I was wondering what mouse everyone is using and how comfortable are they? Ive been using a mouseman for a very long time and it doesnt have any wheel but the mouse is super comfortable to me. the buttons are spread apart far enough to make your fingers have some room and the buttons press very easy. The problem is, that the wheel comes in handy and they dont seem to make this mouse anymore! I cant seem to find one that I like as well that has a wheel on it. I still use cimatron a little which requires three buttons and the wheel buttons all seem awkward and I have to use two button combinations all of the time. What are you using and how comfortable is it?

Out of curiosity, what changes were made to the operation defaults? I wouldnt mind looking into this but im afraid to spend a bunch of time backing up and replacing mine if these are the same as the originals. Also, has anyone tried the HTML setup sheet in this addon? The instructions say to run the .exe to install to the ~/ directory of mastercam. There is only one executable and it doesnt install anything that I notice it just errors out with needed arguments.

kazmir: I tried that once but when I selected holes that would have been drilled in the 180deg position it didnt seem to work. Im going to try it again. I must have done something wrong. The rotary axis button being used for rotary positioning confuses me a little. Probably not needed? Just for drilling? I have a tutorial book but it doesnt really explain things very well. It just drags you through the process.

I thought I saw someone mention that the mpmaster post was configured to only output one fixture offset for rotary machining? Is there a setting for this that I am overlooking?

Thats what I did quote: I just created a new part file and created a part in space, set four wcs's at 0, 90, 180, 270. Then created new path (just drills) with the wcs set to 0 then just changed the C & T planes to 90, 180, and 270.

I dont think that when you are programming for rotary that it should post out seperate work offsets for your rotations. There should be a way to turn "that" off. I just created a new part file and created a part in space, set four wcs's at 0, 90, 180, 270. Then created new path (just drills) with the wcs set to 0 then just changed the C & T planes to 90, 180, and 270. The path posts out right and I get my rotations but still eventhough I have my operations all set with 0 as the wcs I still get a different fixture offset for every rotation. I thought I saw a way to change this but being only 30 days in to mastercam I cant remember where.

Im playing with a part trying to program for a rotary axis. Very simple part with several indexes @ 90deg, 180deg, and back to 0. The part was originally programmed with only 90 deg rotations and the rotary axis was checked in the tool parameters page. I unchecked that (still not sure how to use that button yet) and am setting up a wcs @90 and one @270 and then using those for my tool planes and leaving "front" as my wcs. It posts the index angles right but posts a different work offset for every index (G54, G55, G56). I have no idea whats going on. Help? I would like it to post with the indexes and only the one work offset. This part file was created by someone else and I notice that they moved the front wcs in the Y axis by about .005. Im not sure why or what happened but I wonder if that is whats causing my problems. I tried just using that as my wcs and bottom and top for my 90 and 270 but their origins are still at 0 so they dont seem to work correctly. Edit: I got the work offsets fixed "probably not the right way but patched for now" by just selecting all of the operations and changing the work offsets to 0 (g54) but now I get that alarm every time i post saying that work offset 0 used in more than one view. [ 01-31-2008, 04:19 PM: Message edited by: Neurosis ]

Is it possible for someone that doesnt know excel to still be able to create a decent setup sheet using x+ ? Is there any information on how to create a template and use it?

Savage, that is exactly what I ended up doing in the end. I also just created a mock tool path using a 1/4" endmill with no cutter comp with the top line as stock top and bottom line as depth @45 deg, then used the plotter to create and save the geometry. Im sure that would work with any angle of line but seems like allot of work to go through.

Charlie, Unless I am missing something, you end up with the same problem. You have the .1 distance in the along box but you lose your actual step value. AS stated above. This problem would be solved easily if you could lock the values in on some of the boxes. Definitely something to ask for in X3. Also the project to a plane, along using another plane, vector, ucs x, y, or z, would be very nice.

When I try to do this using polar I edit the yellow boxes and lose my angle or distance. BTW the .1 distance doesnt give me the z depth. At 45 degrees with a .1 distance you get a .0701 z depth. When I change these number to .1 my angle changes and I cant fix the angle on 45 deg. If I do the math then I can get what I am looking for but then again.... who wants to do math. For me polar has not been a good solution.

Polar doesnt get me what I want unless I do some math (lazy?) At 45 degrees obviously this is very simple but.... Im looking for a solution that doesnt require any math. I figure there has to be an easy solution. The other cad system I use I can do this about three different ways without using any math at all. Im just trying to figure out how to get the same results with the same ease in mastercam since this will the system we use from now on.

quote: If it is on a 45 degree angle transformm translate using a X and -Z value, straight and clean What if it is not on a 45?

quote: Seems like a long way to go for a simple 45 Degree cut. But then again, all my work is mold cavities, so I only use Surface toolpaths. If I use a 2D toolpath 3 times a month, that would be a lot. Well, this 45 deg is just an example for me. I would like to know how to do this on any line even if it was a spline following a surface edge. The trick for me is either getting these lines (points not really needed" at .1 z intervals on any angle line easily. I would think that project would be the ticket but as I said, it seems that you can only project normal to a plane unless you are projecting to a surface. Is this correct or am i missing something?

So far the only way ive been able to duplicate this exactly, is copy the end line over to the other end of the cross lines, create a ruled surface, create my lines .1 intervals up in Z and project them to the surface in the front view. Seems like allot of work but it got me to where I was going. Im still curious how the creator of this part file did this. The line that the cross lines and the points are sitting on wasnt divided at the top and bottom cross lines so he didnt use segments for sure. I also dont fully understand how to do what you are talking about with the distance along points. You mean create points dynamicly? I cant seem to get that to work how I want either. I can select where I want the first point but after that I have a hard time controlling where the next one ends up. (forgive me im new). I guess what confuses me the most about this part file is that there is allot of construction geometry for tool path but it is all sort of like this. I cant figure out the steps he took to get this geometry. There is so much of it that I cant help but think that there was a very simple way to do it. Anyway, once I got my lines projected to the surface I was able to add the points easily by just selecting the lines and adding end points. Im wondering if there was a purpose for these points on his geometry?? for tool path purposes maybe? the path that is driven by these lines is a 2-d contour and every line is selected and control the z depths of the path. Ive never done this so I can at least say that I learned something. Maybe that would be something to request to be added in future version?? Projection to a plane along another plane? Or is this already possible without using surface project?

If I copy the lines at an angle in a polar direction I lose my z value unless I do some calculation. This line is at 45 deg so its simple but I cant help but think that there is a way to do this easily without any math involved "lazy?". I am able to do this in another cad system by merely copying the lines up in z with .1 intervals and then projecting them to the plane in y axis but I cant figure out how to do this even in mastercam. I can project the lines but they project normal to the plane. I cant figure out how to project them to the plane yet hold their z values. I thought about creating the series of points first and then the lines but I have the same problem. I cant figure out how to create the points along that line holding .1 z intervals up. I doubt that this is as difficult as I am making it. I also wouldnt think that you would have to create these lines one at a time to hold the .1 z values.

Im just asking this question because I feel that there is an easy way to do this that I am not aware of. The lines in the picture are at .1 z intervals and all have endpoints. I got this part file from a friend that let me look at it to help me along with mastercam. Im trying to find the easiest way to get those lines with endpoints intersecting the other line with as few steps as possible. Here is a link to a picture that will explain what I am talking about hopefully. Its early and I am tired.

I cant figure out if I am doing something wrong or what. I install X+ and get the buttons all set up. I select my tool path to create a setup sheet. The setup sheet creates in HTML just fine but nothing seems to happen when I try to get it to output excel. Is there something that I am missing? The screen shot takes place and then nothing happens. Does it require MS office to be installed? I use open office. Would that make a difference?

Ive been playing a little with some tutorials and doing a bunch of playing on my own and was wondering. When you are creating rotary axis tool path that is not true fourth axis do you need to check the rotary axis button in the tool path parameters page? Does it just make your job easier? Does it do the same thing if you just create your toolpath using a main wcs with your rotary toolpath on different construction/tool planes?

Its a Fanuc 18iMB

I really dont need my 4th axis going back to A0 at every single tool change. What I notice though is that if I turn this off, the 4th always travels the shortest distance to the next index. Well, I am just rotating around 90 deg the same direction every time pretty soon my A value is A-540 or something like that. I guess that doesnt bother me except for the time it takes to rotate back to 0 at the end of the program. Is there a way to get the post to output a C axis init just at the end of the program? I think I can do this myself but I dont think that it would be the right way. I also want to know if there is a way around the A-540 or what if anything people do about this? Thanks

That did it :-)

Ok, I cant figure out whats going on. Im working on a part that we are making in an indexor. I think that I have something somewhat figured out in that aspect. Well, I copied a couple of tool paths, changed the tool plane, redefined a couple of points and geom. All looks well on the verify but when I go to post it the operations that i copied wont post with the rest of the operations. They post after the original operations and in to a separate file. I dont have any sub routines selected. I cant figure out whats going on.

Im using X2 sp1 I believe. We are in the process of catching up our maintenance right now so soon it will be x2 mr2 hopefully.

This is very easy to do in solidworks. Are you just trying to make the opposite of a golf ball or is this more complex than just a ball with some bumps on it? Something like This? [ 01-22-2008, 10:13 PM: Message edited by: Neurosis ]