I wonder if he could get his solidworks guys to model that into things? or have a base template....something along those lines. I know it is a far cry easier to move anything in Solidworks than it is in Mastercam. Possibly if he worked with his solidworks guys to just toss it in after the part is all modeled up. There is probably already a model for every vice up on 3d content central. Just a thought, but yeah, I understand that other end of things. I also know that not everyone likes to use the WCS stuff due to it not seeming "convenient" (not saying this is either of their case, just from what I've seen at the places I've been). Andrew

mcpgmr and Jpage, Do you guys not use the WCS stuff? You can setup your pickup points and all that, and never have to worry about re translating or moving or anything of solidsgeometries. You can also pickup different faces and whatnot even if you Don't have solids option in Mastercam. Eliminates the need for moving entities. Andrew

I was just suggesting for so far what appears to be a cleaner toolpath to use the HST scallop. only downside is that it's been regenerating on my computer for about 20 minutes or so and its only at 80%. That is with a .001" stepover. It may take the next 3 hours to process the leftover path, but might come up with a nice one if you use the same type of operation. I'll see how this comes out, but I have some other goodies I gotta cut up for my brother tonight. I <3 cutting plastic in the mikron. Andrew ps I'll post up the file when it finishes.

Ok, from what I see, I would suggest so far using instead of a waterline operation with your 1/32" tool, use a scallop operation. The reason your toolpath is 11 hours long is because the tool is skipping all over the place, cause with the waterline, it always wants to be at the highest point. With the scallop operation, it will do a nice constant stepover for this part. I will see what I get for a final finishing operation with the .5mm tool, but I forsee using the same type of toolpath. Question for you. what material are you cutting here? I know you can only push a 1/32 and .5mm ball end mill so far, but the speeds and feeds seemed a little bit off. I could just be used to getting to use up to 42k RPM on the mikron though Andrew

I've got it regenerating right now. I'm giving it a try where I lie to it and say that my roughing tool was a .030" tool and the radius on it is .015". It looks like since the first tool is a .0156" radius, mastercam wants to make the .5mm tool clean up everything else since the radius at the top is .015". I'll see what it does. it's at 30% regen now. Andrew edit> hopefully i'm understanding properly what you're looking for. Too many things going on at once here

Set a minimum and maximum Z depth in conjunction with the restmill. Not only should that take care of your situation, it should also drastically reduce computer processing time. Hope that helps. I'll check the FTP file in a bit, gotta get some other work done here real quick. Andrew

quote: After all, ISN'T THAT WHAT WE PAY FOR? Don't you know we are just paying to cover the Mastercam seat(s) the OCC guys use? PS, has anyone sent to QC the problem with operations going randomly dirty? I've even had where I've "x'd" out of a toolpath parameters page, and the op still goes dirty. If no one has sent something in, I'll send asap. Course maybe not everyone gets response cause we fill their inbox with so many QC emails? haha, I kid (1 too many energy drinks today) Andrew

With Skype You can view each others screens, do video conferencing, and a slew of other things with it. I'm not positive on if you can manipulate other peoples screens though. It is free though, and works really well. Andrew

gcode, I guess it has changed then. I had a problem in the past with that, but it could have also been to do with the tool holders. It has been a few weeks since I've used custom defined tools in verify. I'll check it out here, but most of my work is ballbull nose so I'm usually OK as far as tools go. I will add this though: When you do a HST core rough operation, and you tell it to stay X amount away from your toolholder, you can still have a collision with stock left on your part. How does Mastercam not recognize stock left on the part and avoid the collision with the bottomside of the toolholder? Andrew

1.+18000 on fixing things that don't work as they should. A.Verify that is actually a good picture of what my part will look like....And in a timely manner (even 10 minutes is unacceptable IMO. UG, WorkNC, solidcam have these figured out) B.Verify that can use "true solids" with custom defined tools. C.No more corrupt files due to sudden power loss in computer. D.True utilization of Ram, video card, CPU/dual core/64 bit, etc. E.CNC Software to stop blaming THEIR software problems on everyones computers. F.Surface to surface trimming couldn't be any more of a pain that it is. G.All of the above to not be "fixed in the next release" I would have a list of things to add, but at this point these things hinder our daily operation so directly that they MUST be addressed first. My question is this: How is the "#1 CadCam software company" falling behind in such crucial areas and still for the past X amount of years, everyone just deals with it? Especially now that there are just as if not more powerful other packages out there? Andrew

My problem is intermittent as well. Sometimes I can input "1mm" and it'll output the .03937". It seems to depend on the dialog box, but then again, it'll work in that box sometimes, but not always. I've tried the "fix" above there. more 64 bit woes? If anyone is running vista with X2MR2, let me know. I'd be interested if vista 64 would do this. I'd like to update my work computer soon Andrew

Mike, If Seco has a pretty wide selection of tapered end mills. 1 through 45 degrees, with more options from 2 through 15 deg. I use their tools almost exclusively on our Mikron with incredible success. if you give 1-877-908-3726 the guys there will be able to offer up very good insight into their product line. Bill Bogue there has been a huge help to me when it has come down to choosing the right cutter. On top of that, their books provides awesome speedsfeeds for almost every application. I don't work for them in case anyone is wondering, just love their tools. Amazing how an almost 1" long 1mm tool will last in hard steel. Hope that helps you. Andrew three r plastics inc ps. since you are in illinois, tools will get to you rather quickly too.

Verifybackplot to see where it's adjusting to not hit the holder. Careful with this though. Watch your Z depths. The holder collision detection does not compensate for the bottom of the holder. So if you do a core roughing with a .25" stepdown with .025" stock left on part, and there is a section that didn't get cut, the bottom of the toolholder may collide with the leftover stock. So make sure you verify with the toolholder on. This has bit me many times. HTH Andrew

I've been having this issue as well. It's been intermittent. When I first setup this computer, my math worked just fine. Then after a week or so, it just went away. not sure what the deal was. I tried to register the DLL, but to no avail. I'll try restarting mastercam here after my toolpath finishes regenerating. Frustrating not being able to put in ".5mm" for radii and whatnot. Andrew ps. all our machines that have this problem are 64 bit.