Try this... Find the parc postblock (the line that starts with parc) Change this line within that postblock -> Old: iout, jout New: *iout, *jout

Do you have Visual Studio 2010 ("Pro" or higher) ? That is what's required to create C-Hooks for X6 (or X7). The drillpt C-Hook is quite simple. email me -> SDK [at] mastercam [dot] com

You created a file association to .STP (or .STEP) file extension and when you click on a file of that type it opens in the “wrong” program. As Aaron mentioned – “it's a windows-being-stubborn thing...” * Don’t un-install/re-install the application, as the chances of that actually making a positive difference is slim to none. If you don’t want to use an “external” utility such as NirSoft’s (free) FileTypeMan. And you have access to the Registry, it’s fairly simple to alter the program Windows uses to open a .STP (or other file type) file. Under the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT hive of the Registry, Window’s will have created an entry for “.STP” files when you created file original file association. You’ll find the key for the extension here (FYI: Windows added the “_auto_file” onto the extension name) -> HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\STP_auto_file Expand the sub-keys: -> shell->open->command Under the command key you’ll find the program Windows will use for this extension. Just edit this (Default) value to point to the desired program. Say I want to have X6 open these .STP type files, but they are opening using X7. ;( *** Before making this change, Export the contents of the STP_auto_file branch. *** Right click on the STP_auto_file key and select Export to save off a backup of this Registry branch - just in case Then change change the application you want to use to open this file type -> "C:\Program Files\mcamx7\Mastercam.exe" "%1" To -> "C:\Program Files\mcamx6\Mastercam.exe" "%1" Close RegEdit and test it out. (No re-boot or system restart is needed.) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You may never encounter the following, but just in case, it's worth a mention. If after making an Open With change within the Registry, the Windows Installer fires up when you double-click on your file type. You've run into the Darwin Descriptor. What you do here is up to you. What I do is rename (or delete) the command (Name) value that is under the command key. The command (Name) value has the Data (of type: REG_MULTI_SZ) that looks like gibberish. This will kill the "self-healing" functionality of Windows Installer for this file type <-> application.

Yikes!!! - Don't mess with that! You can check this "Directory" entry under that key to make sure that it points to the "proper" folder where Mastercam X# is installed. It will point to the correct folder unless someone has changed it after the Product was installed. *** But do NOT change this in an attempt to "adjust" your Open With preferences!!! *** In X8 => YES Drag 'n Drop onto the Mastercam graphics area to Open Hold [Control] and Drag 'n Drop onto the Mastercam graphics area to Merge/Pattern

www.nirsoft.net FileTypesMan - File Types Manager for Windows It's free, has no adware or other cr*p and It works,

Thomas, I'm myself am not involved with Update Post I just took a look at how it "runs" and from what I saw - it needs Mastercam to do its work. I will pass your suggestion along to the group that is responsible for Update Post,

Thomas, Since UpdatePost is not an executable, but a Mastercam "Add-On" that must be launched from within Mastercam, it don't see how that would be possible.

What you are seeing not really new. This no longer occurs in the upcoming X8.

Nick, Another question for you.... If the focus is on your dialog, does just pressing an arrow key (not touching the SpacePilot) cause Mastercam to pan, meaning that Mastercam has "stolen" the focus? Or is it the only the action of using the SpacePilot which causes the input focus to be shifted to the main Mastercam window? I assume it's the later, as I've been unable to trigger the change in focus using just the arrow keys. If it is the former, please let me know and I'll find a SpacePilot to test with.

The relevant text from the topic Pete referenced (that's in the restricted access Beta forum). -> It sounds to me like SWDocumentMgr.DLL needs to be registered. It is located in the X7 "Common\SWorksData" subfolder. It can be registered by right-clicking on it and using "Open With..." and browsing to choose \Windows\System32\regsvr32. It can also be registered via the Mastercam Advanced Configuration tool - which is McamAdvConfig.EXE in the X7 root folder. Launch it, make sure the dropdown at the top says "Mastercam X7", then click on "Components" in the left-hand pane, and then browse to C:\Program Files\McamX7\Common\SWorksData\SWDocumentMgr.DLL (or wherever you have X7 installed), right-click on the .DLL name, and choose "Register Component"

Nick, Was this utilizing?-> IsDialogMessage

Dave, I've been unable to duplicate that behavior, This never opens an editor for me -> OperationsManager.PostAllOperations(pathNC, false, false, false); Send me your email contact info to -> SDK <at> mastercam >dot> com

Is the issue computer system dependent? - or - Is the behavior Machine/Control/Post dependent?

You can check the settings the the Control Definition. On the Files-Mill page (in the Control) in the lower right you'll see a "Post processing dialog" button. What are the settings in there?

There is a way to have Mastercam "auto" create a new toolbar when it starts up. You create an .MTB file for your add-on and place it in the \CHooks folder. Mastercam will read that MTB and add its contents to the mastercam.mtb file. Then this toolbar will be available in the the list of toolbars under Settings - Customize You can see how this works using the Grid add-on for X7. Download and install the Grid add-on and ... Add this data in a Grid.MTB file (the "name" of this file is not really important, only the extension which must be .MTB) located in the <mcamx7>\CHooks folder. TOOLBAR START EDIT "Grid ToolBar" ADDON V1 FUNCTION Grid_CHook Grid_Visible FUNCTION Grid_CHook Grid_Active TOOLBAR END Start Mastercam, and in Settings - Customize you should see a Grid Toolbar entry under Toolbars. The ADDON V# in your MTB file is the required magic here. It is the version # of your MTB. If later on you needed to auto update the Grid Toolbar you can create new Grid.MTB file, change the V# in this updated MTB to V2 and now the next time Mastercam starts up, the information in this V2 MTB will replace the V1 data that was previously "auto" added in the main mastercam.mtb file. *Please note that this procedure may not work the same (or even work at all) in the future in Mastercam X8. As MTB files no longer exist in X8!

I noticed a link in this recent post... New computer I am running a similar system as this $300 system -> Dell M6500 http://www.offleasea...et/Detail?no=52 My setup -> Not a rocket, but it works for most tasks. That said, this M6500 is definitely much faster than my previous system, which was a M6300 Dell Precision M6500 Intel® Core™ i7 CPU Q 740 @ 1.73GHz 8GB RAM Graphics: NVIDIA Quadro FX 2800M (1GB) 250GB SSD drive 500GB Std (spinning) Drive

FYI: .tooldb File Format? ==> SQLite database

Not sure what you'd have to do to get this -> If you could zip up your CHook solution and send it to SDK <at> mastercam <dot> com we'll take a look at it.

Chris, Setting the Stock is actually quite involved, especially for Lathe. If you could send me details on exactly what Stock type/shape you're trying to assign, I can take a look at how this may be achieved. >> [email protected]

For setting the default (active) Operation (aka.Machine) Group I believe you can use this -> long SetDefaultOperationGroup(long GroupID); Declared in TpGrpList_CH.h

What are you doing that you need to do this? -> Do you have multiple Machine Groups?

You mean like I'm doing right now in X8 ? Drag 'n Drop any file type that you can do a File-Open on in Mastercam onto the Graphics area of a running instance of Mastercam (X8). This Drag 'n Drop works just like as if you are doing a File-Open... Anything currently in the database will be replaced. If the current database is 'dirty', you will be prompted if you wish to save it before loading in the "dropped" file.

If you haven’t downloaded this this yet, I suggest you do… See the Reference for NETHook V3 - .zip file download (near the bottom) on this page The “Selected” flag on a Geometry object is a Boolean. It is the “Selected” state of the Geometry object in your .NETHook object. If you change the “Selected” state on a .NET Geometry object, you need to .Commit that object in order for that to be reflected in the geometry entity in the active database. You need to remember that not all of the geometry in the active part database is… A .NET geometry object. -or- Every one of your .NET geometry objects exists in the active part database. If the .NET object has not been .Commit(ed), it’s not in the database. Exactly what are your desired selection criteria? SelectAllGeometryOnLevel is a ‘fast’ Geometry selection method. Note the remarks on this method -> This only affects geometry that is already committed to Mastercam's database! It does NOT affect the state of any .NET geometry objects. That is why it can be "fast". Doing these type of operations looping through a large list of .NET geometry objects can be slow. That is why there are some newer methods in the v3 .NET API to help out in these cases. You select the geometry in the active database, without messing with the .NET geometry objects. For “faster” XForm operations, see the XForm related methods of the GeometryManipulationManager class in the Mastercam.GeometryUtility namespace. These are much faster when working with large sets of geometry than looping thru a list of .NET geometry objects and XForming each one individually.

What version of Mastercam? What version of the NETHook API? v2 or v3 ? What type of Operation is your "op".

Do you know about -> MD_CD_PST Rename ? *It allows you to rename, not re-locate. Available here nder AddOns, Forget about doing this NETHook. I don’t see that type of functionally ever being added to the NETHook API. Way too much of an edge case. %MCAMDIR% is a path “token”. If a prefix of a path "aligns" with a standard Mastercam location, it is "tokenized" (like the path you show). Say this was the location on your system -> C:\Users\Public\Documents\shared mcamx7\wire\posts\Agie Generic Agievision_AWF 4X Wire.pst With the tokenized path, if I load your part file on my system and my system it's location is -> D:\Users\Public\Documents\shared mcamx7\wire\posts\Agie Generic Agievision_AWF 4X Wire.pst Mastercam on my system will resolve the %MCAMDIR% token in that path to D:\Users\Public\Documents\shared mcamx7 In the CHook SDK, see the functions for dealing with tokens here -> INTERFACE\GUI\FilesAndPaths_CH.h *It boils sown to this – What I think you’re talking is not a trivial task.