Thank you Jerosu. Youve been a ton of help. In open office it works flawlessly! Im going to change it so that it works in excel and save it so that it will work in either. Then im going to add all of the drills and diameters and see the result. If it helps to build my tool library in mastercam i'll start endmill sheet. Thanks again. DRILL_CHIP_LOAD_calculator_FINAL.xls if you want to check it out its done now. [ 03-19-2008, 11:18 AM: Message edited by: Neurosis ]

Oh crap! I entered the formulas and everything works great in open office. When I open and try to use it in excel it doesnt do the calculations and leaves the cells blank. I'll put the updated version on there. The cells are protected now but with no password.

Heh.... that got a little complicated. I can see how it works sorta. The only thing i dont quite understand is why after the (B3) you have to have the =0 . One more thing too.. I try the same thing in the chip load reduction column and it doesnt seem to work. Is that because the column that its referencing has a formula in it and is not truly blank? How do you solve that problem? It wants to put a 0 in there. I also notice that code: IF(ISBLANK(B3)=0;IF(B3/64<L$9;B3/64;L$9);"") works too but im not really sure what the difference is. there are extra () in your original that i forgot to put in but it worked anyway. [ 03-19-2008, 01:58 AM: Message edited by: Neurosis ]

One more question. Bare with me here... This is my first day even attempting to mess with excel. Now I have my columns set how I want them. When I copy the formula's down the rows it automatically enters numbers or text when there is nothing for it to go by. How do I keep it from entering the garbage unless there is something for it to reference? I hope that made sense. I removed the formulas from the rest of the rows and only have two rows entered right now for testing. I put it on the ftp site Text_&_post_files_&_misc/DRILL_CHIP_LOAD_calculator.xls if anyone wants to check it out. I could use some suggestions. Im going to be using it to help me create my tool libraries. I'll make another one for endmills etc.

That worked! Thanks.

It didnt work. Maybe I should also state that I am using open office instead of actual excel. would that make a difference?

Im creating an excel file to calculate my drill speeds/feeds/chiploads/etc automatically. This isnt something important, its just a project to help me learn excel. Anyway, When I enter a formula and copy it down, it changes the values accordingly (a1 becomes a2 etc). Is there a way to copy the cell formula down yet have it leave "ONE" of the values to a single cell in all of the copies? so if you were doing =a2+f2 then copy down would be a3+f3, I would like to have it be a3+f2 leaving the f2 for all of the copies. Is this possible?

I notice something that happens once in a while when I am using multiple machine and toolpath groups in one file. When I create a new tool path group and start a new tool path, when it asks for the nc file name, I enter the file name and press enter but then it comes up and asks for it a second time. The second time I can either enter the name I want to use again or hit esc and it works. Has anyone encountered this or can explain what is happening?

Is it possible that this machine def is just buggy? Ive had some problems that ive never heard anyone else talk about. How many people use the generic machine def vs something like mpmaster?

I should start using mpmaster but i havent had time to configure it how i want it. There are just too many settings to play with. I couldnt even figure out how to get rid of the 900 comments that it outputs and with some of our machines being presses for memory thats just too much wasted space. Maybe in the near future.

Im not sure that i understand this apparently after watching the video's. Once a part file is created I thought that I understand that the machine def's are saved in the part file so that if you edit them it doesnt affect the hard machine def. Is this correct? I am having some strange things happen in my part file with my machine defs. I have two seperate machine defs, each with their own tool path, in one part file. I edited the second machine def for a rotary axis and for some reason it dirtied all of the operations under the first machine def but not the second. I tried to re-run the dirty operations and it deleted all of the geometry used to create the tool path rendering pretty much that whole machine group useless. (oh yea, then it crashed shortly there after). I did this several times and kept getting the same results and im not sure what could be going on. Any clues? This was going to start of by being a whole different question that I was trying to figure out on my own. My machine def/post are posting my rotary axis in the opposite direction that I need it to. I tried to edit the A axis in the machine def changing the rotation from ccw to cw but it didnt seem to change the way it posted. I ended up editing the post (both generic machine def and mpfan post btw) to get the results that I wanted. Is that the only way to get it to output the correct rotation or should the machine def be able to control the output values?

So is there any other benefit to running xp pro? Unless you want added network security?

The only reason I can see to use pro over home is multi processor support. What I dont know, is a dual core processor supported by home?

Hey Colin. Sure. Make sure to let me know what day and time. I may ask you a few questions about the setup sheet too.

It would be nice to be able to have check curves in a 2d contour instead of having to manipulate the lead in/out.

Im trying to figure out how to edit my post (mpfan) to only output the machine group coment at the beginning of the program instead of at every tool change. I looked at it a little and it looks like it may be a little complicated for my post editing skills. Is this something that is more simple that I think?

Out of curiosity, anyone that programs ipr, have you ever had a problem having someone accidentally enter a ipm feedrate causing a crash?

I guess the only reason that I would say that would be the convenience of changing the rpm at the machine if needed. There would be no need to change any feed rates to hold the chip load.

How many people program their mills using IPR instead of IPM? This is almost something that would make more sense? Who does, who doesnt, and why?

I definitely agree with fix the bugs. My signature picture isnt a joke. I cant think of a three day stretch thats went by that I havent had a crash costing me lost time. Another thing that would be nice, and this may just be ridiculous to some, but it would be nice to see a way to lock the speeds and feeds in an operation so that you can have different feed rates without worrying about changing them by clicking to the tool in the operation again. I'll use one tool to do several different contours at different feed rates and some times spindle speed and its too easy to accidentally lose these by clicking on a tool.

I noticed this in my gcode after having mastercam interpolate a hole diameter. N3 G0 G90 G54 X-.2764 Y.1237 A0. S1629 M3 N4 G43 H8 Z2. M8 N5 Z.13 N6 G1 G41 D48 X-.3295 Y.0707 F9.77 N7 G3 X-.3587 Y0. I.0708 J-.0707 N8 I.3588 J0. N9 I.3588 J0. N10 G1 Y-.0056 <--------- This scraps my part. N11 G3 X-.3283 Y-.0758 I.1 J.0016 N12 G1 G40 X-.2745 Y-.128 N13 G0 Z2. N14 M9 N15 G91 G28 Y0. Z0. A0. M01 Has anyone else run in to this problem? I set the overlap and it overlaps linear instead of using an arc.

Ive been thinking about playing with one of the two of these to create a tool database. There are a few calculations that I could add in to the excel or database that would simplify the library creation. Not knowing either of these programs very well, which would be the better choice? Ive played with access allot more than excel and could create one fairly easily. The only thing I dont know is would it be possible to export it in the text format used by mastercam?

quote: Call me old fashioned but "Gap Settings" are a MUCH better alternative to creating "extra stuff" just to keep a surface toolpath clean. Though it does not ALWAYS work but I sure like using it. That was exactly what I was going to suggest above but having only used mastercam for a short time I didnt want to set someone up with a chance of gouging their part. Ive had very good luck doing this so far but having tool path travel over an area that has no drive surface seems like there is a chance of some risky business. I usually set the gap motion to follow surface also. Like I said, ive had good luck with it so far and will continue to do it until something goes wrong.

Nevermind.... ignore.

quote: imagine taking all that data and putting it in to a Mastercam (or any other vendor) format. It's a daunting task to say the least. Seems to me that you could make some kind of excel sheet to do all of your speeds and feed calculations for you?? You would think that once you built the original tool list all you would have to do is add to it and export. I wish that I knew how to use excel better. I would use it to create my tool library.