11 hours ago, byte said:

I have a class that records the active level list,

The level manager already does that. If you have levels 1, 3 and 5 visible and hit All On, all levels come visible. If you hit All Off, they turn off except 1, 3 and 5. 

The hook should be as simple as a one-way toggle to turn off levels for selected entitles, or provide a selection prompt if nothing is selected.

It should work on entities crossing multiple levels as well, so if I have entities selected on levels 1, 3 and 5 and run the hook, all three levels should turn off. 

10 minutes ago, cncappsjames said:

Most Gibbs users are like Apple iPhone users. Conditioned to accept whatever Apple does and however it does it as normal

Agreed. And that's not to say Gipples doesn't have good features, they do! They just make sure you use it their way, not yours.

13 minutes ago, TERRYH said:

No I am not complaining about having to to re verify it you missed what I was saying or I explained it poorly, I was complaining about having to re process a program if I changed a tool projection out of or shortening it, I double check this in verify and a machine simulator. 

 

You cannot do 1 without the other. If your op goes dirty you have to repost it. 

If you don't want to, just use the old posted program with the new tool length.

33 minutes ago, TERRYH said:

If I have a program completed and processed and have already ran it in verify and our machine simulator to verify it is good, if I go back and change something like the holder or a tool length why does the program need to re process if it is the same tool just a different length. We try and keep all tools and holders as short as possible so if I create a tool that is say 2" out of a shrinkfit holder and  process it and verify it and I see it can be 1.75" out of the holder and I want to try it the whole program re process, to me that makes no sense, it is a waste of time IMO if I change actual program parameters I can understand it but on something like that it's just a waste.  On a part like this that is 65x42x22 with lots of detail and will need the small corners picked to a 1/4" ball to change and wait on re processing takes forever.

 

Possibly because of collision checking?

Are you talking hiding geometry/solids, or turning a level's visibility off? I'm looking for the latter.

I will be running the hook multiple times in a row to hide levels as burried entities become visible so running it again to unhide the last level would defeat the purpose. 

Hmmm... I like magic.

Level(s) hidden. 

Run hook, select (or use already selected) geometry, hide level. No need to revert after because I'm not sure how you would manage that. 

4 hours ago, byte said:

Give me 5 minutes..

There is a joke I wanna make but...

Does it involve roofies? 

On 4/28/2023 at 12:47 PM, byte said:

ill put it on my todo 

 

o

Hi Thee Petee! How's everything? 

/wink wink, nudge nudge/ 

3 hours ago, Simon Kausch said:

it would be really annoying to be dependant on a left handed or symmmetrical mouse

I can use a mouse in my right hand pretty well but it's way more efficient lefty.

1 hour ago, gcode said:

are you using a left handed mouse??

Personally, my left hand runs the Space Mouse, and my right runs a Logitech G502 LightSpeed

No, I'm using a Microsoft 2 button mouse. Small and ergo for me. Don't have a solid enough work flow to use a mouse with more than a couple of buttons. Might end up with one. Especially as I spend more and more time in solidworks. 

My left hand runs the mouse and my right is on the keyboard or space pilot.

40 minutes ago, SuperHoneyBadger said:

You just decided to go lefty out of utility? You're a wildman, and I respect the hell out of you for that.

Thanks!  

I figured since I had just started using a mouse that was the ideal time to do it. 

43 minutes ago, Jake L said:

I hated moving my hand back and forth between the number keys and the mouse,

#MeToo

In the 90's when I started using computers I realized I used the 10key a lot so moved my mouse to my left hand. Makes it much easier that way.

14 minutes ago, gcode said:

I started having pain in my thumb and had to switch to a mouse

Took me exactly 3 minutes and 47 seconds before my thumb started hurting. 

23 hours ago, Jim Varco said:

ActiveReports Developer

On 8/10/2023 at 9:58 AM, Jobnt said:

Mastercam ActiveReports: The Joe Biden of Computer Apps. 

Oh. Sorry.

Nothing personal.

10 hours ago, jpatry said:

How utterly horrifying

It is. I almost fell out of my chair when the Gibbscam tech said that with a straight face. What's even more scary is that many (most?) Gibbs users could care less. They're conditioned to think that's normal. 

1 hour ago, rgrin said:

The material is 6061-T6 Kaiser Select,

I take it using cast alum is out of the question? It's much more stable without all the intermitent heat treating. 

1 hour ago, Jake L said:

12,000!?!?

@Jobnt I know you talk about having a ton of entities in your files, so I'm curious, what industry do you make parts for? 

We do a lot of aerospace parts and my bigger files have a couple thousand entities total, seems like your totals must be in the tens if not hundreds of thousands 

That's actually a small number compared to some of the stuff we do.

We do a lot of engraving and our parts are typically about 20% to 40% prismatic. Think curved, aerodynamic, flowing surfaces with thousands of detailed contours projected onto those surfaces.

And it sucks because the level of detail we need compared to the overall size of the part means tolerances of about .0002" which creates chaining nightmares. Getting a good chain without overlapping entities and/or gaps is a serious PITA. 

I can't open the file, I'm on 2020.

Is there an requirement for post-plating grinding on the drawing? Or is that a result of plating inconsistancy? Because anyone who designs that part with those tolerances and bosses has never made a part before. 

If the latter, Newbub is correct again in that you want a super-smooth surface before plating. But the penetrant will work against you to some degree. This can easily be done with the small tool / small stepover method I mentioned.

Is post-plate lapping an option?

Or maybe reconfigure so the bosses are an add-on after plating and grinding?

Also you might consider either bias ply tape instead of glue, or even making vacuum fixtures to hold the parts. 

How thick is  the plating? Is it just build up or also penetrate? 

Like Newbub said you best not warp that part in your workholding. How big and of what shape is the part?

Tool wise, the bigger the tool the more the machine's tram will come in to play. Use as small of a tool as possible with as small of a stepover as possible so you're only cutting with a small area of the tool. Do not lift the tool up either. Once it's down, leave it down because it will be sketchy at best trying to get the Z to repeat.

Good luck, and as they say... "Better you than me!"

Thanks much. 

I have literally NEVER found anything useful on that "Advanced" tab so I basically quit looking at it.

38 minutes ago, sharles said:

never mind, I found it...

... ??

I'm projecting 12,000 entities onto some surfaces. I selected the entities and hit project. It starts counting entities to project and you can barely count them by hundreds (100, 200, 300, 400 etc) until it gets past the first few hundred then it starts slowing down. By the end you're counting by tens (10, 20, 30, 40 etc) just as fast as you were counting by hundreds.

Ok, whatever. Go to lunch expecting to be done when I get back ( <--- LOL, made myself laugh).

Come back from lunch and it's all done and looks great. I hit OK and it starts counting again. And you can barely count them by hundreds (100, 200, 300, 400 etc) until it gets past the first few hundred then it starts slowing down. By the end you're counting by tens (10, 20, 30, 40 etc) just as fast as you were counting by hundreds.

So it projects them one time, then projects them again. I'm assuming after you verify it. 

Is there a way to skip verify and just frickin' project it once so I can make a toolpath today?

^^^ Old-School HSM FTMFW!!

2 hours ago, sweeden5050 said:

I always like to run my roughing tool 1st, then my chamfer tool, and followed with my finish tool.  This does well at keeping the burr to a minimum. Try looking into weiler deburr brushes. I had lots of success getting all my production parts (Inconel and titanium) burr free. I will attach link.

 

https://www.weilerabrasives.com/catalog/application/deburring

Those work really well. Just don't try to run them at over 10,000 RPM. Makes one hell of a racket and leaves xxxx all over the machine when they fly apart. 

Thanks. I haven't built anything with the Joe Biden Active Reports so I'm not sure how I would update this.

21 minutes ago, SuperHoneyBadger said:

Or do you 3D mouse jockeys double-fist and perform actions while you pan around?

I double fist that xxxx. Especially when doing fillets on a bunch of inside corners.