I would bet that the chances of hobbing this spline is slim anyway; it is only .625 dia These things would be rolled in production likely never cut. Good read and the basis for my therory The pressure angle of a spline is the angle between where the pitch diameter meets the involute curve and a tangent point on the base diameter (fig. 4). There are three major pressure angles used in the spline rolling industry today. These angles are 30, 37.5 and 45 degrees. The 30 degree pressure angle is most often used when the two members are allowed to slide. Another common application for 30 degrees is when one of the two members has a thin walled section on or about the spline area. The 30 degree pressure angle will normally roll a straighter lead with less fall-off on the ends of the spline. Tool life is prone to be shorter than the same spline of a higher pressure angle. The 45 degree pressure angle is most often used for axles and other torque delivering members which are not subjected to bursting forces. The 45 degree pressure angle is the most economical in terms of tool life. However, it does not roll the nice straight leads that the 30 degree pressure angle splines do. These 45 degree splines are prone to larger o.d. fall-off and the lead charts will usually have a crowned look to them. The 37.5 degree pressure angle is a compromise between the other two pressure angles. It is often used when the shaft material is harder than normal and the application will not allow a 45 degree spline. The pressure angle of a spline cannot be checked. The involute form of a given spline can be checked. The involute curve is controlled by the base diameter which is a product of the pressure angle and the pitch diameter (B.D. = P.D. x cos. P.A.). The most common method of checking the involute form is with an involute checking machine. This machine uses a stylus which touches the spline tooth. The part is then rotated about a simulated base diameter. While the part is being rotated, the stylus follows the form of one side of the tooth. An electronic signal is sent to a recording unit and a chart of the form is recorded. If the involute form is correct, a straight line will be recorded on the chart paper. Another method of checking the involute form is with measurement over pins. A series of calculations would permit several different sized pins to be used to check the tooth thickness of the spline at several different diameters. The pin method of checking forms is time consuming and somewhat inaccurate.

I believe the steering shaft splines are 60 deg included so a 30 deg pressure angle. You should be able to check quick with a 60 deg fish tail thread gauge on a standard spline shaft. Allan

The variable name is met_tool$ to indicate if in metric or imperial Make logic in toolchange postblock: if met_tool$, [ tloffno$ = t$ + 100 ] else, tloffno$ = t$

Using the Mastercam default Haas post for a tool room lathe; you may find that the post has been set up to have the tool in the 3rd quadrant -X -Z. The post will output +X this was done for users to visualize the tools as they are on the machine. Allan

I think it's the Instant Viewer - like alt+tab but with big tiled images, so it's trying to snapshot the window every few seconds. http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/mouseand...tantviewer.mspx

Uninstall Microsoft IntelliPoint software if you have it on your system.

Been struggling with Mastercam hanging (black screen, white screen), system lockups... basically rendering things completely unusable. Went down the various roads of video drivers, video settings, .NET framework, full reinstall, blah, blah, blah. Once the obvious things were taken out of the equation, I ended up with the software that I had recently installed for a pimp new ergonomic mouse. Uninstalled IntelliPoint 6.2 32-bit for Windows XP, and all problems have gone away. The positive benefits of the ergonomic mouse have been offset by the negative effects of having Mastercam unusable on my system. So all those who have been experiencing the same issues, please check under Control Panel, Add/Remove programs to see if you have IntelliPoint installed.

There are some variables in the post - y_max$ - that handle that. Tend to be only available once an operation is done, so you need to buffer them out at the tool table stage. Check mpmaster - the ptravel, pwritbuf5, and preadbuf5 postblocks that track the z_min$ for overall toolpath, and each tool.

Got to meet Dan after an excellent presentation at the last Mastercam Reseller Conference. Great guy and a class act. Best of luck to you Dan!

It's really my fault - I set a fixed width long ago when 1024x768 was pushing it. Need to revamp, but just haven't found the time.

Depending on the control TNC or Millplus there are M-Codes for the tilt ranges: M50, M51, M52 for TNC M56, M57, M59 for Millplus

Rotary substitution is rarely hooked up for a machine config like that. It's typically a 4-Axis technique for parts with datums inline with the rotary center. Specifically for your machine, 5-Axis is done in M128 (TNC) or G141 (Millplus) mode, which is actually data mapped to the top, with the right rotary angles output. If you can do it with a multi-axis toolpath instead, that would be mint. However, our DMG posts should be handling that programming style, but mapping the moves into the right code format.

I've spent my entire career trying to get MP to brew coffee... I've just realized that hardware may be necessary.

bump I think Tool libraries with feeds & speeds would be a great 'crowdsourcing' activity, where many hands could make light work.

I'll try to have the developer get in touch with you.