Yeah I reccomend it too, but there is a price tag. Some are afraid of change and spending lots of money.

I have been out of mill for awhile, and only using lathe now. I think my shop could use mastercam mill for programming. My question is, let's say i make a 3 inch square. I extrude it as a solid z-3.0 inches. I apply a draft angle of 10 degrees to the solid extrusion. I want to cut around this solid from z 0 to z -3. in a continuous ramp of .250 from starting point at one corner, back to itself. Is this a toolpath that is easily created. Right now I manually draw a ramp contour in mastercam design, and export the point data and punch it into a hurco. It is quite time consuming to say the least. I need to collect all the usable data I can to convince a purchase would save time. Thanks for any that reply.

Sure you can edit the code in the toolpath editor, it is just a pain to have to redo it if you want any changes. It was an idea that i thoght would be possible to implement. I'm sure everyones problems could be solved if they hand wrote their own code. Thanks for the suggestion though for those that don't know about the toolpath editor.

The ability to have a different feedrate for the overlap in roughing. Usually running up the wall with an 80 deg, 3 deg relief angle tool makes stringy chips. On top of that it can run faster in that area and not have a problem. Its at the end of a cut when it moves up the length of the cut, and then leads out. I manually change them now, and on long runs of parts it saves me a little time.

When they come up with a good story for why the lathe users are totally ignored in every release.

How about a pecking cycle in od turning. I think I've read Mazak offers a chipbreaking cycle on their machines. It would just be an option in the roughing (turning) cycle that allows you to specify the machine to stop and back off slightly or dwell at whatever value you give it. It would be alot of code, but there are just some materials that the chip just won't break.

So would the current mastercam run faster on a single core 3ghz system, or a quad core 3ghz system?

So mastercam takes advantage of all cores? There is something wrong with our computer because it maxes out at 25% load.

It's probably the quad core. If you watch the processor usage in task manager, you will see it most likely only uses one core of the processor. The best computer for mastercam is probably an older one. Stay away from new technology.

Make an option in facing to face in the Z- direction instead of only X. We do many "family of parts" on the same size casting and usually there is a good amount of stock to come off the faces. These parts are 15" dia and up thin wall castings. We can't chuck on very much and chucking pressure must be low. Currently I have to do a OD roughing operation to get it to face this way. The only thing is Mastercam gets confused ever since X2 was released. The OD works fine, but if there is a tool overlap issue with the ID, it just blanks and cuts nothing. I would just like to be able to face to 0 in the z direction to save lots of time.

What about just analyzing the contours and selecting all of the points? It will put XY locations in your text editor. Under the Analyze menu.

Well, if I am thinking right, you need to check the peck checkbox, but also the button that lets you select parameters. You should be able to adjust retract and plunge in there.

What is bad about IPT? It is much easier on the tools than a programmer just punching in what IPM they think is good for the tool. I don't program mills anymore, only the lathe, but if I would have known about posting sfpm and ipt i would have definitely done that. I for the most part used the manufacturers recommended IPT and SFPM and calculated rpm and ipm. I second a comment about the mazak. It was great on that machine as you could always see what ipt you were running. Sure were going to push it faster than recommended alot of times. I exceeded recommendation quite a bit. I don't know where I'm going with all of this. I just wanted to hear the reasoning for calling IPT a bad idea.

In this case, I would program it as the faster speed, and manualy slow down the full width pass other than the other way around. Another thought... Do you have any 35 or 55 degree turning tools? If so, can you rough it out with them and then use stock bondary knowledge and have the grooving tool finish the left over. Ju st a thought anyways.

Ok, thanks Bob. I'll try that. And if I can reproduce one Todd, I'll send it over to you. Any idea so far, Bob, on the issue with roughing a face in the z direction(OD rough toolpath), selecting the face geometry and then having it overlap the bores diamters. Hard to explain without a file I guess. I'll try to post one if I remember to bring a file home on my jumpdrive thing.

Yeah. Right side of the part usually past z 0.0 by the amount that is coming off. Top plane, in the D+ Z- configuration. I wish I could find the pattern as to what types of geometry cause problems. Most times it has been profiles with radiused corners.

I'll post the next file with geometry that doesn't work as per your example. There have been about three occasions in the last couple days that I picked the stock profile I wanted to use, and the outline of the area it has defined as stock has shifted in the X axis and is also mirrored in the X axis. If I remove a few radii, or change my stock geometry a little and rechain, it lays right overtop the geometry I've changed. All I have done to get this to happen is select geometry. I haven't changed settings as far as where it should conisder the stock located. How much stock chaining have you done in lathe since mr1 came out Gcode? I have to assume someone else would see this eventually if they do more complex geometry for stock than a rectangle.

Hey everybody, I read directions, and I know how to use the help file. I didn't see anywhere in either, a section that said you can't chain 1/3 of what you could in X2. I'm chaining simple geometry, and occasionally it does not understand it. I realize no one uses the lathe package except for a select few people, or at least it seems. I noticed the same thing working at my previous shop and using the engraving package. Things didn't work and no one knew about it. Maybe since I can't read the help file, could someone explain to me the acceptable 2d profiles I can use for stock definition, and what limitations there are to the changed roughing toolpaths and stock definition? Todd, if you could tomorrow, can you call me to explain the new stock definition, and walk me through how to make the software run the same toolpaths in did before the MR1 release? I'm at FM now.

I did look at that. I don't have access to any of that stuff from home. I believe I read and understand how the new stuff works, its just not consistant. If anyone knows of a place I could read the whats new .doc tonight, I'll take a look at it.

Has anyone had any issues with not being able to use some geometry as stock? I've had quite a few times where I try to select a chain. It shows the stock model, but its usually mirrored on the y axis. It usually has to do with having radiused corners on the geometry. In Sp1, I could select any on screen geometry that was in the form of a complete chain for my stock. Now I find myself modifying the geometry so it works correctly. It doesn't happen on every radiused corner profile so I haven't figured out exactly why it does. Also another issue that I have discussed with my reseller is an issue with certain toolpaths. Many of the parts at our shop are big in diameter (16") about 10"-12" long, with a 1 inch wall thickness on the diameter. Sometimes we have to face of 2-3" of material off the end of the tubing. In the past we have used a OD roughing techinique, and selected the 0 face as part of the OD geometry. This causes it to take the face off in the Z- direction instead of facing from the outside to inside in x-. We can still accomplish this first step in Mr1, however, when trying to program the subsequent boring operation, the roughing toolpath doesn't cut it. We chain the geometry in the id as we have done in the past and have it "use stock for outer boundary." When it processes, it does nothing on the toolpath. The screen kind of flashes like it does when its processing and no toolpath lines are created. It rendered many of our tabulated drawing part programs useless because we now have to reprogram those in the x- direction to get the stock off the faces. We like to keep most of the cutting pressures against the chuck to prevent parts from pulling out. We have to use lighter chucking pressures to maintain roundness. Can anyone else recreate this as our reseller did? I've heard that there will be no updates to mr1 until the next release of mastercam. If this is true, did our company pay for maintanance for no reason? If functionality has been taken out of the software in a MR, and we can't use it anymore, what did we pay for? Also, and I'm not sure if this is already in place, When I select a chain for a toolpath, is there anyway I can get the box that shows my chains to come up initially before I go to the toolpath parameters? Sometimes when finishing a face elsewhere on the profile of my part, I'd like to be able to "change side" on the chain. Many times it picks the wrong side of the geometry and I have no knowledge of it until I am done setting my "doc" and speeds, and apply the toolpath. Then I get lots of errors because the tool in plunging in on the backside of the material. Thanks. It's late, and I'm sleepy. Jeremy

Is it possible that the tool tip you are using can't go to the depth you programmed at some points on the geometry? Or is this not the issue? I may be missing it.

Lathe stock recognition does not work if you dont have the perfect geometry its looking for. I'm not talking about errors in yur geometry. There is something way different about stock recognition in mr1. Not just the interface, mostly the fact that the lathe package can't really be used to the extent that plain sp1 was. I have contacted my reseller and they have relayed the defect to Cnc Software. I was told they most likely wont be releasing any more updates until X3. Sucks if you pay for maintanance, and dont get to use the release becuase it wasn't fully tested on the lathe side. I have to go back to sp1 because I can't do any of the parts now in the way I used to because the functionality is broken. I don't want to sound like a complainer, but we all get excited for the well tested long awaited release. No fun if you can't use it.

What about a G76 canned cycle? Oh but you said tapping. Does G32 work on your okuma? Our okuma has a fanuc control.

oh, also take advantage of the pecking. It posts out a long bit of code, but it saves you from having to pull chips out of your groove during the cycle. It's under groove rough parameters in the lower left corner. Again this is for a chained groove.

There is a box that you put an overlap in for the groove finish toolpath. It shows cut one, and you drag the outline of the tool to the position you want. Then cut two, and you drag it until you see the two cuts overlap. You use the same geometry you intialy chained. It may only give you that option if you select chain as the method of defining your groove. Look in the lower middle section of groove finish parameters, and click select overlap