over here at the model shop we happen to still have adobe streamline(photoshop 4.0)in the computer which will convert files to ,dxf.It's great for scanning in part drawings and then converting them to .dxf so you can open them in mastercam.The only negative is that .dxf files make all geometry lines so the drawings come out a little rough looking and I like to "trace" over the lines with 3 point arcs to smooth every thing out.This is a little bit time consuming but it works pretty well and takes much less time then it would take to start from scratch(espescialy with the part drawings I get sometimes).As far as .bmp files go I would have to open them in photoshop 5(which we also convieniantly happen to have in the computer)save them as .psd file then open them in streamline.

I've got a box of it in front of me now.We got from: Freeman Mfg. @ supply Co. 1101 Moore Rd. Avon Ohio 44011-1011 (800) 321-8511 thy've also got a website at www.freemansupply.com

you actually don't have to wait for the first toolpath to generate.You can press esc as soon as it starts and then change the parameters.

I e-mailed it to you Keith.This time I rendered it with a wood texture i scanned in.It's called left.bmp.

you know, I have always had trouble with check surfaces.What I find works pretty well is to generate the toolpath without the check surfaces box checked.Then after it's generated go into the parameters and click the check surfaces box and specify .01 to leave on check surfaces.Then I open the geometry menu for that toolpath and go to check surfaces, select the surfaces you want as check surfaces and regen the toolpath.Works every time(for me).

I just learned how to use the studio featyre in V8 to wrap a .bmp onto surfaces and i gotta say its pretty cool. If anyone hasn't tried it yet you got to see it to believe it.I'd post a screen shot of my part made of blue sky and clouds but I have no idea how to do that.

this is what i get code: C:Mcam8>dir mill8.exe Volume in drive C has no label. Volume Seriel Number is CC34-C701 Directory of C:Mcam8 01/26/2001 09:18a 8,130,560 Mill8.exe 1 Files 8,130,560 bytes 0 Dir 5,261,020,160 bytes free it gives me the not compatible message when I try to generate any kind of toolpath from the toolpath menu. [ 12-14-2001: Message edited by: Webmaster ]

looks more like a rough pocket to me

1:how? 2:then what?

THANKS JAMMAN.I was really sick of looking at that boring little #25 where I've got the create curve function.

sorry I misspoke.I ment to say functions that don't have a .bmp assigned to them (like create curve)

why yes those are some nice snowflakes. any body know how to assign a .bmp to a toolbar button that dosn't have a .bmp assigned to it already(like b025 or b080)?

I'm trying to install the appmch 81 -1016 patch into mastercam and when I do I keep getting the massage that it is not compatible with the version that I,m running.Now I know that it will only work with version 8.1.1 and that the mcam version I'm running.So whats the problem?

i never got any error messages when backploting(strange?).i havent looked at it yet but thanks for the help. WHat dif anything did you change to get it to run correctly?

the mc8 file is on the ftp site in a folder named new folder. the file is called strain relief.Ive already got the part machined in the original orientation and had tried the mirror toolpath option to test out my new found skills(HA HA).It is a fairly simple part which is why it's got me so angry.If anyone can figure out what i was doing wrong and tell me it could save me loads of time in the future(especialy on those pesky finish leftover toolpaths which sometimes take a half an hour or more to generate if they don't just crash the computer)and would be greatly appreciated. thanks

o.k. now theres a problem with my mirrored toolpath that i can't resolve. when i run my original toolpaths ( a rough pocket leaving .01 on all surfaces, a finish contour and a finish shallow)they run just fine. When i run the mirrored toolpaths, the contour and shallow run great, but in the rough pocket program, theres an extra move in there that just isn't in the original(a large sweeping arc) that gouges the part. I've tried changing just about every parameter I can and nothing seems to work and sometimes it gets worse.Why is it generating these extra moves and how do i fix it?(or am i just a retard???????????????????????????????????) and why can i only post 8 little faces?

i've got a part running now with a mirrored toolpath (with the coordinate button clicked) and it seems to be running the way i wanted it to.now i"ve got 2 questions. 1: what does the reverse direction button do 2: when i had trouble with transforming toolpaths before, it was with an imported nci file(I had lost the original part file due to my computer crashing but had already posted the toolpath). Would that have anything to do with the problem? Thanks for the help every one.

where would that be? Would it be in the begining of the code or every line?I Know next to nothing about code I thought mastercam was supposed to do that for me. The post I use is the mpan113x.pst for an anilam 3300.How can I change my post to do this for me if at all?

when i generate toolpaths for a part most of the time i'm making a part in 2 halves. I noticed that mastercam has an option to mirror toolpaths which cuts the toolpath generating time down considerably(if I remember correctly ,I havn't done this in while). When I backplot the toolpath in mastercam, it seems to work great.But when I post it and bring it to the machine,it runs the original toolpath and not the transformed one.Has anybody else seen this happen or am I going crazy?

well the last post didn't seem to work, so here it is again. when generating finish leftover toolpaths it seems to take a ridiculosly long time to generate. can i speed this generation time up by making my toolpath allocation larger (which by the way is set at 30000) or do i need more ram (which by the way is 256 rd ram)

when generating leftover toolpaths on surface models the time it takes to generate the toolpaths takes a ridiculos amount of time. will enlarging my toolpath allocatin size speed up toolpath generation time or do i need more ram?