I have Cimco's HSM package for Mastercam, and use it almost exclusively, because it is faster than in calculation time, and produces excellent toolpaths in surfacing applications. Especially Adaptive Clearing... I don't say much about it here, because this IS a Mastercam forum, and I don't want to bash the main product. But, if you are looking for a way to speed up big toolpath programs, you might want to take a look at Cimco's HSM. I haven't looked at HSMworks, but I know that my Cimco rep is also the HSMworks rep... I will ask him about it.

Thanks, Colin- I'll try that!

OK John, guess its not a windows thing... so, something in my hardware change caused it to go away, do you see anything that would account for it? I pretty much plugged the old HD into a new computer, and reloaded windows. No more lag...but some of the drivers were replaced, mostly just video drivers for the quadro, and they were just the ones the card came with. So, I guess we still nowhere. Sorry, just tryng to help. PS, I like your sig- is that Jaba the Hut?

Zero, I agree with keeping it on always- I only turn off the screen when leave. Craig Madsen (CM3D) is getting really good results with Ramdisc- but he's got 2 gigs set aside. I'm getting some more memory, and going to XP64 to try that. As for still not fast, I am talking about toolpath generation and verify, not the general lag with the mouse, etc. I had the lag and crash deal going, as well as slow processing. I had hoped the new hardware would be a LOT faster, but its only a maybe 30% faster than the old system. Lotta money for an uninspiring performance... At least the lag went away, but, Like I said, I don't know if hardware was the answer- seems like the Windows reload is what made the difference. Maybe. Oddly, I have a notebook with all the same software, and it doesn't lag at all. Turion64, 2G ram, ATI x700 graphics, its nearly as fast as the new desktop, and it didn't cost much more than the list price of that Quadro card...

I had the lag and crash issues with an old Athlon 3200 and 3dLabs AGP8X card, 2Gig ram, single SATA 120gb HD, XP PRO, Norton AV. Started immediately after going to X2. No uninstall, re-install, etc.,(of X2) would fix it. Didn't matter if solids, surfs, 2d wire. Problem migrated to Xmr1, also. Totally disgusted... So, upgraded to intel E6600 Core2 Duo, Quadro FX3400, 2g ram,XP Pro, now no issues with lag, but its still not very fast. Use Ramsaver a lot, that helps, and am trying out RamDisc Pro. Unfortunateley, that doesn't really help single out the problem. Used the same HD, just had to re-install Windows because of all the new hardware. All other sofware was left as-is on the disc. Because other people with similar hardware to my "upgrade" have the problem, perhaps re-install or repair of Windows might be worth a try? My system here gets left on permanently, with Mcam running, and has not YET experienced the gradual degradation in performance, as before.

+1 on the Verisurf- we have it here with a Romer arm, and it will run with a laser scanner as well. Runs in Mastercam, makes it easy to get a good model.

Thank you all for replying- hard disc crashed, so that computer is in hospital now, possibly going to morgue... So, apparently, running X2 causes system crash and hard disc failure? People should be warned! OK, just kidding a little. I don't think X2 was the root problem. If I get sh#tbox back with new drive, I'll bravely try X2 again, and see if file-read prob. exists with fresh install. I will NOT work on file that originally crashed X2, and has official "defect" registered with CNC software. Meantime, I am running on laptop which X2 crash didn't destroy yet. Only using MR2 on this machine for now. Reads sldprt files fine... Thank you all for your time.

Johan, thank you.. I'll try that after I get XP repaired and the blue screen of death goes somewhere else for while...

John, thanks for the tip- sadly, already unchecked. Pete, running XP Pro... I don't get why it used to work, and now it doesn't? I can't re-open a sldprt file that I opened before.. Due to the fact that I have about 15 more parts in this batch to program, it's very annoying to have to open them all on the laptop, make an mcx file, and send it over to the desktop for programming. Point is, it usta could, till X2 wrecked it, now it cain't. ???

OK, John, I tried that both ways, and it still doesn't work... my reseller is at a loss, also. Oddly, it will open some sldprt files, but not others... keeping in mind I'm only looking at files I have opened before. doesn't seem to be the lost registration issue. Dammit....

Thanks John, I'll try it.

I have an odd problem no one seems to know how to fix- I had a bug crash X2 badly enough to get me a blue-screen in XP Pro. This corrupted something in the system, and had to do a windows repair. Whatever it was, it also affected Xmr2, which I went back to after the crash, and MR2 crashed also. So, I un-installed X2, uninstalled MR2, and reload MR2 fresh. Now, MR2 works, but can't read sldprt files- says "no parasolid data". Even on a file I read in and programmed before. Now, it won't read that same sldprt file... This is puzzling, because I have MR2 on a laptop, and that install WILL read the file that the desktop won't. So now, I have to open files on the laptop, then move the mxc over to the desktop. If anyone has solved this problem, I would appreciate input. Thanks Steve