Tim, quote: but the only thing that'll make it work is to shut down mastercam and turn it back on Yea, ramsaver does not always work. I also shut down and restart most of the time.(I have a bad memory somtimes.) Mike

Tim, I have that issue in X2MR2 SP1 once in a while also. I either run Ram Saver or exit and re-open like you. Mike

Hello Mike, Have a look at the mpmaster post. Hit the post tab on this website. It is setup to retract home automatically. In-House has done a fine job on this post and I believe that you will like it. Mike

quote: It would be nice if there was a way to regulate how much outside of the containment boundry I with you but unfortunately there is not. Mike

Trim will usually work for that. Trim the toolpath to a rectangle that is the radius of the end mill + a little larger per side. Mike

What type of toolpath is it? Mike

Robert, After thinking about it some more. I do remember having this issue but it was several years /versions ago. I vaugely remember what I did. It was one of the ops that was causing it. Verify portions and you may find the op causing the issue. IE: Verify ops 1-20, if that is good do 1-50 and so on. You will then zero in on the paticular op. At this point you may be able to fix/recreate as needed. Mike

Robert, I wonder if filtering will help work around this issue? I have not had this problem yet so this is just a guess. Mike

This seems to happen to me when I am referencing solids in my toolpaths and I have many machine groups. The worst time it ever did it was when I had several Mastercam solids and I was also using them in ops like HST etc. After trying everything else, I deleted the Solid History and Created Surfaces. I then cut Surfaces instead of Solids and it immediatly went away. This is just like the old "op go dirty issue" except now it crashes instead of the ops going dirty. Next time, I will try as John said. Thanks John. Mike

BTW, You can filter to get the arcs on the Toolpath. IE: set linearization to .0001 and (Create arcs) Filter to .0005

You can usually get a good finish by tightening up the Linearization tolerance very tight or just use "Break many" to create arcs. Mike

There are many ways to do this. You may want to grab a book. Hit the books tab on this site and look for the 5ax books. To name a few, you can use axis sub, 4ax Rotary, Msurf 5ax and also the Advanced Multiaxis toolpaths. It all depends what you want and the part configuration. Mike

Fred sent me an email so here is the deal. You can do this many many different ways. The easiest and quickest being Gap control. If you do not want the tool to dive in the hole, just remove the boundary from the surface at the floor of the cbore and check it with a small amount of stock. I also Netted and Cooned up the hole. This is more work than neccesary and also one more thing, if there is a tangency issue with the new surface the part will not be machined completely. This would be rare though. I deleted most of the part so the file is now very small. It would be good for all if you through this image and file up. You will most likely find other ways also. Mike

You should be able to Net or coons it up.

Can you put the file or at least an image up.

Have a look at "Remove Boundry from Trimmed Surface". Sometimes gap control will also handle it fine if you are just trying to machine it. Mike

This one is killing me today! I can program for 50 hours sometimes and this will never happen. Today it happening every 5-10 minutes even after trying the stuff above. It will also leave the Temp directory full of stuff. At this time( after crash), it has 50 files in it. It is certainly file specific. Charlie, Jim how is it going for you? X2MR2 SP1 L3+solids Mike

Check out the Benchmark thread

Ken, This is a wierd one. The only way this will happen for me is if the "point" "AutoCursor override" is enabled. I am wondering if the rest of the install is working correctly, mainly the other dimensioning tools. Mike

Hello, re: X2MR2 SP1 If I export my tool library to text and then create library from text, it adds a space at the beginning of the "Tool name", Manufacturer's tool code" and "Chuck" fields. This has happened to be before in earlier versions also. Has anyone else noticed this. I wonder if there is a reason for this? or a fix? Does anyone worry about this or is it just me? Thanks in advance for help in this matter. edit: I just noticed that it keeps adding spaces every time you do this. This an issue. Mike

quote: What do you do in a situation where you are slotting and then profiling with the same tool? I notice that if you change your speeds and feeds for that operation, if you accidentally click on the tool again in that operation it resets your feed rates back to what the tool is. Is there a way to lock them in or do you just have to take care not to click on the tool once the operation is open? At this time, the only thing you can really do is Lock the cut( select cut and hit L). I will always put a note on the cut like: ****XY feed 25**. This way I know the feed has been overridden. In older versions of Mastercam, I would also go in the tool and put the slowest feed that was used on the tool for some extra safety. In the recent versions, this causes it to change all the cuts so they all go dirty. I was hoping that the "User Defined" feed calc method was going to fix this issue but it never panned out for me. I was hoping for a function that would disconnect any type of feed calc. This would be kind of cool as you could just select this function when the job was completed. This way you could play with feeds and speeds and not worry about this issue. The big issue with "User Defined" is that it inputs the default "User Defined" feeds and speeds on every new cut. It must just be for Router or Wire People as I do not see a use for it in Mill. Mastercam works pretty good the way it is, you just have to get used to it. Mike

quote: What do you do in the case where the same end mill with the same loc in the same material would have a different feed for slotting rather than side milling or finishing? All you can really do is have the slotting feeds and speeds in the library. I use a main library for all my standard tools. This is large but it covers me for most of the apps. I also do as many others have mentioned and have seperate libraries with specific tools for specific materials with their respective Speeds and Feeds. Mike

I use "from tool" as I feel that this gives the most flexibility. I always have the material and tools setup so that they will work "from material" though. Since I figure that I am usually going to have a look at the tool data anyways, I just select the "Calc. Speed/Feed" button when I am there. This way, all of your drill type tools are most always correct and you will sometimes only have to make an adjustment or two on milling tools. I used "from material" exclusively for about 2 years in the beginning and found that it seemed too confusing for other programmers to deal with. So I figure that both ways are correct but "From Tool" gives you the best of both worlds. Mike

Brian, I just have it set that way in the hopes that it may says a few seconds on larger stuff. Mike

Home built 4min 56sec 4min 50sec (av off) Abit IP35 Pro Motherboard Intel Dual Core E6750 2.66Ghz OC 3.71Ghz(464x8) 4GB DDR2-1000 G.Skill ram set at 1:1 4ea 250GB 7200RPM sata 2 drives Raid 10 3ware 9650SE-4LPML PCI-E raid card Quadro FX1400 XPPro 32bit Memory buffering in MC set to 75% This is a lower cost system with some used parts so I do not have an exact cost. The MB, CPU and ram combo was about $485+tax. I would say the raid card is working fine but it would be faster if I striped all 4 HD's or ran Raptors. I just have bad luck with crashed HD's these days which is why the Raid 10. Mike