If you are going to twekk a post for your use - It's ALWAYS a good idea to make sure you are starting out with the lastest version available.

quote: The post that I've been customizing a little bit is just the MPLOKUMA that ships with Mastercam Which MC version CD are were talking here ? The MPLOKUMA.PST that was on the v9.0 CD did LAP3 cycles, and other (threading & drilling) canned cycles

quote: My problem is the controllers (tnc415, 426 and 430) do not recognize going from a point and turning on the comp to a circular move. Line 4 is no comp to line 6 circular move with comp. You have stated the problem correctly -> You cannot activate CDC on the machine on a CIRCULAR move. (Very few machine controls can do that!) You need a LINEAR lead-in to do that. And most likely a linear lead-out move to de-actiavete the CDC. Click on the the Lead in/out button on the Contour Parameters page and setup fopr some linear in/out motion to/from your contour.

Kevin, Lathe posts have some "enable this" options, Check you your PST for these Post Numbered Questions -> 3050. Enable canned thread equal depths? y 3051. Enable canned thread equal area? y 3052. Enable canned thread multiple starts? y 3053. Enable canned thread anticipated pulloff? y IF your post does support these features you can enable the options on the dialog box in MC.

quote: So in your case, if your "NC Parameters (PRM)" path is set to the same (network) folder on both computers, each will see the same SETDIRS.PRM Screen, Configure, Files (tab), and under Data Paths highlight 'NC Parameters(PRM)' Make sure that the "Selected item's Data Path" is not pointing the the same physical folder from each computer on the network.

quote: ...although this is an instance for Abuse - perhaps it is just some kids using your open space as a place to park their junk for a while. This could be the case. It happened to me a few years back on an FTP site that I maintained. Came in one day to find many megs of files "that should not have been there". Just someone using the site as a "mail drop".

quote: If you run the chook in one machine (set up your path) and go and open up the chook in the other machine, the path that shows is the same as what you just set up in the other PC. I belive I finally see what you are asking about. When you run SETDIRS on computer #2 the default path and settings on the SETDIRS dialog is what you had previously setup using SETDIRS on computer #1. Yes, you are correct. When you run SETDIRS it makes a SETDIRS.PRM file to "remember" the settings, so that next time your run SETDIRS those previous settings are the default. So in your case, if your "NC Parameters (PRM)" path is set to the same (network) folder on both computers, each will see the same SETDIRS.PRM This does not inhibit the use of SETDIRS, since the SETDIRS seting only affect the current session of MC. You can verify this by doing this (on one computer)... Start MC mill and run SETDIRS and point the MC9 path "somewhere else". Now start another session of MC mill and do a File, Get This session of MC is not looking at the "somewhere else" folder.

rob, All depends on the logic in that specific post. If you wish, send the PST file AND the MC9 with the toolpath that causes the problem when you post.

Pip, FYI... A .SET type setup sheet generator really is a post processor. It just that they are setup to output everything except the toolpath motion. I would be fairly easy to take the MILL.SET (or MILLm.SET for Metric formatting) and modify the output format to suit you needs. Such as, comma delimited for easy import into Excel, etc.

quote: ------------------------------- I followed your procedure for startup. I set the first pc to look for something on the C drive. Then I went over to the second to get a file, it went to the network which is O. ------------------------------- So... You are telling me that -> If you start MC on each computer NOT using a shortcut - using SETDIRS on computer#1 does NOT affect computer #2 But, if you DO start MC on each computer USING the desktop shortcut, and then use SETDIRS on computer #1, these setting are now also acitve on computer #2 ?

I assume that you are starting MC on each compuer using s shortcut on the desktop? Check the 'target' for each shortcut on each computer. (Right-click on the shortcut and select Properties)

OK.... Now if you startup MC on each system "in the usual way" and run SETDIRS on one of them, are the file paths affecting MC on BOTH computers?

Hmmm.... Maybe this will give us some info. to work from. Shutdowm MC, move ALL of the *.CFG files from your MCAM9 folder into some other folder for safe keeping. Make sure that there are no .CFG files left in the MCAM9 folder and startup MC. Does the problem still exist? Shutdown MC and copy your .CFG files back into the MCAM9 folder, Start MC, what happens now?

Neal, Try this Shutdown MC on both computers. Start MC on computer #1 *** Don't start MC using a shortcut. *** Start MC on computer #1 by doing, (Windows) Start button, select Run and type in the command line -> C:MCAM9MILL9.EXE (I assume that is the folder MC is installed in) Now do the same startup procedure on computer #2 Now alter the MC9 file path using SETDIRS on computer #1 to something like C:MCAM9COMMON Go over to computer #2 and do a file get. Where is computer #2 looking for the MC9 files?

This topic has been covered several times (in just the last few weeks!) Edited version of a post from James Meyette that was posted 03-05-2003 Start up the SETDIRS C-Hook. Set the selected directories to Project Directory. Select MC9, and NC, then whatever converters you wish. Once you click OK, the paths set with the C-Hook are active. Now if you go to File Get, you will get whatever is in that folder. When you post the NC files will be written to that folder. You'll need to run SETDIRS every time you work on something else.

The only way I could make this "*.OPS" happen, was to edit the MILL9.CFG file. This is not something that would get changed thru the Screen, Configuration dialog. Load your active .CFG (probably MIll9.CFG) into a text editor and check this line -> 503. Toolpath (NCI) extension? .nci

cuttingedge, FYI, According to the Centroid M-series documentation, this is true -> The arc direction must be REVERSED when doing arcs in the (G18) XZ plane. G02=>G03 and G03=>G02

What version of MC are you running (Mill v9.0SP1, or ?) What version of MS Windows are you running ? I'm I correct in that you are referring to -> Right-click on operation(s) in Op. Manager, Options, Change NCI destination.... and the "Save as type:" selections on the "Select output NCI file" dialog are only "???? what is the text here ??? (*.OPS)" and "All files (*.*) When you actually post process your toolpaths (from the Op. Manager), check the "Save NC file" and the "Ask" options. What is the extension on the file that MC is going to create after you click OK to initiate the post processing?

Sure, I know what it means But, without the post AND the toolpath you are posting, I cannot tell you why you are getting this.

quote: Adding RAM is usually one of the simplest ways to boost performance. Now doubt about that, but... You are STILL running Windows 'ME' Microsoft says -> "Windows Me and Windows 98 are not designed to handle more than 1 GB of RAM. More than 1 GB can lead to potential system instability." But, at bit more searching finds potential problems with more than 512meg. WinME can't handle more than 512 megs of memory Difficulties under Windows 9x/ME with more than 512MB of memory installed in the system

cuttingedge, A couple things to check... 1> Check that you are getting the proper G18 or G19 plane mode set for the arc(s) in question. Set the post for I,J,K arc output format and check the arc moves. G18(XZ) arc should have X,Z,I,K addresses G19(YZ) arc should have Y,Z,J,K addresses 2> On "some" machines (don't recall if Centroid is one of them...) the arc direction must be REVERSED when doing arcs in the (G18) XZ plane. G02=>G03 and G03=>G02

Alan, Are you saying that the path setting for the NC files in the MILL9.CFG is not used by MC as the default NC output folder when post processing? Here is something to check. -> Check the Post Numbered Question '90.' in your PST. 90. Drive and subdirectory for NC files? c:mcam9millnc A path setting here will override the NC path setting in the CFG file. [ 03-06-2003, 01:07 PM: Message edited by: Roger Martin from CNC Software ]

Are you running v9.0 or v9.0 SP1 ?

quote: Min. Arc radius is .005, and the settings for XY,XZ,YZ are 17, 19, 18 on the post. In the centroid manual the setting are 17, 18, 19. Could this be the problem? I am going to get some of the NC code and will post it when I get it. The gouges seem to occur in both the XZ and YZ planes. Min. Arc radius is .005" (I ASSUME we are talking INCH units) This could be a problem, those are some very small arc moves. Try .05" or .1" and see if the problem goes away. My question -> What is your setting for which planes to 'Create Arcs in (XY,XZ,YZ)'? was to deremine if the gouges were the due to problems of doing arcs in the YZ or XZ planes. Does you NC program have arc moves in a plane OTHER than the XY (G17) plane? quote: Also, on my machine, Helical and circular motion can be programmed in two different ways. specifying the final point and the parameters I,J,K (center point of the as incremental values from the start position) or specifying the final point and the radius of the arc. I am currently using the I,J,K method. How do I change to the other method, what would I need to do to the post? As for setting the post to output 'R'adius format, instead of I,J,K, look for this in the PST -> arcoutput : 0 # 0 = IJK, 1 = R no sign, 2 = R signed neg. over 180

Is this the error message the Programer #1 gets? -> The post version does not match the executable version, Run UPDATEPST9 ! If Programer #2 does not get this - he must be running a different post processor! Do this for each user... Log in as that user. From the Operation Manager go to post process some toolpath. Click on the 'Change Post' button and check the COMPLETE pathname of the PST being used. BTW, When you run 'Update PST' it makes backups of the original PST & TXT files. If 'Update PST' get run on that post again, it will see that the backups exist and will ask the user if it is OK to overwrite those backup files.