But make sure your feed and rapid are on zero I would also suggest starting in single block so the machine doesn;t tak off on you until you figure out what setting you need for handshaking

If a few lines go missing I would double check the baud rate and if they don;t match I would slow it down a notch. With the program being able to be "punched" sent directly to the conrol thats a good thing you should be able to "drip feed" a program to the machine look for something on the lines of I/O channel and see if that needs to be change then try to send the program while in auto

I haven't ran Mazaks but isn;t your G43 subtracted or added to your G54 Z offset to determine your final length?

you should also check for a rs232 imput on the machine somewhere it will look like the same kind of plug you use for your printer

Do you have the manuals could be a paramter setting that isn't set properly that isn;t allowing you to see tape

brice to change the splines to a line try convey to arcs and set your tolerance to as wide open as you can use and see if lowers the actual number of seperate entities you see now

And with changing the interface makes you think there would be a farely easy "skin type method" of changing the code to allow X to work like 9. I itching to use the new 3D cutterpaths because I have always foiund that to be Mastercams biggest weakness and would like to see what imrovements have been made

I look forward to learning X and I understand not everything I have learned since V7 is gettin thrown out the window just with the current work load I don;t have the time to play with this and am working on creating time to get some basic training and will wing it from there just at this company it is a small shop and I was brought in because they had no one who knew cnc mastercam or surfacing so I take care of all 3 of those. Right now we are lookin at adding more machines which will get me operators but until the big wigs in the office see just how much they were losing outsourcing all this work its hard for me to convince them to shut this department down for a couple days to send me to In House to get the head start with this new version especially since they have been losing all this profit for so long now. In a perfect world would love the solid model training too but just as this post was a 9 vs X comparisson with me being able to surface everything they have asked getting them to write a cheque to get me the solid or X training is hard cause I am gettin the work done.

I don;t know much about the settings but one suggestion I would like to make is be careful how long your rs232 cord is cause you can pick up static which can change your code and there is anti static tubing that you can encase this cord in to help with that

Thad I understand the importance of keeping up to date with software we have both X and 9 here who knows what the future holds I may not retire and the next place may only have X which won;t leave me knee deep it will leave me up $hits creek without a paddle my point was why not allow the interface to be switched back and forth like MS lets you with XP

I use Cimco edits dnc function only other stuff I know you will need is a rs232 cord and to change the paramter settings in both the control and set up the cimco dnc

quote: Nope but many people are able to build a bridge and get over it. And by no means am I scared of heights but why spend the money on building a bridge when ya have a perfectly good tunnel already there?

It may not be used as often as it use to but its still there in case its needed. MS isn't forcing us to find another way

I am still using V9 and I have been using mastercam since V7. I will be the first to admit the jump from 7 to 8 was great from 8 to 9 seemed like nothing more then a few extra "bells and whistles" but my problem with X is after all these years working with this interface why did they need such drastic change why can't we choose to still use the old interface with the new toolpaths and upgrades just like you can choose between MS XP or classic window mode for your lay out

I vote for wear also if it isn't in there that operator will be back on ya when he is out of tolerance thru cutter wear IMHO I think the only reason the operator oesn;t want to add the comp himself is because if something is out of tolerance its his @ss with you using control the onis is put back on you and he has smooth sailing. I have had operators like that run my programs they are the same type that the cutter couldbe screaming cause a speed or feed could be out and they will sit back watch the 4th of July show and asked MTF they are doin turn and say "Hey I didn;t program it"

I use X to import my STEP files but that is about as much as I am doing with it so far. Don;t have the "spare" time to learn the new interface quite yet. Hopefully in the new year I will be able to get into In House for some schooling.

Is there any quick way where I can import all my cutterpaths from one file to the next with ony having to rechain everything? I got a botaload of plates all with just small difernces.

That is what I am trying right now so far so good just the KVM comes in so handy. Was just wondering if someone in here had any exsperience with this set up.

I have a 3.0 with 1meg of ram running with a Nvidia Quattro FX1300 video card running both V9 and X running XP Pro. I have nothing but problems with this computer. I have updated all the drivers uninstalled all windows video drivers reinstalled all proper nvidia drivers while in safe mode. The problem I have (other then often crashes) is everytime I restart the computer it deletes all my drivers and sometimes will even change my wall paper and background colours and other fun things like this. I have reinstalled the OS. After auto updates the system is very unstable and a lot of times I have graphic problems with V9. The only thing I can think of is I have a Aten KVM Exstender (CE 220LR) What this does is allow me to hook up 2 monitors mouses and keyboards and run it off one box. (so I can have a monitor and mouse by my machine and the actual CPU can hang out in my nice ac'd office.) In the manual it says the 2 mouses have to be the exact same make and model but doesn;t say anything about the keyboard and mouse matching up. Is anyone else familiar with this piece of hardware and if so have they had similar problems or know of a solutionj?

I just traded my ATI for a Nvidia after countlesss headaches. SO I would say no

did you give it a start point in your geometry?

Is there any way to enlarge the size of text on the autocursor to tellyou exactly what you have highlighted for example quadrant or endpoint?

Thanks for the help like I said its a intermitent problems so we will see what happens

But you also needed a M53 on the same line to initiate it and a M54 before to turn it off helped me a lot with multiple leveled drilling

When I use to run Okuma mills we used a G71 within our canned cycle to change retracts and safety planes not sure if fanuc can use that though