A co-worker of mine who also uses mastercam and also programs our waterjet robot to cut our prototype headliners was just shown mastercam's new software for 6 axis robots. He seems pretty impressed. I've never even seen that option mentioned on this forum, and I have yet to be a part of the demonstrations here at our shop for the mastercam add on for it. But I'm just curious if anyone is using the software and how you like it. Thanks.

I don't use autosave or the auto backup because like Ron my files get real big and I don't want 10 that are 100,000+kb big. So I just have my main file and then I add a B right before the .mcx extension and I regularly save those 2 files back and forth until I'm done. A couple of weeks ago I had a file that kept crashing on me (unusual nowadays) so I actually had 3 files: my main one, b.mcx and c.mcx. just to be safe. I'm also on second shift (by choice) so I don't get all the interruptions all the other cam guys in the office get.

ditto

quote: More like a jackalope. Don't laugh, James. My dad has one of those hanging on his wall! (I'm serious.)

ditto.

When you merge a file there is an option to force the geometry to your active level, but it will also change all the geometry to the active color. The button is near the right of the selection ribbon. What Jim said is more foolproof because sometimes mastercam glitches when I'm in a custom wcs and it will throw the merged geometry to mastercam's top wcs.

Actually surface finish blend worked beautifully once I got rid of the cobwebs in my head and set it up right. Thanks anyways.

The program just bombed out. Any other ideas?

Eric, thanks for the reply. I'm processing it right now, but it's taking forever because the file is really big. Does anyone else have any suggestions. I tried all the regular surface finish toolpaths that looked like a possibility and none of them wanted to work.

I'm working on a mold/trim combination tool, and I'm not sure how to finish the trim edge which will get sheared in with the other half. I've finished the entire tool to 0 stock but put a .01 offset surface in front of the trim edge which meanders all through the part. The trim edge is the same height everywhere but at all different Z levels. Is there a surface tool path that I can force to do ONLY the trim edge to 0 stock which will start at the top of the edge and step down a set amount? Hope this makes sense. I'm getting ready to take off for the night. I'll be back at 3:30 tomorrow. Thanks ahead of time.

quote: Let me tell you about how happy I am that the three inch clearance height on a contour only works at the beginning and end of a toolpath even when you have the "use clearance only at start and end" box unchecked.....So when it gets done roughing and moves to the beginning of the cut again to finish...it only lifts up to .25 instead of 3 inches like I told it to. Just cost me about $200 in cutters. Wacked the crap out of my clamps.... Jim, I use clearance and retract ALL the time and have never had any problems as long as I have them set correctly. From the sound of your post, I think you wanted to use a retract value not a clearance. Clearance is used at the beginning and end of EACH wireframe geometry you select. Retract is the value that mc uses while doing the various passes on an individual curve. The other thing, do you use quick verify? That has saved my butt a lot when I had my retract set improperly. Sorry about the crash.

Maybe this is a dumb question, but if the post of the other guy works, why not just use his post...unless you're wanting to learn to edit posts? Welcome to the forum.

I import groups all the time and have NEVER had them come in all jumbled. I only import one group at a time, though.

I wonder if any of those new benefits will be less bugs and less lag time??????

I ALWAYS use a containment boundary for my surface programs. Maybe that's just how I was trained, but I can't even imagine just letting the toolpath go wherever. Wouldn't it typically fall off the part? Not sure since I've never tried it. I know when my containment boundary was slightly too big, my toolpath "fell" down the side of the part. I rarely use check surfaces but they can be very helpful at times.

Typically I run my gap at 900% for all surface programs. The only time I change that is when I am making a "test" program with a 10.0" stepover and I WANT the tool to pick up between steps.

Thad, are you saying you took a straight surface rough pocket toolpath and trimmed it so that it cut the part like a casting? That's cool if that's what you mean. That would help me a lot.

Just wondering if anyone uses this function much. When I was trained, I thought the guy said you could only use one window and so I never really messed with it, but last week one of my co-workers called me over to show me the function. So I started messing with it. The first time I trimmed multiple surface leftover toolpaths with one set of multiple boundaries and 1 of the toolpaths violated the part and another started way out in outer space. So tonight I thought I'd do one of my more complex parts (I used 42 boundaries to get rid of unwanted toolpath areas), but applied it to only one surface leftover program and it looks like it worked like a charm. I'm just curious about other people's experiences and if there are any other bugs people have noticed. Thanks in advance.

thanks for the replies.

Ok, A co worker and I have been doing aluminum headliner billets. His have been turning out with a finish like a corncob and mine have been great. We eliminated some of the other variables, but when he got to his finish program he was using the high speed scallop program with the zig zag stepover while I was using the surface finish constant scallop with a constant cw step. All the other parameters, spindle speed, stepover, filter ratio, feedrate and kind of tool were identical. Any one had similar results or know why the old scallop program does better than the new one? Or maybe it was only his zig zag step verses my constant direction step? I appreciate your thoughts and comments.

Ok, I'm feeling stupid. I clicked the link and thought I installed it in the chooks folder but I'm not seeing a hole axis chook or the note pad. Are these in the chooks folder?.....stupidity resolved. thanks anyways.

Bruce, I don't know if it's related but when we first installed mr2 I had all kinds of problems. You can search some of the threads with a lot of us pulling our hair. My reseller finally had me do a total unistall, registry cleaner and then a stand alone install. Try what Collin said first, but if other parts of mastercam is having problems, too, you might search some of the older threads and see if you need to do anything more drastic. Since I did that, most of my mc issues have stopped except that it is soooo dang slowwwwwwwww compared to my previous versions.

I do what Hardmill says all the time. Yes, rickster, you do have to go in and change the direction of your chains for simple contour programs and then about 80% of the time you have to go back into your parameters and change the offset direction of your cutter. VERY, very important otherwise you'll be trashing your piece. Other than that, all drilling programs are fine, just hit regen, as well as all surface programs. Don't know about hst toolpaths. Never use them.

I really think they are assigned priority by the sales team. Forget the current customers, we want new suckers. stirring the pot, stirring, stirring....

I don't get to do any design here. But I still do a lot of surface creation, repair work from bad translations, prep for machining in mastercam, etc.. Once I get a file from my designers, mastercam has all the tools I need to make the part machinable.