Alt+T will toggle on or off

Yep, That did it. Thanks JP

I am having a problem with something that is normally very easy. I have a WCS/t-plane created and drill one hole. Then I change t-plane to a new one on the A axis. then I create a drill path with the original WCS but the new t-plane. Normally the gcode has WCS (g54) for both drill paths with an A axis move in between. I cant get it to change the A position. The only thing I did differently this time is have a turning op first. Is the problem that my turning op is Top (world) WCS and the first created WCS (new view 12) is rotated around the Top Z axis?

I am programming a part to go in the machine tomorrow that needs a .01 dia ball nose to do some of the finish detail. I had to go to the test lab and use the microscope to check if the endmill was good. I can't even imagine trying to run a .0004 dia end mill. How do you get the runout out of it? .0002 of runout on a .0004 em sounds like an "endmill killer" to me.

For custom ground tools we use HarveyTool. For custom insert cutters we make our own.

I use XP vnc to connect to a PC at our production facility to access JobBoss. Works ok for limited use, not as fast as using the actual PC. It seems hard these days to just leave and forget about work for some vacation time. I had one job that every time I was gone the boss wanted to be able to get a hold of me. Then it seemed like they called everyday I was gone. Then the night shift guys would call every night with problems. Finally I Started keeping track of the time I helped remotely and turned it in as overtime. After that the boss told told everyone to stop calling me because it was costing too much.

I do just about all of my geometry creation in ProE. All of our design engineers use ProE, so that's what all of the models I get are. It's just easier to create fixtures and machining models from the original solids, plus then my tool/fixture design remain associative to the original design model. I just wish ProE-Mastercam had a plugin like SolidWorks. BTW if you have to draw it one way or another i say use whichever one works the best for your needs.

My company got me a new laptop nov-2006. I didn't even load v9 - not even an option for me. In X2, The little things like live construction entities to the big things like HST, I couldn't imagine going back to v9.

I have been really impressed with OKK horizontals. They have this weird all-mechanical tool changer. It has a long chain that runs the entire length of the machine. The draw bar, door, tool arm are all driven from this chain. No electro-mechanicals to get weird, just simple reliable mechanisms. We used run cast steel 24-7 with a 50 taper. The machine ran great.

Colin, do you mean the ras2vec chook in X2? When i try to use the chook it asks for an access code, then when you close it says contact your dealer for license.

I have V9 mr0304 and it asks for a access code to use it. Adobe illustrator will save as dwg's also. that's how I get raster images into MCX. If the bitmap is a simple image its pretty quick and easy. If the image has a lot of shading it can take a while.

There is a raster to vector translator available for MCX. I think it comes with MCX art. Not sure about price. If its a one time deal you may be able to get your reseller to do it, or maybe someone here with art.

Our Haas mills make beautiful finishes at 30-50Ipm. Anything faster than that the quality goes down. I have not notice any benefits to the g187 codes.

I had the same problem when I had my graphics set to split horiz screen. When I changed it to dual screen setting the editor works fine.

I have noticed that the solids profile and solid chaining are very picky about solids with non-symmetrical feature to the plane you are trying to create the profile on. Most of the time I use Create-Curve-Slice to get a profile. I guess I type too slow

I forgot to add that Vericut will do NCI to APT as well.

Cimtech sells a chook for mastercam that will convert Mastercam NCI to APT code. If the price on their website is correct it is relatively in-expensive if it means your operators will understand the code. http://www.multiaxis.com/nci2apt.pdf

I use VPN to access ProE and Vericut licenses from home. After I log on to the VPN I still have to connect to the server that the licenses are on. I have also had issues with Norton thinking that when ProE was looking for a license that it was a worm, Norton would block ProE from getting a license.

Randy, The Renishaw AEpro is not the same as the Inspection plus software. It is a stand alone PC based CAM program for programming probe routines for CNC's. Its works with imported solids and has a post processor to output Gcode, including macros. The cost is very close to a single seat of Mcx Mill level 1, so thats why I had to wait for finance to approve. BTW, we just got the software last week. I am very impressed so far. After only having the software for a few hours I was able to make probing routines for part set-up and inprocess inspection including work offset and tool length/dia updates as well as remachining and printing.

Joe, I,m just curious, did you get your macro to work? I finished modifying my Mcx post to include the 9853 macro call after the tool change. I enter a 1 or 3 (1 for tool lenght only, 3 for lenght and dia) in misc integer 5 in my tool path then the post uses parameter 20004 to fill in the correct T, D, S, I values.

I guess next week means today. Our CAD systems engineer just finished the install. Thanks for the input Mike.

We are getting ready to upgrade to Wildfire 3.0 from V2.0 next week. We have the Mcx-ProE translator. Is anyone out there in Mcx land using the converter to read Wildfire 3.0 files, and are there any known issues to watch out for? Thanks

I have had good luck with SGS Z carb endmills in 316. Their feeds and speeds from their website usually work great. I would run about 2200rpm, 22ipm, .1 deep, and 40-60% step over.

Thanks Pete, I'll give it a try next week.

Pete I also agree that it is more important to prevent crashes. We also would like to record more data that could help us evaluate things like; if our operators need more training, how well jobs run in the machine, etc.