was slow the the party but I finally figured it out. I was struggling with not being able to modify the Gnomon orientation of Front Top so I would would use dynamic and set a new Gnomon to be position the way I wanted to match our machine setup and align it to the world.. This works fine as long as you have a part that is not angled and matches x & y or Z. Often times the solids we get are in space at a specific angle that represents how it would sit on a fixture or live in the real world. If you start aligning the part to match the WCS and the world, it messes things up and you will not be able to make the cuts you want. I struggled for weeks trying to wrap my head around this problem of planes and WCS with respect to how I need to set up X Y & Z to match our machine (X is front to back, Y is left to right, and Z is up and down) if standing in front out our a gantry head head mill/router) I tried to ask for help here, and I felt stupid asking the same question over and over, but I just could not find an answer I could understand. The solution was so simple in the end. I knew it was something simple and If I could just show someone for 5 seconds it would of been a super quick answer. It seems that finding a person you can have a quick chat with about Mastercam isnt a easy task as it often requires to to show someone whats going on in order reveal the problem and hopefully a solution. In my case I found the answer in a video where they were creating new planes. I tried in vein to figure out a way to modify the gnomon (flip it around to match our machine) of the existing Top Front planes. Drumroll….. YOU CANNOT modify the existing planes. Tada…this was an instant lightbulb moment for me. Armed with this information, I saw him right click, duplicate the plane and BAM you can set up the Gnomon very similar like you can in Dynamic (minus the clicking between geometry and gnomon modes). Now I have a duplicate of top called Top-1 and I can set the gnomon to match our machine and never move part with risk of changing the angle. I post my tool paths, and it actually works! Hallelujah! I have been beating my head against a wall for quite some time now. I am so happy I figured this out. Its kind of embarrassing to keep asking the same question over and over, then to have very smart people try and explain things and offer solutions, but to still not understand,. I promise that once I am 100% dialed in and have a simple workflow, I will make some tutorials that hopefully help the dumbest among us like me understand how to use Mastercam. I can’t believe it took me this long to grasp this concept, Personally I think it might be easier to be able to double click on any Gnomon, modify it, assign it as WCS, T, C to match your machine setup. Maybe have Mastercam denote the planes Gnomon as being edited with an * or use the word edited, but allow you to manipulate the existing plane Gnomons and offer a right click “reset” or something. I know now that right click duplicate can achieve the same thing, but it too me a while to find that information and to end my frustration. Hope all is well with you folks, and I greatly appreciate everyone here and the help I have received, all of it has been invaluable, regardless if I fully understand.

Get a Rockwell 12/14. I used to have the 10” Delta and its nice. Powermatic is nice too. For the money your going to spend get used 12/14 and forget about the rest. I also suggest a Biesmeyer fence, and to build a criss cut jig/slider. Also dont forget a riving knife if you rip hardwood. Here is a link to a decent looking 12/14 and I bet you can have it trucked for less than the $2,500. https://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/aclk?sa=L&ai=DChcSEwjL9ODyhvfvAhU1Pq0GHeLTCagYABAFGgJwdg&ae=2&ohost=www.google.com&cid=CAESQOD2ltrPAIL01NcGmLpZmJIbPrZW0zGM2bQoeVFauLg1mad-6OCGQuBvVMmZGcReP3RxslJixHa5iVlq13yHGJ8&sig=AOD64_2Cny_UIKb-6XUtnjdgaCf--f7ZUQ&ctype=5&q=&ved=2ahUKEwiI1tTyhvfvAhXNGc0KHcXIDAcQwg96BAgCEA8&dct=1&adurl=

We are using OLD stuff, 8055M Fagor. One day maybe Ill have a chance to play with a modern machine. I understand this much better. Ill try this and figure it out soon! Thanks for taking time to re-explain it.

Colin you explained both methods perfect. I set up both examples at home one with lines and one with splines. Both worked well. At work, I was hoping there would be a way to click a point draw a line to the next point and click that to connect the two points, then to be able to go in and delete or add points along line where I want them. For example if I want to create a Tool Axis control line on a surface (curve 5 axis) it would be helpful to add points/ line end points (other than mid points) where I want them. I am sure there is a simple way, and I am sure you will teach us.

I cant wait.

I would make time for a Live Session with you!

I am trying to follow your directions. Seeing it in Action I could understand easily. I will try to follow it again and figure this out.

Lets say you are given some random solid model and you need to place it in 3D space to match the angle of a real world part that sits on top of a fixture Here is the story. I programmed a part and I aligned it in such a way that the x&y were parallel to the wcs and Z was up (+). Then I raised it up 23” on Z from the 0,0,0 world point in Mastercam to represent the hight of the fixture. My program posted and ran on our machine (yeah!!!…1st attempt and it ran, I was so excited) . I used the g54 offset to move it where I wanted on the table. However the actual part doesn’t sit flat on X&Y like I have it in mastercam. The part is at some unknown angle on a fixture so I need to tilt (rotate) the model in mastercam to match the angle of the part on the fixture. How would you do this? Should I just measure the front and back of the part and create some boxes or lines to sit my part on in mastercam, or should I use an angle gauge on the fixture and try to use that measured angle to make the rotation? (Dynamic, is that the best way) Remember, this is all new to me and I just want to know how you guys deal with this sort of thing. BTW this model (a step file) and was on its side when I opened it and I had to set it up to match origin WCS. Also I had to get creative to make all of the cuts on a model who’s geometry has broken lines and open points on the edges (Not all 3d model makers are good at their jobs I guess or some serious degradation occurred in translation between software packages) Thanks guys, T

What is the easiest way to draw a line between or join 2 points of a broken line. The model I am using has many bad parts where the lines are broken. i need to fix this. You can not see the broken lines unless you zoom all the way in and even then you can zoom to fill the screen and see exactly what is going on.

Thanks, ill follow your information to a T and figure it out. Better yet, the time has come for me to learn everything about the planes manager and all of its secrets

Is it possible to make the Cplane match the part gnomon and the world gnomon. These little things I stumble with and don’t fully understand are going to cause me great pain when Info to post this stuff. I just know it

Can someone please explain why the translate Gnomon is different than my Part and world Gnomons

On a side note, I have made toolpaths in Contour, its a Toolpath type that is very indepth and I suppose its as effective as the knowledge of the person trying to use it. Thats as with most things in life

Well I just got a new part to program. It's one of the worst parts we run due to the future will not hold it into place. You have to use a stick and hold it down on some of the cuts and this means lots of chatter and grinding. I plan to redo the whole setuo, fixture and all. The program will not be that hard, that is to make the toolpaths. I'll be stepping foot into actually posting programs via our post and working through any of the changes that need to be made to make it run on the machine without days if hand edited code to make it work on the machine. It's going to be a fun week and I hope when I get stumped, I have you fine folks to help me figure it out. Also I need to learn how to program this in 3+2 rather than 5 Axis ( boo... lol) What program option would you use? Contour? Do you folks have any tutorial links to doing 3 or 3+2 axis programming that you recommend? .Hope all of you are doing well and have a great weekend. T

Colin is the MAN! I don't think to many folks know this software like he does. The programming in MasterCam is icing on the cake for this man. Having watched many of his POST classes, it's obvious his passion is in scripts and coding. He likes it behind the curtain where 99% of MasterCam users dont play. I hope that Colin makes lots of more programming vids. He explains things in such a way that it instantly sinks in. Without Colin I would still be spinning my wheels. There are lots of MasterCam videos and tutorials, but nothing like what I have learned from the 2 that Colin did for me. On a side note, If I was wealthy, I would pay him to produce an entire series of videos that explains every one of the Program Options, like the, "Curve" and all the dialogue boxes inside & what they do. Then move into all of the need to know stuff like using planes for offsets, levels to divide stuff up so you can easily find and work with specific things as you program, ect, ect.. Also I would love to see a video where it's start to finish on a new machine. Let's say you just got a new mill machine, your dealer sold you MasterCam and you have a Post (from Postbility perhaps) and you want to make simple part. Let's start from the very top. How does he set up everything, folders, programs, all tips and tricks, how to establish config & defaults, his complete workflow, shortcuts, ect.. Its obvious Coin has dedicated much of his life to machines and MasterCam. He could make some invaluable tutorials that show his specific processes and workflow when working in MasterCam. Unfortunately, I am not rich, but when I do get a start to finish workflow down cold, I will make these videos. I will pay back in full everything that was given to me as I struggle to learn this new trade. It won't be like anything from Colin, Ron, Caminstructor, Tom Stikkleman, Camtech Engineering but I'll do my best (long way to go).

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