I wonder if they will every change the tool library to use sfm and chipload? It would also be nice if everything wasnt calculated in percentages. It seems that it would be easier to put whatever sfm you want in the material library rather than having to calculate the percentage out for every single entry.

Are there any other companies that provide tool libraries besides duramill? You would think that it would be a benefit if they did. Maybe a combo tool and material library? Would you consider buying their tools?

One more silly question. What do you do in a situation where you are slotting and then profiling with the same tool? I notice that if you change your speeds and feeds for that operation, if you accidentally click on the tool again in that operation it resets your feed rates back to what the tool is. Is there a way to lock them in or do you just have to take care not to click on the tool once the operation is open?

I think thats what im deciding on. Im going to set up libraries for the main materials that we machine and use a generic part file to start creating tool libraries using the materials so that once they are done they will work either way. What do you do in the case where the same end mill with the same loc in the same material would have a different feed for slotting rather than side milling or finishing?

Im just curious how everyone is doing this and why. Ive played with each and and trying to come up with the most convenient way. When I choose from material, everything works great but it sure takes a while to get everything set up. I figure that I will just try to set up a few separate tool libraries for my materials and choose "from tool" and see if i like that better. How do you do it?

I tried to use the lead in and lead out of first cut only but sometimes it does some strange things. It seems to always change my feed rate between passes. Although it changes it right back in the next line it looks a little funny. gcode: I was playing with that a couple of weeks ago and figured that out. I subtraced my endmill dia from my hole dia and * Pi and it overlapped beautifully.

Has anyone used the overlap to spring pass a hole dia?

This one was kicking my xxxx. I finally did a re-install of mastercam and the bug went away. I wish that I would have had time to track the problem down so that I could take precautions so that it wouldnt happen again. I didnt get to try your idea as I was pressed for time and didnt see this reply until it was too late. If it happens again i'll give it a shot and reply if it is a solution. Thanks.

Im not sure what is going on here. I was able to get this to work flawlessly over the weekend but when I brought everything back to work today and tried it here I am getting some very strange errors and occurrences. I'll just post some pictures of the errors. Error 1 Error 2 This all started off with invalid arc errors in backplot. I tried everything that i could after doing a search on this site. The tolerances looked fine and I removed any leadin or cutter comp just to see if I could get it to work. Nothing has worked so far. It looks like the nci file is corrupt. Im hoping there is a way to fix this so I dont have to start over. Has anyone run in to this problem before? I got this error after trying to project a 2d contour to that floor surface. Now I cant even re-run the 2d contour without it doing some crazy things.

Ive been using cimatron since about 1993 or 94 so i guess its been about a 13 year stretch.

Yes. It was cimatron 12.2 Cimatron has pretty much had the same interface from when i started using it around V6 all the way up to v13.1 I started using Elite a little later on and had a hard time getting used to the interface and all of the buggs that it introduced. Kind of like the jump for mastercam to X. By the time they got the bugs worked out my boss was fed up with cimatron and their lack of support in the northwest. What can I say. Ive been using cimatron since before you could even buy a pc version of it. You had to buy it on a Apollo workstation then later on, a Sun Sparc.

Collin, mailed you back. Let me know if you got it.

quote: You said early you did not have the 5 ax part of Mastercam why waste your time learning about this before you get the basics down?? Not trying to be mean here, but get some ideas of the power of Mastercam before you keep slamming something that can make very complex parts as well. We dont have 5x. We do however have 4x. and use it regularly. I listed both books that ive read and done the tutorials in. The first being the inhouse solutions mastercam x mill training. Is that not the basics? Ive read and done the tutorials in "both" books starting with the mill training then moving on to the 4 and 5x. I didnt do the 5x tuts obviously because I dont have 5x licensing. quote: It would be 4-6 weeks if you were working for me before I would put you in that situation, and still be there to help you. If there is no one there using Mastercam then I would be looking for something else since I would see no future working for a compnay that wants it's employees to fail. While it would be nice to do that, I am the "only" programmer that they have. I dont know about most areas but around this area mastercam programmers are a dime a dozen. I dont mean that in a bad what, I just mean that since this is the more popular system there are several more people that now how to use it. Our company is switching to this system for that reason alone. The problem is, only a hand full really know how to use it well. There are only a small hand full of people that know how to use cimatron at all in this area probably less than 20. and the learning curve for that sofware is so steep that its almost impossible to train someone on it without sending them to school for a week which there are none of localy. They did the same thing to me with cimatron. Handed me a mouse, a drawing, and a piece of material and said "get started". With mastercam I look at this as a good opportunity to learn a popular system that works well. With all of the competition out there I obviously have to learn how to use it well or I could very well be out of a job. Im not ashamed to ask for help "maybe too much? " and neither should you be. I hope that some day i'll be able to pay back all of the help that I was given in this forum for years to come. [ 02-23-2008, 03:38 PM: Message edited by: Neurosis ]

quote: have one of the finest resources, this forum. I have to agree with that! This is a great place. Everyone is has been very professional even with all of my complaining. Hopefully everyone realizes that it is all out of frustration from trying to gain 10 years of experience in three months. Ive already had my boss tell me to go back to the old system and I refused because I dont want to lose what ive already gained. quote: I agree, don't spend money on reseller training, too much info too fast, and costly. I dont know that I agree with that totally but I would like to have more real world examples rather than the basic tutorial parts that we see in the books. They all seem to have perfect situations for creating tool path easily and the fact is, almost none of what I do is that simple. On occasion we get a part that every situation is perfect for creating simple toolpath easily but very rarely. They need to have examples and tutorials of parts like this - pic1 pic2 pic3 pic4

quote: If you are going from Cimatron to Mastercam I would say get some training. It will be worth it. Cimatron has a very different idea about programming than MC. I worked in a Cimatron shop once, with six weeks of me starting I had them switched to Mastercam. Productivity rate went way up and scrap went way down. They must have not been very good with it. I know that I have to let go of that software. I had the same problem converting from smartcam to cimatron. I pretty much hated cimatron in the beginning until I found out how powerful it was. About two years ago I tried to make the transfer to mastercam back with v9. I had some training locally and to be honest with you the training didnt help much. There were too many people in the class each needing different levels of help. Thats why I figure that some one on one would be good. Im not saying that I want mastercam to duplicate cimatrons ideas of how to machine, Ive just done some very complicated parts using that system and I would like to know what steps it would take to get similar results in mastercam. I should add, does anyone have any recommendation's on where to get good mastercam training and where to begin? Ive taken the tutorials in the Inhouse solutions mastercam mill training and 4/5 axis mill books. They did help but obviously training would be useful. As far as needing to help myself a bit more. I agree with you there 100% The problem is, Im in a job shop that runs allot of 1 offs or very small amounts of no repeat work so I am programming 100% of the day. I cant afford to sit and struggle with software while spindles are sitting so.... [ 02-23-2008, 01:15 PM: Message edited by: Neurosis ]

quote: While Mcam isn't able to do exactly as you want at the moment, I've been playing and may have something useful for you. Ive seen even the most inexpensive of cam systems able to do this and also more powerfull ones. Im surprised that this hasnt been asked for enough to make it a concern. Its a huge time saver in programming and machining aluminum and would be usefull especially in this system where in my opinion already way too much time is spent having to create construction geometry and building usable chains to drive tool path in the first place.

After all of my playing today..... I would like to see an option like 3d contour where a tool could profile a contour while staying off of a surface or plane (without having to take the extra steps to project it). Apparently available in 5x tool path already. Why not 3x? Being able to create a contour following a plane is very handy.

better?

I think what I need now that I am getting more familiar with the system, is someone that is really good at mastercam to come sit down with me and let me go over some of my cimatron part files and see how they would accomplish the same tasks in mastercam. If I could just do that for one day I think I would be set. It could be a learning experience for everyone involved.

Yes.. this was a very good tip. Probably the best to date for me. In the last cad system I used there were just a few functions that I used the most that made it very powerfull and very efficient. One of them were similar to this only less steps were required. You just had to select a surface or plane and then your drive curves and that was it. Another was the waterline roughing. I would use it for almost everything. I would have been using it on this part in fact! You could rough an entire part out and in some cases finish it in just one created operation. I am hoping that the High speed roughing in mastercam eventually has the same ability. Its a very powerfull tool! and a huge time saver when you are in a hurry. The last one was the mixed climb and conventional 2d contour. If mastercam adds all of these I would be sold in a heart beat. Thanks again for the tip. I will be playing with that allot in the future!

I figured it out right after you posted! Thanks gcode. I take back all of the bad things I was thinking about mastercam! I need some training!

Surface finish project? [ 02-22-2008, 06:50 PM: Message edited by: Neurosis ]

I cant believe that they wouldnt have some kind of option for this without using 5x tool path. This is a very basic function inside of cimatron. Once again im getting frustrated.

I do.

I have admin rights on this computer. The install is just a winzip executable right?