What would you use for geometry?

This is my tool path using my many chain pita method. Tool path is ordered bottom up. Can't use thread mill because I can't ramp with that cutter, I have a feeling it would do bad things... Cutter enters on center and then leads into cut goes around then leads out changes depth up and repeats.

Can't snip anything from the part, but picture facing something from the back with your depth cuts working from the bottom up. But say you would do it by entering values like below

Long time no see folks, been buried under a pile of work, almost none of which has been programming related. I took a new job with a large company a while back and it took a while to get Mastercam purchased get posts developed (still working on that), and have time to whip up some test programs. All of my coding has been done by hand here to date, and it is time to start using CAM to optimize for tool life and reliability for some operations, as well as confidence that I don't have any stupid errors omitting features or some such issue. Anyway, I have a back facing operation that I have to prove out that requires a 10" slotting saw at a 12" projection. I have to work from the Z- to the Z+ with shallow depth cuts. I have played around trying to get it to do it, but can't for the life of me get it to work leading me to believe it can't be done in a conventional manner. I swear i did this before, but maybe it was a ramp which I know can be done. So to get around this for now I have just chained my paths at each depth and used an incremental value of zero to control the depth, but making changes to the depth cuts is slow and cumbersome and requires me to move and add chains as needed. Anyone have a faster way? Husker Currently Running X6 MU2 Mill Level 2

I brought this one up a while back. No dice. Best thing you can do is do the extra work to chain the corners separately by getting your parameters the way you want. then copying and pasting the operation and masking out the all but the one you want to hit, until you have hit them all. Sucks, and is a lot of work, but you can get good results and still use the rest mill function with stock associations back to the original operation. If you need to rest mill again, then you would use stock model and optirest in the same manner so that you can use the stock model as the stock. Husker

What I meant was his arc tolerance setting in the control. If it is greater than the distance between start and endpoint it will force the machine to do the other route. I have seen this before. I just love what I do. Good luck.

Probably has to do with your arc tolerance setting.

Ok figured it out. Couldn't stop until I got it.. Dock it on the right side, then shrink it using the left side of the window. Took about 30 full slides across the screen. Still confused how this happened. Husker

So my operations manager just went ultra wide when docked. I can't find the right side of it to reduce its size. Can't use a default toolbar state to get it back. I am stuck here. Don't want to run it undocked for a long time. Don't want to restart it. X6 MU1 Where can I manually change a value to get it back? Husker

I always use G325 with an H word. H is the tool number to check. Try that. For me it is always rapid. Husker

Not sure what you mean here? Around the edges? There are many things you can do to improve this. All take time, but once you get it right, I have found no better way to finish a mixed bag surface like that if you want to move right along with the tool. You will not bury it as long at it was roughed right. Husker

IMHO, finish scallop will do this faster than many of the other finishing toolpaths. I would use it, play with your stepover, and trim using a boundary as needed. Husker

James, I to you. This just made my day. I have accepted a new job, one machine at the moment with a 31i, foundations in for 5 more... This makes life soo soo much easier when constantly switching part numbers. Having used names instead of numbers (especially for offset subs) in a previous job with Mazaks I am o so excited to be able to do this with a Fanuc. Husker

What about your verify settings for stl tolerance, tool tolerance, and whatnot? Husker

Quality words Murlin, Quality words.

This is exactly what happened.... Not to mention this portion of the file was untouched from a previous revision...

Thanks for the support Looking like just north of 40 grand to get it fixed with a new spindle(+warranty) so we can put a rebuilt spindle on the shelf. I keep having to tell myself that the more I trust Mastercam to keep doing what it is designed to do, the more times I roll the dice. Usually, I get lucky if there is an issue, and happen to catch it. But this time I didn't... This is something that had I handed it off to a less experience operator, that they probably would have caught it. Me being the programmer is the least cautious when proving things out. If it looks like it is going to the right place, I check my Z to go and let it fly... But I know the flow of the program. I know what it is supposed to look like. I don't necessarily watch the code. yada yada yada. I just want the machine to be all fixed. Husker

Looks like you could use 2d Highspeed core mill followed by OptiRest. Or you could do a chain with Coutour then OptiRest using the previous operation as the rest material.

What is your tool diameter? It may not be as big as it actually looks, as it is creating an island there. Run it in verify and see what it looks like in that area. Another option is to use a vertical line in that area as an open entry chain and hog that area out to begin with to change up the approach. Husker

The new linking geo added into the old finishing toolpaths would make me salivate. The old paths seem much easier to get the result I am looking for. I find with say scallop that the HSM won't give me clean motion around the edges, but the old scallop pass will. Add the new linking to it and you wouldn't need the hsm.... I have found though in recent projects, that I can get the same output, but the lengths required to do so sometimes are insane... Changing system tolerances, regenerating display, converting solids to surfaces, creating cleaner boundary geo, and sometimes I get nothing better than what I had before doing any of the above... Husker

Yeah I suppose I could do that. Husker

I would send in the file, but I don't know if I have a version of it saved that has the missing NCI moves. Anyway the file is 100+ MB, so how would I send that in? I cannot post it on the FTP. Husker

This seems like a dynamic offset issue or rotation c/l location issue(used in macro offset calculator) . Something completely unrelated to the actual machine... Only thing that could be wrong with the machine would be a mechanical issue causing severe run-out in the rotary axis. I highly doubt that... Now the support that comes with the machines. That can be a whole other case. My experience with servicing a Mori is that it is horrendous. It is hard to come by documentation that actually applies 100% to your machine. That said we do not use outside help from our distributor to work on our machines and all of them are 10-15 years old. You can get just about any parts for them, but expect to pay an arm and leg plus your first second and third born children (better to get the wife working on another one)... Husker

Try a GOTO-# (negative number to search backwards) Husker

Thanks for this. Here is what I ended up doing. Works great. Posting the bad file without regenerating results in good code... I only have a few questions regarding some of the other stuff going on in here (X4 MPMASTER updated to X6, with some other mods of mine). What are the following and what mods to where they appear would you suggest? pccdia pcout Also, any thoughts on if this is sufficient? prapidout #Output to NC of linear movement - rapid sav_gcode = gcode$ if convert_rpd$ = one, [ gcode$ = one feed = maxfeedpm ipr_type = zero ] if zabs < prv_zabs, [ pcan1, pbld, n$, sgplane, `sgcode, [if gcode$ = 1, sgfeed], sgabsinc, pccdia, pxout, pyout, pcout, [if gcode$ = 1, `feed], strcantext, scoolant, e$ pbld, n$, `sgcode, sgabsinc, pccdia, pzout, pcout, strcantext, scoolant, e$ ] if zabs > prv_zabs, [ pcan1, pbld, n$, sgplane, `sgcode, [if gcode$ = 1, sgfeed], sgabsinc, pccdia, pzout, pcout, [if gcode$ = 1, `feed], strcantext, scoolant, e$ pbld, n$, `sgcode, sgabsinc, pccdia, pxout, pyout, pcout, strcantext, scoolant, e$ ] if zabs = prv_zabs, [ pcan1, pbld, n$, sgplane, `sgcode, [if gcode$ = 1, sgfeed], sgabsinc, pccdia, pxout, pyout, pcout, [if gcode$ = 1, `feed], strcantext, scoolant, e$ ] gcode$ = sav_gcode Husker