And here I thought I was the only one who noticed this.... I'd like to have this option back too please

quote: but i have to agree w/ the general concensus here, i was f'n livid when i learned that they removed the old selection hotkeys. much faster the old way, in my opinion.+1000000000000000000000000000000000000000

oh geez...I thought I was going crazy too...lol at least I know its not just me now

Im just changing speeds/feeds/spindle rpm values without clicking on the tool, just like I would do in 9.1 ...hmmm checked again and my paths didnt go dirty...must have just been me nothing to see here folks, move along

Am I missing something or does changing speeds/feeds in X force you to regenerate your toolpaths? This really sucks....or is there a switch Im missing I need to turn on/off??

I really miss the "Save after every operation" option...not sure why they would leave such a helpful thing out EDIT: My bad, it seems to have been dropped out of the Alt-A dialog box but is still there in the screen config menu...weird [ 08-15-2005, 12:40 PM: Message edited by: Zero ]

I dont think you can achieve what youre looking for with just solids operations, I think you'll have to go with some surfaces and then trim your solid to the surfaces (if you really need a solid that is, personally Id go with all surfs...) tried real quick getting some "close approximations" with MC surfaces, looks like its possible, but its gonna take a little bit of work to create the wireframe. I think with Rhino youd have much better luck with the surfaces than you would with MC or SolidWorks...If I get a chance later, Ill give it a quick whirl with rhino and see what I can do

Modify>Trim>Surface>Fill Holes also works really well for covering up them pesky holes without changing the original trimmed surface...

yes you can machine stl files with MC. from MC Help: quote: Mastercam can create a toolpath on a CAD file that resides on disk rather than being open in Mastercam. Using the CAD file option provides faster processing time. Mastercam extracts the information it needs to create the toolpath from the file, so that you do not need to retrieve the CAD file into Mastercam, which frees memory for toolpath creation. You can choose to include a CAD file in a surface toolpath by toggling CAD file on the Surface/Solid/CAD menu that displays after you choose Toolpaths, Surface from the Main Menu or Operations Manager. Choose one of the following options: ¨ N - Does not prompt you to select a CAD file during toolpath creation. N is the default setting. ¨ Y - Prompts you to select a CAD file after you have entered the surface toolpath parameters. You can then position the CAD file using the CAD File menu. CAD file types A StereoLithography (STL) file is composed of triangular facets of data that represent surface and solid models. An STL file is the file format used by stereolithography machines which create part prototypes using a computer-controlled laser to cure a photo-sensitive resin. STL files can be created by other CAD programs, or by scanning a part model with a digitizer. Other CAD file types that can be imported into Mastercam for surface machining can be found under the List files by type in the File Open dialog box when you retrieve a CAD file. Note: You can include any combination of surface, solid, and CAD data in a surface toolpath. now, the help file claims processing will be faster than normal, but with my (be it somewhat limited....ahvent even tried since late version8-early version 9) experience trying to machine from stl data, it takes much longer to process, as the file size to get an even somewhat close to desirable finish from an stl file is ridiculously large, generally speaking. as said above, you cant polish a turd and even the best of stl files will not give you anywhere near as good of results as using surfaces or solids.

like said above, this sounds like a video card issue...however this problem is not specific to ati cards, lower end and mid range nvidias will do it as well. ive got an fx5200 that does the same thing, turning down hardware acceleration makes things 10x worse and open gl on or off makes no difference. I had to learn to live with it until we shelled out $600+ for a quadro fx 1300

hmmm...been thinking of moving south.....

close and open mastercam again...this only lasts durring that mastercam session

The repaint toolpath setting in the config is whether or not you want your toolpaths to be displayed while the operation manager is active (also controled by alt+t by default). The setting that wont stick is the "Erase Toolpath in Repaint" checkbox in the Backplot Display Options dialog box, which controls whether or not the toolpath stays on screen in backplot mode when dynamicly rotating the part. Unfortunately, AFAIK, this setting cannot be set on or off by any config file and is stuck on by default. You'll have to open the Backplot Display Options every time you reopen MC to check it off.

I just picked up a 128m pcie quadro fx 1300 in a new box we just put together here, card runs like a dream in MC so far...none of the strange glitches like chaining arrows & wcs origins not showing that show up in the gforce card I have in the old box. Time and time again poeple on the forums here are told to get nvidia cards and to stay away from ATI or anything else for that matter...my question is this : if MC swears by Nvidia, why does Nvidia act like they dont know that MC even exists?? when you go to get the latest drivers for your card on the Nvidia site, they list the best known driver version for pretty much every CAD & CAM system under the sun besides Mastercam.....WHY??? even when you go to change your graphics settings thru the Nvidia Display Manager, there are presets for loads of no-name software that maybe a whole 10 people use and no MC????? Not trying to start some kind of flame war here, it just intrigues me that these no-name software companies seem to be able to communicate with nvidia and make sure their users are using the right card with the right drivers for their application and MC is supposed to be #1 used CAM system and its like Nvidia doesnt even recognize its existance...

So this is an error that comes up on your machine and not while in mastercam correct? what type of machine/controller are you using? also which post are you posting with?

try getting the newest xp sim drivers found on this page

well, you can at least get rid of the warnings showing up on screen while importing the igs files...im not sure if they will show up after youve saved the imported file as an mc9 and open it again... but when you choose to import an igs file, in the dialog box that comes up, set the "Send errors to" option to file instead of screen and you shouldnt see any more of those warnings. as far as getting them when opening native mc files, you might try tightening up your system tolorence by a decimal place or 2...If that doesnt help, I think Matt Q's suggestion about putting a weight on your enter key is as good as it gets and yeah, I love my warlock

are these native MC files you are opening or are you converting files?

quote: Zero, When this happens, post with a "known good" post such as the current mpfan or mpmaster and see if you have different results. Mike Ill give it shot with mpfan or mpmaster and see if the same feed rate input is missed. Im using a slightly modified version of mpan113x that came with MC.

quote: is it consistant to the same type of motion?dont think so, seems pretty random. the only reason I would think it was an MC issue is because it only started happening a few patches ago..

Every now and then Ill get a toolpath to the machine that one or multiple passes move at my plunge speed because the feed rate speed doesnt get inserted after the plunge move... Anyone else have this happen to them? Doest this sound like an MC issue or a post issue?

are you using an ftp client or trying with a web browser.....

along with whats been said above, make sure you have fzt turned on if youre running mr0105(run the TPCFG chook to check), this makes a big difference in surface finish contour paths. its also possible MC could be hanging on a small portion of the model and sometimes changing the stepdown + or - small amounts will speed things up as well...

right here theres a link on the page to contact them about posting jobs HTH

actually...I dont think nvidia cards do perform better. I think its a select few nvidia cards that perform better from the massive ammount of posts about vid card probs here over the years. the long and short of it is, if you dont want vid card problems in MC, youre gonna have to blow a good chunk of $ on one of the higher up nvidia cards