are you limiting the size of your undo file? If not do so as the undo file can get really big and cause some issues.

turn of nearest and you should be able to select the lines not snap to points along the lines.

Toolpath choice starts at topology (steep walls, mostly flat flowing surfaces, combo, runner, etc...), and then other factors come into play. There can be an ideal toolpath for sets of surfaces, but many times toolpath choice comes down to personal preference based on experience, tooling, machine tool, etc... Three experienced programmers may approach the same part differently. One persons idea of modeled correctly is another mans "What the **** is wrong with you", mastercam will cut either.

Get updated, X4 and X5 have a Agievision AWF machine definition. This stands for Agie Work Flow, this machine definition modifies the Mastercam wirepath interface to basically look like the agievision controller, and it only includes wirepaths that the Agievision supports. It is worth taking a look at it, it makes programming the agievision controller really straight forward. Your dealer can give you more info, there may even be some videos online that show the AWF functionality. There's not much info here but this is a link to mastercam's wire page which has a little info on the agievision: agievision support HTH

"Groups" are a different function than what you describing (see the "groups" button on the status bar). But in the config you can uncheck the checkbox for "use group and result color in xform". HTH

This thread took a bit of a turn, so I'll jump in. In machine inspection can be neccesary, O.K., or a waste of time. It really depends on the application. But in most situations using probing is best used for verifying fixturing before running the part, checking critical measurements before re-fixturing, or more in depth probing if other other QC options aren't available. Many probe parts at the machine because the other option they have is to give a part to QC and wait for the results, which means the machine is either sitting or potentially making bad parts until the QC report comes back. Using a portable CMM you can inspect parts very quickly, so your can keep making chips without worrying about running bad parts for an extended period of time.

One issue you have is that you are checking a part with the same equipment that made it. So any inherent tolerance issues of the machine tool will affect the production and then the measurement of the part. But, there is a place for in machine probing to be sure. Something else you can do is use something like this: Portable CMM On some machines you can mount this in the machine via a magnetic or threaded base to measure the part in the machine. Or have a portable cart to bring to the machine to do "at" the machine inspection.

breaking a usb sim is 7 years bad luck. if you encounter a mastercam in the woods just back away slowly, if you run it will charge! back in the pre-X days it was make sure you keep a spare keyboard around so when (when not if) you wear out the "esc" key you'll be able to keep working.

You guys make life too difficult While the config setting works, it applies to all toolpaths you create. And as we know having uneccesary check surfaces adds a lot of calculation time. So while sometimes I want all unused surfaces selected as check, most of the time I do not. so here is what I do: 1. select your drive surfaces, end selection 2. hit the button to select the check surfaces hit the "select last" button on the general selection ribbon bar. 3. hit the "invert selection" button on the general selection ribbon bar, end selection. you now have all unused surfaces selected as your check surfaces. The other problem with the config setting is it only applies to the initial toolpath creation. It does not work if you import from operation library, or if you just want to add all unused surfaces at a later date. to add all unused surfaces as check surfaces after initial toolpath creation you must simply hit the add drive surface button, hit end selection. Now when you go into check surface selection the "last" button will grab the drive surfaces from this toolpath. I hope this is clear.

many years ago an old toolmaker I knew told me experience is what you get when something you did makes a lot of noise it wasn't supposed to. I told him I could barely hear the last carbide endmill snap. tink...

I'm with verndog, give me a machinist. It may take longer to teach him to program. It may take him longer to program. But it will take less time not having to switch out broken tooling and replace spindle bearings running his programs... I'm telling you if you have any parts that apply to FBM mill you really should give it a try. But do one thing first, turn off the automatic tool creation, and setup the preferred tooling that you want to use. If you tell fbm what tooling you want to use you will get much more predictable results. And if something cannot be machined with that tooling it will let you know. There are people that use it, and if you take the small amount of time to learn it you may too.

HST core rough doesn't support check surfaces. but it does support nested containment boundaries. Since a single containment boundary will keep the tool inside it, use nested boundaries to stay inside the outer boundary but outside of the nested boundary. you may want to create some cylinders that represent your bolt heads and add them as drive surfaces to ensure the cutter doesn't hit them. HTH

FBM Drill is great, not as awesome as Moldplus' ProDrill but it works really well with very minimal setup. If you haven't used FBM Drill you should really give it a go. For every mold that needs hard milling and electrode machining, there is an A plate, a B plate, an Ejector plate, an... That need drilling and 2d machining. FBM Mill is useful, but not for everyone or every part, and many people don't want to give over that much control. I just FBM rough and finish milled a pocket that had all kinds of islands, many right next to the walls at different heights, something that would have taken me a long time to generate all the wireframe geometry neccesary to program manually. And, it really takes very little setup to get working. Creating a tool library is one thing that really helps.

depending on the post you are using it may need some minor editing. Some posts account for direction and CW/CCW posative rotation, some don't.

You can definately use edit common parameters, you just need to use the "propogate" function to set the values based on what one of your existing toolpaths is set to. in the edit common parameters hit the help button and there should be some info on the propogate button.

yeah but did you see the have a chupacabra in texas and... what is this off topic you speak of?

in the machine def, general machine parameters you can set it to initialize to a plane. But I think he was saying his moves around and he has to set it again every time he changes graphics views. I may be wrong in what he was asking though...

dfehrman: 1. you as was mentioned you have a post issue for the G112 functionality. Download the mplmaster lathe post from in house and give it a try. With your current post if you start your lead in at C0.0 you shouldn't have any issues, this may mean using a perpendicular lead in or possibly even drawing your lead in and not using the lead in/out page at all. 2.Your D+Z+ isn't sticking because you have the "update tplane/cplane when changing graphics view" checkbox checked in your settings configuration. Uncheck it and your t/c plane will not change unless you change it manually. Or you could add a hotkey or a RMB button for "planes = +D+Z" to make it easy. 3. your stock transfer just needs to be setup in the post. The stock transfer toolpath has two functions, passing some values to the post, and moving the stock/geometry from main to sub. I'm not saying mastercam doesn't need some work but many issues come down to getting a little help and good post. HTH

I turned zero's suggestion in several versions ago, but send it in again it can only help. I would still like the control to pick inside, outside, etc... I would like to see an "auto" option that would adopt some of the functionality zero wrote down.

why is dynamic not an option? code length? You'll actually get less code with dynamic. or do you not have X4? If that's the case that's unfortunate because you'd pay for maintenance in cutters you don't have to buy in the first couple of weeks.

Using similar stepover and filter settings dynamic core mill toolpath typically creates a drastically smaller nc file compared to a standard core mill toolpath. It can be has much as 1/10th the size depending on how many retracts the standard core mill toolpath had. As gcode mentioned we've all been waiting for a plunge option for entry's outside the stock. HTH

2D core rough was a big improvement over standard pocket routines to rough out cores. It always maintains climb cutting working its way from the outside in. the 3d transitions are to maintain smooth motion so "high speed" machines can maintain their high feedrates and not bounce across the floor, it is 2d high speed toolpath for a reason. But now that dynamic core mill is here in most situations you will be much happier with the generated toolpath, less retracts, more consistent tool engagement, etc...

tight tolerances shouldn't be an issue other than it will take longer to crunch. HST waterline likes to have non vertical drive surfaces below vertical walls, use the angle limit to keep it from machining what you don't want.

Bullet Bob, please start a new thread about your crashing issues so you can get some help, it shouldn't do that. But it does say you also run ProE, if you graphics card is setup to work well with pro I have seen issues with Mastercam. Set it up to work well with Mastercam and you'll likely have issues with Pro...

Send a zip to go to your reseller. If you have minimum change for helix arc set to .001" that what it should be doing.