JParis, thanks a million. Once again I learn something from the master. I didn't know you could use surface finish contour without a boundary and I also didn't know you could cut one surface like that without it rolling around the edges. Thanks again.

Steve Z, the floor that i'm cutting to on op 2 is at -1.4034 deep. I tried what you suggested in a way and trimed the surface to -1.402 and then set my cut depths to; -.042 to -1.402 and the stepover to .02 and it still wont cut to the correct depth. Ranger Dan, I can't find the file. Did you save it in the same place as the one I put on there?

Ranger Dan, I tried that and told it to leave .002 on the check surf and it stayed away from it buy around .01. I had the surface that I'm cutting extended buy about .05 originally and when I tried the check surface method without the depth cuts turned on it cut right through the check surface(floor).

I just posted one off of the simplified file and the depths match on it.

Thanks John. Ok I copied the file in the X4 files folder named flowlinedepth. I made a new slimlined version of my file by copying one cavity block and then creating two toolpaths on it just like I was using in the main file but they actually cut alot closer. The first program only came up .0005 shy of the depth and second one only came up .0047 shy.

When I try to get on the FTP it says I have to hit the page button and then hit open in windows explorer and when I do that i have to put in user name and password and it won't let me log on. Should this username and password be the same as my forum username and password? Also do i have to zip the file to copy it to the FTP?

Ok, I turned on the 3d refinement feature and that seemed to help on the drafted surfaces that i'm stepping down .009 on, but i'm also cutting some non drafted surfaces stepping down .025 at a time and they are still coming up .016 shy of the depth I want to cut to. I tried extending the surface and that didn't help I also tried gcodes' suggestion about using check surfs and making the max depth well below where I want to cut to and still come up a couple shy of the depth I want. I also tried cutting from the bottom up but it still comes up short of the depth. I guess it doesn't really matter in this case cause i'm squaring up the corners with a flat bottom endmill but I may want to just use a bullnose to finish with sometime and I would like to figure this out now. I really appreciate all of the input. I don't know where I would be if I didn't have this forum and all the help. I'm really the only one at my shop running mastercam. I'm running X4 mill lvl 3

I tried turning off cut control, setting the cut tolerance to .0001, running ram saver and messing with the stepover amount. Nothing worked except for changing the stepover amount. I changed it to .009 and it got closer to the depth I wanted but it was still .002 or so away. So I started changing it in .0001 increments both less and more than .009 and never could get it any better. I read the help section under cut tolerance and it said something about turning on a 3d advanced tool refinement feature using the mastercam applet. I'll try to figure that out and see if that makes a difference.

Im only cutting one surface there is no floor. Stock to leave is set at zero. I have no check surfaces. Tip control is set to tip. As far as I know the depth limits are set properly. I have them set to -.02 and -.503. I would like for it to cut to -.503 but the last cut is at -.4993 on the toolpath i'm looking at right now. Im sure I just don't have something set correctly. I don't use flowline very often. I might add that I'm going back in with a flat bottom endmill and cleaning up the corners and it's going exactly to the correct depth every time without any problems. That's what got me thinking that it had to be the bullnose giving me the problem. They are the same toolpaths just copied and a differen't endmill being used.

The surface is not negative draft. The tip control is set to tip. I extended the surface .1 past where I want to mill to. Its kinda like surface finish contour when it won't cut the last .006 if you're steping down .01. In this case I'm stepping down .01 and it's missing the depth by around .005 or so.

Is there anyway possible to get a bullnose endmill to cut to the proper depth. I'm cutting drafted walls of .5 to 2 degrees. The end mill is a .375 garr with .o2 corner rad. I give it the max depth in the cut depths section but it won't go the the depth I want.

Verndog, thanks for the response. I will definetly try to remember all you have said.

Toonz, thanks for the response. I thought it was something I was doing wrong.

I have six wcs's created in the same file, they are on three blocks, one on the top and bottom of each block. I only have one program on the bottom side of each block. When I open up the wcs view manager, no matter what I do it dirties all three blocks bottom programs. The only thing I can think of is that I created the two lines in the center of the first block to use for the wcs and then copied them to the other two blocks. I then picked these lines to create the other two wcs's. What's causing this problem? I also can't figure out how to keep mastercam from automatically changing wcs's when selecting differen't operation groups.

Thanks John. I appreciate the quick response.

In the operations manager under the machine group properties/tool settings/toolpath configuration, how do I get the "use tool's step peck and coolant" option to stick? Since I updated to version 4 it won't. I did a search but couldn't find the answer. tia.

Thank you I found it. It was in the same folder as the nc file I just couldn't see it. Thanks again.

Where is the error file saved at? I catch a glimpse of it when I post but can't find it when I do a search on my hard drive.

I'm a little confused as to where to tell mastercam which post to use. I was editing the post named mproders_3.pst_vx when it was actually using the post named mproders_3.pst. When you put the cursor over this file it says it's an office file. I ended up editing it like JParis suggested and it still out put the A. So I found this section and edited it to off and that worked. # Rotary Axis Settings # -------------------------------------------------------------------------- vmc : 1 #0 = Horizontal Machine, 1 = Vertical Mill rot_on_x : 0 #Default Rotary Axis Orientation, See ques. 164. #0 = Off, 1 = About X, 2 = About Y, 3 = About Z I don't know if I should leave it like that or not. I'm not sure if this post would output correctly for 5 axis work anyway. Thanks for the help everyone.

the 3 axis is the rp800 and the 5 axis is the rxp800. I thought the same thing about just leaving it in and tried running the program and it errored out stating something about the A axis being searched for. I don't remember the wording on the error. I had to edit the bef. file to get it to work. Here's what the bef. file looks like. I had to add the -AC to get it to run. 0MACOOR-ALL loadzerostd -H=0 T1S10000 M3 TLC -CLEAN RMAX=2 TOL=.0005 SM=.0005 RADMAX=400 CLEANON -ON=3 -CYCLE:20 m8 XCALL TOOL1.NC -AC m9 CLEANOFF TLM -CLEAN M5

Justin Beebe, I tried what you suggested and it didn't work. It still outputs the A0. JParis, I would like to do it your' way, cause I may be able to do some 3 plus 2 work later down the road, but I'm not sure if I have enough experience editing posts or not. Maybe if you could walk me through it I would feel a little better about it. I'll make a copy of the post in the mean time. Thanks for all the help guys. One thing I forgot to mention is I'm using this same post for both of our roders machines, but one is a 3 axis vmc and the other is a 5 axis. I bet I'll probably have to rename the copied post and edit it for the 5 axis and use only on that machine. Does this sound correct? [ 03-22-2010, 07:27 AM: Message edited by: Tim Pruett ]

Mike-T, How do you do that. I see the A axis in the lower left hand window, but what do I do to turn it off? I'll be leaving in 10 minutes. Be back Monday. Thanks in advance.

I might be able to contact my reseller to ask them. Maybe I could send them a zip file and they could find it. I'll probably give them a call. Thanks for all the help.

I'm using the wcs that I created which is basicly the part rotated 90 deg. from the right side. I tried posting a program which uses the top wcs and it still output the A.

It's a 5 axis roeders that so far "I" only use as a 3 axis. My post is named mproeders.pst. I don't think that I want the A permanately removed, in case I ever do get to do some 3 plus 2 or 5 axis stuff. I just got through updating to version X4 and now I'm getting the A. I did the update post thing, but not sure if that's the problem. It may just be something in the program that needs turned off or in the control def.