Depending on how your post is set up (I haven't run a HAAS 5 axis setup), You may be able to get it to stop posting the message by editing the initial primary angle in the misc values. As was already mentioned, it's complaining because there's too many possible "starting" positions, and it doesn't know where it should start. I've seen this sort of things on toolpaths where it needs to rotate to say, +185*, and it physically must move in the positive direction due to rotational constraints. If you want it to go +, but it calculates it as faster to get to A-175 (360 - 180 = 175), it can ruin your day. What we do is use the "inital primary angle" to tell it "oh, hey, the machine is already at +90*, so you can calculate the first move from there," resulting in it saying, "well, if it's already at +90, it'll be faster to just the rest of the 95* in the + direction, instead of moving 265* in the - direction."

I beat that, I often have multiple sessions of X3, X4 & X5 open at the same time, supporting different people.. Never had a problem except for running out of the RAMs...

Chris - The only downside of that is that you can't use that config for any user other than "chrisri" or on a system other than windows XP. If you want it to be dynamic and work for any user, you have to actually read the path that X5 is installed to from the registry (the Hkey_Current_User\software\CNC Software, Inc.\Mastercam X5\ path) What I have my script to do is parse that key to a file, save it as a variable, then I search through the mcamx.config to replace that one token, like the "UserDir" installed directory. Then I repeat that for the Shared Directory and the Mastercam Install directory. It took me a while to get the script working right It's been a while since I did any scripting that hard core...

I wrote a bat file that will edit mcamx.config & Mcamxm.config to put in the proper paths and then copy all of my posts, configs, toolbars, etc to the proper users' folders. It's not the smoothest running thing in the world (takes about a minute and a half to parse through the config and replace the paths), but I'd be happy to share it with you guys. It works with either windows 7 or xp. I'm assuming it'll work with vista, too, but I haven't gotten access to any workstations to test that yet (luckily!) *EDIT* I've thought of a couple of ways to quicken it up, but I don't customize installs THAT often, and it's only usually once per install, so I haven't really pushed it. But I'm sure it could be optimized relatively easily.. However, there's a great chance to really screw up your config if you use it, so I'd prefer not to just post it up for the world to see and abuse. Send me a message on here or an email to aeberhard (AT) centroidcnc.com and I'll help you out over email with it if you want to see it.

Just an FYI: That file was originally done in the format that you need (probably made with Adobe Illustrator or something), you can tell by the shading and quality of the lines. Get the guy to talk to whomever he had make the logo originally and get them to send you the .ai or .dxf from the original, and it will look WAY better the results of using <any> Rastor to Vector converter.

We're something in the order of 98% FANUC compatible, so if you start out with a generic FANUC 3 or 4 axis post that should get you most of the way there. You may have to customize it if you're running a unique 4 axis combination, and you'll DEFINITELY have to customize if you're running a 5-axis config Let me know if you need any help with it. Cheers!

Mic6 - Try uninstalling any special mouse drivers. I've had that problem with a Microsoft mouse before, the software was "intercepting" the signal and catching it before mastercam could interpret it.

I have had this problem before, but I haven't found a resolution other than using one of the different editors. It's only happened on two systems I've run across and I couldn't come up with WHY..

The followup to this is what John Morris said above. Get your network admin to install software that will sync your desktop to a network location, and wha-la, instant backup without you having to do ANYTHING. Any backup that relies on a user is doomed to failure (I'm including myself in this)....

Rickster - I've found there's a few paths in the config file that will not update even when you specifically go and change them, your toolbar is another one. If you go to customize that, change to a different toolbar file (mastercam.mtb) and hit "save" it will revert to the old one when you reopen it. The only solution I have found was to edit the mcamx.config file (it's a text file) and change the path to wherever you want.

Gramby - Sorry in the delay, it took me that long to find an XP computer to test on We don't really have any laying around the office, and I realized my wife's laptop has it tonight.. All of that "run as administrator" stuff pertains to windows 7, so don't worry about that. Either way, I would like you to try something when you have a second. Using this code, xcopy “C:\junk my documents settings\%1.nc” Q:\Vol1\PROGRAMS Change the %1 to %%1.nc , sometimes that helps. The next step, could you post the entire code of your script? I'd like to see how/where %1 is defined. Thanks!

This is a can of worms subject, as far as tool axis control, especially without seeing the part To answer the initial question, though: Think of "Max Angle Step" as "Point Generators" from the flowline/port toolpath and you'll have the right idea. AFTER a toolpath is generated (For all practical discussion purposes), Max Angle Step goes back and breaks a tilting vector into smaller tilting vectors, i.e.: Say you have a movement that needs to tilt 5*, AFTER Mcam has already calculated this move, it then divides it into smaller angle steps to feed the machine, chopping it into 1* moves instead of 5*. This generally will cause your machine to move smoother, depending on the control and their multiaxis vector handling. I know our controls like to be fed smaller angle steps, so most of the time we stick @ .5 or .25 in this field. It's great because you can use a courser surface tolerance and still get a lot of angular step vectors when needed, making the calculation time a lot less. Note that this WILL NOT help you if your surface is ugly/rough. This will just make the ugly/rough surface finer, not prettier. Smooth Surface Normals is an attempt to smooth out rough/ugly surface normals from interfering with your toolpath. Before you can understand why this works, let's take a really basic, three sentence background on how an advanced multiaxis toolpath is generated on a surface: Based on your surface tolerance, specified step over and along, the surface is broken into a stl file (a triangulated mesh file), the finer your settings, the smaller the triangles. Each one of these is an independent surface, with its own surface normal (the vector perpendicular to the surface). The toolpath is simply chaining together a movement across these surfaces, and the surface normal is used to determine how the tool should contact that triangle, your tool control is then used to figure out the tilt. Now you can see how having a bunch of little triangulated surfaces with their own surface normals can cause problems if the normals don't each point in a smooth motion, you'll have one vector wanting + motion, then - and then +, which is what causes your machine & toolpath to go rough over a seemingly smooth surface. This is an attempt to smooth that out. Much like any global smoothing setting, I've had limited success with this filter..

Gramby - Are you sure the error is in that it has spaces or that permission is denied reading from c:\users\<username>? You may want to try running your script as an administrator once, right click on it and choose "run as administrator" and that might cure your woes. Of the list above, your third one would be the correct format, I believe. Edit: What version of windows are we talking about here? XP, XP64, 7, 7 64-bit, etc? It looks like XP from your paths...

Hmm.. I just tried turning that off, saving a new file, and looking at it with "Open," and it only had the X5 icon. I then turned it back on, saved the file again and it had the bitmap when I looked at it with Open. What happens if you choose "Preview" up in the upper-right while in the Open command, then click on one of the files? Does it preview or just have the big X5 logo?

And remember, if they're not all touching the line you're breaking to, change to 2d mode and it'll work.

David, Check your config under Settings > Configuration > Files, look for the check box labeled "Include bitmap in file when saving." That should do it.

Randle - Another satisified 7 user.. I've been using the Betas for 3-6 months now (I'm still using RC1) 64Bit, no problems with X4 MU1, X3 or CAD programs like Inventor. I'll be going full release 7 when the RC expires... I haven't had any problems, and I can't be arsed to do a OS reinstall when there's no reason.

Just out of curosrity, can you replace the new Cimco with the old one? I don't know that this would work, so backup first, but if you have the old version of X, and the new X3, the cimco editors should be located in c:mcamxcommoneditorscimco Try to copy the contents of the cimco folder from old to new? Again, I don't know if this will break anything so try at your own risk As an aside, if you ever want windows to open an NC or whatever file with the editors, double click on the file, and when it pops up with the "Open with" dialog, hit "Browse" and browse to the path above and choose your editor. Hit "OK" then "always open this file type with this program."

Rakesh - NORMALLY (note, this may not apply to your machine), the only switch required for a swing arm ATC is the arm itself needs to be changed. The pullstuds should be interchangeable between CAT40 and BT40.

I have also read Karlos' Book... I wish I had it when I started playing with 5 axis machines!

I use Cobian Backup (freeware: http://www.educ.umu.se/~cobian/cobianbackup.htm ). It's nice and unobtrusive and will compress to regular zip files so I can selectively pull one file out without needing cobian (in case of emergencies).

You can use the defaults file to your advantage in the Adv. Multiaxis, just like anything else: on the Toolpath Parameters tab, right click anywhere in the grey background area (by the misc. values, planes, etc), and choose "Save Parameters To Defaults File." Of course, you'll want to do this on a path that you already set everything up for. It will default to these settings now for every toolpath you do, even after your mastercam session ends. Cheers!

Mastercam just got back to me with Daved's answer.. Remember that you have to go back into toolbar states and re-save the toolbar state, or else the problem will come back when you restart mastercam! Cheers!

I do it the same way Nils N does it when in MCAM world.. I use the controls' backplot with time estimate on the machine side...

I've had this issue as well since I upgraded to X2MR2... I sent an email to QC about it as well.