"Not calling anyone a thief, RIF pal. Reading is Fundamental!!! " obviously you don't read your own writing. "they want to run more licenses than they have paid for." That is implying that I am a software thief. end of story.

"My personal spidey senses tend to get a little tingly when companies refuse to run software that require that they get codes to run said software. " You need to stop listening to your spidey senses, because they wrong. Just for the record, i have more legally bought operating systems (2000), than i have computers running right now. keep you uniformed leaps of logic to yourself before calling someone a software thief. Is this a solidworks, or catia board? no, go post their requirements on their forum as this is a mc board. their requirements are irrelevant to this board.

"I know nothing said here will likely change their mind," I said in my second post. I guess people can't read. I will go to open source before i agree to microsofts new eula with registration codes. I have bought new seats of 2000pro since xp sp2 was out, just won't depend on getting a code from them. I'm sure a few more people will bash me for that. "what I have seen from being a Microsoft Partner." So ironic that microsoft calls its vendors or whatever, partners as it is a monopoly and its "partners" are just puppets.

"running on old hardware." You can run new hardware on 2000. I regularly rebuild my computers about every year to 2 year, which is one reason I won't agree to xp's eula. You can keep making up assumptions, still does not change the fact of my statement.

"I havn't seen a blue screen of death in a couple of years now." I haven't seen one from mastercam on 2000 EVER, i have had mastercam crash occasionally/rarely, but never the blue screen of death. imo they are not supporting 2000 simply because of the extra time/money to keep compatible. I know nothing said here will likely change their mind, but it is a fact they will lose some maintenance customers in not supporting it.

"Can not agree with this thinking CAM, chances are if they are still running win2k now and in the future, they won't likely be upgrading any other software either." Two examples in this thread alone disagree with your thinking already. "because our entire corporation is Win2000, no exceptions." Randy @ Streamflow Industries running MCX2 MR2 Lathe, Mill L1, Solids I only run 2000 pro I am on x2 level 3 solids with maintenance for another year, I just don't see any reason to renew maintenance at the end if they are not going to support operating systems that microsoft still supports.

"Solidworks has already dropped support for Win2k with SW2007. Others are folliwing suit, this isn't a MCAM issue it's an industry issue" Microsoft is supporting (extended) windows 2000 until 7/13/2010, Just because others are dropping support is a very lame argument. The eula of xp/vista are not acceptable to me, and a lot of others as well. Mastercam will lose out on some future maintenance contracts by discontinuing support for 2000.

DG, you couldn't make multiple depth passes? The 4 sided cutter your describing is what i use in tool steel for plastic injection molds, but i usually only take .0005" passes

I have a nexus 510c-hs. I think they are awesome machines, especially for the price. The nexus is a very rigid machine, accurate, fast tool changes. I have worked around mazaks for around 10 years and found them to be very reliable.

"I work in it" - i could tell by the lack of perspective. "Yes, some refineries have been closed but mostly because they simply weren't safe to operate any longer. No amount of capital would make them safe." -BS, they didn't meet environmental laws, not safety issues.

"The oil companies have been stopped every time a new refinery has been proposed." incorrect, that's the oil companies excuse. "But the Consumer Federation's Cooper said the refining industry hasn't even tried to build new refineries and has instead closed 50 since the 1990s rather than make investments to make them comply with pollution laws."

if they are simple flat surfaces, you could use analyze dynamic and get the angle of each surface, and subtract the difference. HTH

John, CNC is in a open market with a lot of competitors, it's a superior product (or at least the market thinks, as do i) is what's leading the sales numbers. Oil companies have created a gas refinery shortage to make supply run short driving up the cost and profit. Congrats CNC

I run a nexus 510c-hs with the fusion control, I used the mpmaster post and only changed, leading % removed, the prestaging tool output, drilling and boring cycles, and .eia extension, otherwise it worked great.

"Mastercam added a progressive backup utility in X_MR1 over a year ago." Are you sure, I am on X_mr1 and don't have backup. I think they added in x_mr2. sucks for me.

If your planning to run out of your garage, definitely get the 1 phase motors. Most CNCs only run on 3 phase, and people are forced to use phase converts to run on residential power, which have a lot of downfalls.

Just a word of caution about coolant. a coolant we used weakened the polycarbonate, did not notice anything at the machine, but got returns with cracking in them. traced it to the coolant. we used air blast instead.

http://www1.mscdirect.com/CGI/NNSRIT?PMPXN...PMT4NO=18491351 Its is the bottom of the line Ingersol rand, single stage, but it has to be more dependable than a consumer level compressor, and its around your price range $917 at msc (i am sure you can get cheaper somewhere else) all piston compressors are loud, and you can't afford a rotary. dry piston (no oil) compressors are louder than oiled ones. HTH

You Might want to consider Mazak, I have used some of them and found them to be very dependable, well built machines. They are mid range in price, but much more of a machine than fadal or haas.

I don't know what is standard for a Mori, so someone else will have to answer for that. Sounds a little too often to me though. If it is coming off all the ways and ball screw equally, then it is the pump on too often, or too long, or too much pressure.

how long is it between cycles. If it is a broken manifold it will just pump at lot more fluid per cycle, it still will cycle normally. Were is all the fluid coming out?

Is parametrics solids or solid and surfaces? It sort of sounds like what solids should do/does? I have the solid option, but i always preferred using surfaces anyway for machining. I have a customer request for improve surface trimming, most of the time it works fine, but when you get to that one surface that doesn't want to trim

I have been solely using mastercam from 5.5, so i am completely in the dark as to what parametric brings. What does it allow you to do differently?

Rick, yes your right, the off size on ears put them naturally out of balance, but I do not pay extra, just get tools that are prebalanced. The hsk holders i used before had a symmetrical cross section, but they still had to be balanced for high speed use.

I run cat and they are prebalanced from the factory.