Hello Jeff, I am sorry to hear of the bad news. Could you please let us know if the issue is showing up in Backplot and Verify. quote: It seems to work fine till it gets near the bottom of the cavity and then on a helical entry move it lows right into the walls as if there were no drive or check surfaces at all. Thanks, Mike

I would say that the safest thing is to use the Vericut as Colin mentioned. If you buy it that is. I am thinking that this is an Area Clearance toolpath. If yes and depending on your current situation, you may want to filter with arcs at a much looser tolerance, about 20% of stock left. You will still be able to Verify in Vericut to check for a gouge.

Just a thought. It may be due to the filtering. I didn't think of that one until now. Jeff, how is the filtering in the HST set up?

I would re-check as Millman said first. You may then want to try "finish only" This will at least allow you to slow in the corners. I have used it many times on HST with incident. I normally just use "finish only" to slow in the corners. Thanks

Hello Pete, quote: is there a set of steps which makes it suddenly stop working? I have not found any. Hopefully someone else has. Thanks, Mike

Good one Murlin, Thanks

Pete, re: X2 MR2 SP1 This issue just happened to me yesterday. It is very common and not file specific. The quick work around is to just exit the file and re-open. It will then work perfectly. If we send you a file, you will not be able to re-create as it will be a "fresh file". I do not have X3 yet so I can not comment on it. Thanks for help, Mike

Ray, I believe this is fine. The key is to check thread form, Major and PD. If those are good, you should be good. Mike

Takashi, I tried the Free Hand chook a long time back. I found it that it would be very nice for some people. It would not be practical for me as the version I was using would not respect the Z depth of the current TP. I would very happy to pay for it if this has been rectified. Please advise if you have a minute. Thanks

Mike, You may want to insure that the tool you are using is designed for OD threads. Here is a snip from the Scientific catalog / website: ---------------------------- How to Order Thread Mills Thread mills must completely enter the minor thread diameter before cutting the internal thread. (See figure 2) Thus our catalog lists the smallest internal thread that each thread mill can produce. The same thread mill can also produce any larger size thread of that same pitch. Also, for small sizes, it is best to use our short series with the reduced length of cut whenever possible. All of the straight flute thread mills are for internal threads only. All of the staggered tooth thread mills will cut both the internal and external threads. The helical thread mills over 0.187 diameter will also cut both internal and external threads. Staggered tooth thread mills have every other tooth removed in a staggered pattern; as the tool rotates the adjacent flute fills in for the tooth that was removed. This helps to reduce side cutting pressure, thus reducing chatter. This can be extremely beneficial in small external sizes and for set-ups that lack rigidity. Helical fluted thread mills are also designed to reduce side cutting pressure by distributing the cutting pressure along a helical flute. Although these tools cost slightly more, their high performance design allows for less chatter and higher feedrates. --------------------------- Mike

Hello ron123, If you hit the question mark in the Solid Properties dialog box, it will show you the help material for this function. ------------------ Note: The density calculation (based on the equation Mass = Volume * Density) works with any system of units, so that you can enter the Density using your base coordinate system's current units, English or metric. For example, if a length of 1 = 1 meter, then enter the density in kg/m3 to calculate the mass in kilograms. If the length is displayed in inches, then enter a density in lbs/in3 to calculate the mass in pounds. ----------------- Mike

Very nice Derek Mike

Neil, Another thing that comes in handy it to add an "Exact stop" IE: G61 / G9. It really depends on the machine weather this will help or not. If it is an older machine without "Look Ahead" as default then most likely it will. Mike

Bogus, I was using the shallow function. I just tried it again and could not get it to work. Maybe I am doing something wrong? Will play with it again later. Have you used the shallow funtion with other tplanes? Thanks

I tried to use that function a while back and found that it only works from system top(Top WCS). I couldn't find anything in the documentation that indicated this. Mike

IMO, you are going to still go nuts saving 200meg files with one 7200rpm drive. I would consider a 10K Raptor or a Raid setup with at least 7200's. Mike

Hello Steve, I believe that you must have closed contours for "Start Point" to work. The point must also lie on the surface. You may have tried this but just in case. Go to the Link tab and select "use entry macro" for the First Entry option. Go down to the Entry/Exit macro and select the appropriate entry curve/line. IE: if you just need a straight line, select "tangential line". Depending on what you are doing, you may also have to select "use entry macro" in other areas such as "Links between slice" Mike

This worked for me but it was a late model mpmaster. Link Mike

Planes > Rotate

The B axis issue was a problem for me also until I realized how easy it was to fix. I just comment out the "sav_rot_on_x = 0" line as shown below. I am not a post guru but this has always worked fine for me. ] #sav_rot_on_x = 0 # MWW<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< header = 0 ptoolend$ #End of tool path, before reading new tool data !speed, !spdir2 ptlchg1002$ #Call at actual toolchange, end last path here Mike

Another way is circ it with a 1-1/2deg em after drilling. Reamer is easiest but not always an option.

Jorges, Previous thread Mike

Heavy, I would try to reduce the tool tolerance from the default of .008" to .001"-.003". Also, make sure that the quality slider is all the way up. Mike

Dizzyhawk, This may help: http://www.emastercam.com/cgi-bin/ultimate...t=011351#000000 Mike

Although I have never done multiple groups, it always worked fine for me. It could be that you need to select "Disable duplicate tool checking". This one will cause an issue if you do not. Mike