machinists don't need spotting presses ya always hear of precision machinists but for some reason precision toolmaker just don't sound right

hijack warning The last place i was at they brought in some "button pushers" and I ent on nights for a bit to watch over them. we were roughing out a form with a 3 inch bullnose so I tell the guy hey watch this I have to use the washroom which was about 100 feet from the mill. So the guy starts watching it with strict instructions if the inserts go stop the machine and if ya don;t remember how to bring the head up to rotate the inserts just leave it idle I will take care of it myself. So needless to say I am in the middle of my dump and i hear the inserts go. does he stop the machine? nope so I am sitting in there listening to this 3 inch cutter weld itself to the piece screaming stop the friggen machine but of course he can;t hear me over this. by the time I was done the cutter was nearly a 1/2 shorter and the heat generated hardened the piece. got to love button pushers. end of hijack go back to your debate

we call button pushers over paid monkeys, would call them dog effers but dogs ar colour blind and don;t know the difference between green and red

% O5000(INCH INPUT) M3S[#997] %

toolmakers are machinists that specialize in one area whether it be fixture making dies moulds etc and make things work a machinist is a jack of all trades as long as he has a print. machinists rely on good engineering (ie make it to print) toolmakers rely on disc grinders (ie make it work)

thanks learn something evryday when I was trained by the worknc tech I was told to make all curves in worknc cad then import it an when I was using it way back in worknc98 if I remember corectly all 2d was done with a calculator and pencil on the control and I manually wrote all my code. I know nothing about eithers ability for 5axis but if you do a search of this forum you will find a lot of threads on that subject. also remember that even though this forum is pro mcam only a handful of the members are resellers the rest of us are guys like you on the floor so these opinions will be unbiased to try and get you to buy

new guy buys the first round of drinks right?

reboot your computer it will reset your allocation for ya I run into this all the time

Dbrian one other thing I know you have talked about was how long it took to release mcamX. But wasn't worknc supposed to bring out a new version in march 2005 which was supposed to correct all there flaws in 2d programming the worknc cad update came but when did the worknc update finally get released. I switched jobs in the summer and we only have mastercam here so I am actually curious if the new release came out if it did how late was it and secondly hs it fixed all the flaws in 2d or evensome of them. And lastly you have even admitted worknc has a lot of holes in it which is why you are loking at a second software in the first place. with mastercam I would continue doin your 3d just how you are there are so many nice features that have already been noted and I must say that collision check is awesome buit mastercam would be a good choice to pick up where worknc lacks and I think you may even like a few of the 3d paths mcam has. but if you are just getting this for 2d a level 1 mcam seat which is just the 2d will give ya everything ya need

making curves can be done in worknc yes but not if you are using it as geometry to cut like a pocket the curves are made with whre you put your mouse on the screen very nice for creating boundaries not actual curves to cut a pocket to. Next even if G41 could be added to the post where is the option in your paramter page that allows you to select either G41, G42 compensate for wear of cutter or from center of tool these options are not available in the parameters so if you cut a pocket it and it is out of tolerance back to the computer you go to write a whole new program us with mastrcam can do this at the control. Without taking sides of mastcam or worknc you wanted input on how you felt mastercam could help you woking with worknc as a team so I just pointed some things out I will admit I love how worknc posts nc file names and uses the cutterpath number in the program name and the _ for concotataned processes very nice but finding that in the work zone is a mess in mcam you get one file for your whole workzone with a *.mc9 or.mcx way easier then looking thru the mess worknc creates. I have nothing against worknc I think its a great program for STRICTLY 3D only but when yo facto in the cost nd the limits it has due to how crappy it is for 2d if I was the one paying for the software I would put my money on mcam

worknc has improved drastically in the last 5 years for there 2d but it is still no where even near where v7 was for 2d. I just like how the guy comes in bashes and then doesn't reply to my post. down here a seat of worknc is somewhere in the 35k range

and with processing times aren;t you always a job ahead anyways? if you are doing advances 3d programs while that is running don;t you have enough time to process the next job? The biggest thing I miss with worknc is the ability to set a reference diameter for the guide. another thing I really miss is setting minimum pocket width while 3d roughing. I think this is essential and saves a lot on cutters. SO I as a mastercam user on the mastercam forum I have given you a handfull of pros to worknc. Now the cons 1- Where is G41/G42? there is none 2- When you realise you need a extra curve having to machine a pocket per say. you have to go to worknc cad create it save it move it to your workzone folder and then refresh visualnc to be able to see it. very time consuming 3- How sucessful are yo with drilling programs? 4- Analyzing features on the geometry way tpo many steps 5- Ooops loaded my geometry with the wrong WCS position. lets take a look at the steps to move it where it neds to be. first off close visualnc and then open worknc cad next move it where you need it rename it something different resave it move it to your workzone go to worknc then to your geometry open it delete the old geometry reopen your new file reprocess your geometry now go into all your cutterpaths change everything you ned in there regenerate everything now reopen visualnc to be able to see the changes. 6-setting clearance (retract heights when using multiple depths of pockets. everything is incremental So I have given you a few weak points I nkow of in worknc and since we have all answered your questions I would like your views on how you feel about these few examples

DBrian I am a worknc user also and will be the first to admit I like worknc for 3d far more than mastercam but caome on 2d is still very primitive. Processing speed yes is faster in worknc. Do I miss the editing ya a bit but with using absolute depths and multiple boundaires you can save a lot of unnecessary editing.

quote: how ironic, MC is better known for its auto shutdown feature lmao couldn't have said it better

removing block numbers and whitespaces will help to you can also look at haing a second post made that only outputs up to 3 decimal places to reduce block sizes

Bulliness is leaving? who is gonna help me get rid of all the spyware I get from the porn sites now??? Congrats and good luck.

I have used both Worknc (including worknc cad)and mcam and am very comfortable with both. Simply put if all you are doin is 3D cutterpaths yes I would suggest worknc. if you are doing 2d and 3d mcam is the only way to go. As the guy above put it 2d is very simple to do. Well thats cause he has never donw it on mcam. He is leaving out that to do a 2d pocket you must create the curve in worknc cad then save it to your workzone where it needs to be loaded into worknc. The other thing he forgot to tell ya is that when working with a curve in worknc to do 2d work your depth and retract values are all set incremental and you have to be very careful when programming and keeping up with everything being incremental. Sure it is easy to set all curves to the bottom of the pockets load in all curves set your z hieght to a positive value higher then the deepest pockt open visualnc then turn to front or side plane window straight across at the top of the block cut out everything above and regen the edited program. IMHO if your work is split between 2D and 3D mcam is your only option

personally I think the most important thing about 3D machining is the semi finishing part. roughins is pretty standard no matter if we are talking a boss or a cavity. To start I manipulate my 3D model to create run off surfaces from my edges so I don;t end up with scallops all the way around when the block isn;t perfectly on size. then a standard rough pocket operation leaving .03 stock. Now in the clearing of the radius this is where your model will dictate your approach. after I have .01 stock on my model I always clear my rads down one cutter size smaller then what my finisher is going to usually using surface finish leftover 3d collapse for semifinishing.this keeps the cutter from biting in the corners when finishing and eliminates a lot of marks that will need benching and a lot of wear on my finishing cutter. then from there I like the parallel finishing using a angle that will best suit my form using multiple angles as needed to be. all that is lef is clearing ofthe rads and all the areas my finisher was to big to get to. which again is 3d finish leftover but this time perpendicular to the cut. So steve there is the basics I use

I get this with big files all the time reboot your computer then regenerate your program

my computer is also a dual processor hyper threaded and I have more problems with V9 then I know what to do with crashes and openening files which will show me thru statistics that thee is entities but nothing on the screen. Also when I close a large 3D which has cutterpaths programmed and then re open it a lot of times my cutterpaths will need to be regenerated and I will have to rechoose all my geometry. Are these computers known to making V9 go screwy or is the problem somewhere else. I have already changed to a Nvidia Quattro FX1300 a gig of ram and the latest drivers. Which were installed in safe mode Right now the computer is set up as a fresh instal only thing I changed was partitioned the drives. Do I need to change other things to factor in the fact I have the 4 cpu's running? Right now my allocations are set to use 800 megs is that to high? My hardware acceleration for the graphic card is turned off also.

And Jay (Cadcam) I still have pages of answers to questions you gave me on this site back years ago when I came in under another handle dating back to early 2000.

I was lucky enough to not have to start programing till the early days of V7. My employer made me learn how to remove steel before he would let me write a path. I was in the trade for 4 years before I took my first class. At the time I was programming and then having to go to class after work to get a 3 hour lcture on how to use a file ugh hold at a 30 deg angle 5-60 strokes per minute and people wonder why there is such a high level of dropouts lol But on a side note just want to thank some of the X guys who took so much time to have this debate and the demeanor they took in the way they posted.

3rd String I have this samme controller. To work off a card step by step here goes. 1 go to MDI 2 offsets 3 enable write 4 turn IO to 4 5 disable write 6 go to Memory 7 DNCCD 8 Turn on drip feed 9 choose program number 10 Dnc start 11 hit cycle start You do NOT have to change the program name to a O#### but you do have to use that number to call the program.

John welcome to the forum where were ya yesterday when the X guys were ganging up on me in the "X interface" thread?

I have V9 but that file is no where on my computer