Thank all for the input thus far. I will give A.Mahlers suggestion a go and report back as soon as I had a chance to test it. Regards P

I will be in there again on Monday and will do the zip then. If the toolpath was'nt on the XY plane, why would it post clean code when I alter the depth and step size only and using the same geometry? I would happily concede my mistake if i can find it, but i think Ray is correct in saying that between G1 and G2&3, one gets truncated and one not. Is there a switch in the program or post that would set this? It was on MCX3

Hi Ray, Thank you for the reply. I have checked several times to confirm geometry is "flat". I managed to pin-point the condition that sets off this. In the snippet of code posted, i was contouring to -5.3mm with a maximum step of 2mm. the 5.3 not being devisible by 2mm, mastercam steps down in 3 steps of 1.7667mm each. If i change the total depth to -5.4 with a maximum step of 1.8mm (5.4/1.8=3) then it posts clean code. This was not always a problem, but something must have changed to cause this. I think MC should handle this OK, but seems mine just cannot deal with it. At least i have a workable workaround untill i can solve the problem for good.... P

Hi All, I am having a niggly problem with a post that started to post a Z component in some lines with G2 and G3. This happens even when i am doing only 2d contouring and the drawing (imported via DXF) is all on one plane. The Z component is only a minute 0.003mm or so, but it bombs out the CNC control. I only have Arcs in XY enabled, but can not get rid of the problem. Is there a switch that i am missing in the post to correct this? As a workaround, i am just deleting the Z-moves from the arc moves by hand, but sooner or later i might make that one typo that wrecks a cutter, part or machine..... Any help or guidance towards the fix would be much apreciated. MasterCamX3 X253.622 Y-40.479 Z1. G1 Z-1.833 F100 G1 X242.339 Y-29.231 F600 G3 X233.22 Y-31.58 Z-1.83 I271.89 J-162.81 G3 X253.62 Y-40.47 I753.05 J1132.13 G1 X259.523 Y-40.714 Z-1.833 G1 X243.951 Y-25.19 G3 X243.35 Y-24.941 Z-1.83 I243.35 J-25.79 G3 X243.17 Y-24.96 I243.35 J-25.79 G3 X224.23 Y-30.31 I271.89 J-162.81 G3 X223.662 Y-31.11 I224.51 J-31.11 G3 X224.16 Y-31.88 I224.51 J-31.11 G3 X256.87 Y-46.2 I753.05 J1132.13 G3 X257.2 Y-46.266 I257.2 J-45.41 G3 X258.01 Y-45.69 I257.2 J-45.41 G2 X259.68 Y-41.69 I287.14 J-55.53 G3 X259.77 Y-41.31 I258.92 J-41.31 G3 X259.52 Y-40.71 I258.92 J-41.31 G1 X253.622 Y-40.479 Z-1.833 G1 Z-3.667 F100 G1 X242.339 Y-29.231 F600

Thank you for the replies. You are still talking above my head though. Setting each side as a new WCS , tool and construction plane would be like Tturning the model". How is this done and wont it affect the ops already defined on the previous sides? P

I need to cut a part on the cnc mill but do not have a powered 4th axis. I have never programed a 4th axis and would apreciate some guidance as to the proper aproach. The part i need to cut requires work on 8 sides and the stock will be a 6" x 24" round Aluminum bar. I want to do all the machining on one side, then rotate the stock 45degrees with the rotary indexer and then do the next side etc. I pulled the part into MCX as a .SAT file. Progrqamming the first side is OK, but how do i rotate the stock to simulate the indexing and have the geometry properly shown to program the other sides? (the sides are all different) If someone can give me some pointers as to the strategy/procedure it would be much apreciated. Thanks P

Any ideas....anyone???

Hi All, I am post tweaking MPCRUG.pst for use with Avon 3000 knee type mill and mastercam V9.1 The current post outputs M1452 after rapid move if next move is a feed move and then M1453 before the next rapid move. M1452 = Interpolate W axis with X,Y,Z axes M1453 = Free W Axis ====================== N0188 G0 Z3. N0190 M1452 N0192 G1 Z-3.5 F200 N0194 G3 X38.969 Y-31.477 I38.969 J-34.477 N0214 M1453 N0216 G0 Z50. ====================== W on my mill is the knee and is only a readout axis and not controlled by the controller. My thought initially was that the purpose would be to be able to adjust knee hight to suit longer or shorter tooling with machine compensating a move of the w axis by adjusting Z offset. The problem with that being that the compensation would only apply to feed moves and not rapid moves. 1. What would be the real purpose? 2. I see several lines that deals with this code in the post file. Is it safe to just disable the output of these lines? 3. My previous post (now lost) used to output M1000 and M2000 as standard in PSOF to turn contouring on and off and also M1401(feed and rapid override) Is it bad to be in M1000 mode say for instance on drilling ops where you rapid between holes with no deceleration? and would you have this on or off by default? P [ 08-23-2007, 08:43 AM: Message edited by: Zoeper ]

AND THE THLOT PICKENS Program line numbers also seem to give my machine problems with comms now. Below is what i have in the post now referring to line numbers. How do i suppress line numbering? Thanks Pieter # Format Statements - i=incr, n=nonmodal, l=leave ldg, t=leave trlg, d=delta # -------------------------------------------------------------------------- fs 1 1.3l fs 2 1.4l fs 3 4 0 fs 4 2 0ln fs 5 0.1t fs 6 2 0ln fs 7 4 0ln fs 8 0.4li fs 9 0.3ln fs 10 1 0 fs 11 1.3l # -------------------------------------------------------------------------- # Program & Sequence number format # -------------------------------------------------------------------------- fmt O 7 progno # Program Number fmt N 7 seqno # Starting Sequence Number fmt N 7 seqinc # Sequence Number Increment fmt N 7 n # Main Program Sequence Numbers # --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi John, Thanks for coming to the rescue! No I have not tried that. Where in the post file do the * go? How's the notebook going? P

I managed to get the decimal places sorted out by changing the values in the FS table. Problem with the suppression of x or y values on arc moves as described above still remain. Any suggestions?

Hi All. I need an urgent fix to my Anilam post (mpcrug.pst) All was tuned to perfection and cutting just fine till my (new)HD crashed and i found that my last backup is worth squat. Drive is in for data recovery as we speak, but i'm not cutting as we speak. I can do the simple mods to the output code by hand untill i get the drive with my post back (or not)but if i can get it to output arc's properly then i can get on with life while i wait. At the moment it would output the proper code for an arc, but when you do an arc with one of the x or y endpoints the same as the starting point, it would omit that value. Example: ----------------- desired code g1 x6.883 y-5.106 g2x33.116 y-5.106 i20 j-10 ----------------- output code g1 x6.883 y-5.106 g2x33.116 i20 j-10 ----------------- It also outputs 4 digits after the decimal, but my machine can only handle 3 Can someone please point me to the variables that would remedy this? *************************** Machine: Avon 3000 knee mill Anilam crusader g (GXM) controll Mastercam v9 Generic post mpcrug.pst *************************** Any help much apreciated Pieter

Hi All, I want to change my post to do away with manual editing of all programs. At the moment i have to do the following with all programs: Inset M42 before 1st spindle start ( i almost always use it in high gear but my post does not output gear code at all and there are no switches for gear selection in the post) Insert tool change position before each tool change (normally x-40y20) Insert infinate dwell after each spindle start to allow for manual speed change. (g4t0) Change M2 at end of program to M30C"prog number" I am using Mill 9 Machine is a bridgeport type mill with Anilam GXM controll Post processor is "Crusad-g.pst" Any guidance in this regard would be much appreciated. Peter

Thanks Todd, That is exactly what i've done, I just thought there must be a better way of doing it. Pieter

I want to machine a piece of aluminium to leave 2 circular islands on the surface. I managed to create a "cheat" toolpath by drawing another rectangle outside of the stock boundry and defining a pocket toolpath - area and selecting a point between the rectangle and the islands. What would the correct way be to do this? (I'm using MC9) Thanks Pieter