Welcome to eMastercam

September 14, 2006

Hi Rick,

Here is some info from a previous post of mine:

We recently completed some functional testing with Autosave/Backup and we have determined that Autosave can lead to file instablilty if you allow it to overwrite your current MCX file in some instances. Because of this we have implemented the following procedure:

Begin by opening Windows Explorer and create two new folders on your C: drive.

C:MCAUTOSAVE

and

C:MCBACKUP

Now open the System Configuration dialog box in Mastercam and select the Files Page.

In the MCX Backup Files section, activate the "Active" and "Use backup directory" check boxes. I leave my Max limit at 10, but you can select the number of backup files that you would like to be in your backup cycle.

In the "Data paths" list box, select the "Backup files (MCX)" path. Click on the file explorer browse button and navigate to the C:MCBACKUP folder that you created previously.

In the "Autosave" section of the Files Page, Activate the "Active" and the "Overwrite existing file name" check boxes. Make sure the other three check boxes are NOT ACTIVE.

I am making the this statement strongly because the "Save using active file name" and "Prompt before saving file" switches are the main culprits causing the Autosave feature to be unstable.

The last thing to do is double click in the "File name:" entry field. Double clicking selects the entire string. Now press backspace, then type:

C:MCAUTOSAVEAUTOSAVE.MCX

Save your configuration file and you are set.

Now every time Autosave kicks in it will overwrite the AUTOSAVE.MCX file. NOT your current part file. It will also overwrite the AUTOSAVE.MCX file silently, which means that your current part file (the one loaded in memory) will not be effected by the Autosave kicking in. You especially want to avoid Autosave kicking in while you are in the middle of generating a toolpath (0 kbyte file dump anyone?). The next time you have a crash in Mastercam, open the AUTOSAVE.MCX file and do a File, Save As to recover it.

Every time you press the save button, Mastercam will save your current part file and then will save a "Backup" copy of your file into the C:MCBACKUP folder. With each successive press of the save button a new incremented file will be saved (-100, -101, -102, ect.). Once in a while you will need to go and clean out the backup folder. I open the folder in windows explorer, sort by date modified and dump anything older than 2 weeks.

HTH,

Colin Gilchrist

The Boeing Company

MR2 and Beta test site

September 14, 2006

Oh ouch,

Do you enable the "Backup" feature in Mastercam? We have ours setup to keep 10 incremented backup copies of every file. The backup feature only kicks in when you press save though.

Colin Gilchrist

The Boeing Company

MR2 and Beta test site

September 14, 2006

Hi Guys,

This is mostly a question for CNC Software. I was wondering if there are any utilities available for tracking NetHASP license usage throughout the day. We would like a way to be able to see when our Peak usage occurs and which Modules in Mastercam are being used. We have 22 seats of Router Pro, 15 seats of Multiaxis and 22 seats of Solids. We would like to be able to track the daily usage of the Mastercam software licenses so we can make better purchasing decisions. I tried to contact Aladdin directly and that was a total failure. We can implement our own software solution if need be, but I was thinking that tracking Mastercam license usage would be benificial to other Mastercam customers as well.

Thank you,

Colin Gilchrist

The Boeing Company

MR2 and Beta test site

September 13, 2006

"windows x64 Professional"

This could be your issue. I know that Mastercam is not setup to run in Windows x64 operating system. You can get it to run, but it is unsupported by CNC software. Do yourself a favor and go buy Windows XP Pro (32 bit) edition. Someone else might know a trick or two, but because of the lack of drivers for the 64 bit operating system, I would switch back to a 32 bit OS. I did an install for a client of mine a while back and he had so many problems running Mastercam on the 64 bit windows that I wiped his hard drive and installed XP Pro 32 bit. That fixed all his issues.

HTH,

Colin Gilchrist

September 13, 2006

BTW,

I also rename the "Planes" button to "G54's/Plane".

Just a way to help everyone know where to look for that work offset number.....

September 13, 2006

Randy,

Glad you got the problem fixed.

Just for everyones information, you can enable/disable data entry fields in the toolpath dialog boxes by using the Control Definition for your machine.

Under the "Text" topic you will see several sub items. The last item in the list is "Router Path Parameters" ( or Mill, Lathe, Wire, depends on the machine def type).

In the "(your machine) Path Parameters" section you can enable/disable any of the data entry fields by placing a set of double quotation mark in the text entry field (""). This disables that data entry field in all of your toolpath dialog boxes. We do this to our Feedrate, Retract rate, Plunge rate, and spindle speed.

Why would we want to disable them you ask?

Because it prevents our programmers from changing those values. The values are imported from the Tool definitions in our tool library. So if a programmer uses our "T24" for example, the Feed, Plunge, Retract rate and Spindle speed are pre-set.

If we need to deviate from the standard speeds/feeds then we create a new tool and fill out the new information in the Tool Definition dialog box.

Not everyone will want to use this feature, but it is nice to have the ability to be able to when you need it.

You can also use these text entry fields in the Control Definition file to rename the labels on the data entry fields and buttons in your toolpath dialog boxes.

Why?

For example I rename the "Canned Text" button to "M Codes" because this is what I use that functionality for. "Canned Text" is not very intuitive for the new programmer (we have a few). You could (and I did in one of my classes once, just for fun!!!), rename a button to the "Chewbacca" button (Sorry I'm partial to Star Wars). You should have seen the look on my students faces when someone noticed that.

"What the heck is the Chewbacca button????"

I was LMAO.

The point is that you can enable/disable features and rename the titles of buttons and data entry fields by using the Control Definition file.

Happy coding,

Colin Gilchrist

The Boeing Company

MR2 and Beta test site

September 13, 2006

BTW,

What a great subject for this thread

"Colin"

That made my day.

September 13, 2006

Hi Rick,

The graphic for our setup sheets gets stored in this folder:

C:Temp

We create this graphic by doing a File - Print. We purchased a print driver that prints the graphics window to a file. We create our graphics as .cgm files because thats what our adobe pdf converter takes. You could probably use a .jpg instead if you only want to save the setup sheet as a Word doc but your VB programmer will need to change the code.

Other than the setup sheet graphic all of the information that you need to input into the setup sheet will be input using dialog boxes. When you select the 5axisdoc.vbs from the VB Script manager and press "run" it will open a dialog prompt box. You will be asked a series of questions that you will answer. That is the way it is supposed to work. I can try and help you answer specific questions as they come up, but I'm not very fluent at VB yet. You might get some good help in the Developers forum.

HTH,

Colin Gilchrist

The Boeing Company

MR2 and Beta test site

September 13, 2006

Whats up Rick?

September 12, 2006

Except that the "roll tool only between surfaces (solid faces)" is broken in MR2.

Just a warning because we have had this little bug bite us several times. It really is only a concern if you are using a Surface Contour toolpath.

+1 for using only drive surfaces. I only use check surfaces/containment boundaries if I need to "protect" an area on my part. The only current exception that I use, is with the previously mentioned Surface Contour operations. In MR2 you must use either Check surfaces or a Containment boundary to keep the tool from wrapping around the backside of your surfaces.

HTH,

Colin Gilchrist

The Boeing Company

MR2 and Beta test site

September 12, 2006

Mastercam is now a "Standard" programming software here at Boeing. Other software is still in a "maintainence" status, but Mastercam and Catia V4 and V5 are now the only new programming softwares that can be purchased.

Boeing conducted a test between Catia, Gibbscam, Esprit, and Mastercam. Mastercam won hands down for: Power, ease of use, capabilities (just try doing a 5 axis job in Catia...), and cost.

Mastercam was the clear winner. I costs less and does more. Auburn now has 40ish seats installed, Everett has 25 seats and there are more being added. I believe that Portland and Salt Lake City are also running Mastercam.

Thanks,

Colin Gilchrist

The Boeing Company

MR2 and Beta test site

September 11, 2006

Gosh, I'm so happy these days....

I've worked in shops with very difficult people before so I can relate, but the culture at Boeing doesn't really tolerate closed minds these days. People still have their quirks of course, but having a set of guidelines in place about behavior, set procedures for how things are supposed to be run, and having a good team attitude are the Norm at Boeing, not the execption....

Sometimes I do miss having total control over every aspect of programming a job, but after listening to everyone talk about their operator issues I'm going to shut my mouth and count my blessings....

Colin Gilchrist

The Boeing Company

MR2 and Beta test site

September 11, 2006

I'm glad I could help Henk. Creating a VB that builds a word document is a lot more work, but you get exactly the information you want in a custom format. It sounds like your requirements lean a little more to the X+ utilites. Do a search on the forum for "X+". The nice thing about Gunther's setup sheets is that you can customize the fields that you want to use from the operations. You can also configure several different styles of setup sheets and select the one you want from a list. You get options to create the setup sheets as HTML or Excell which is really nice. It also creates a graphic and loads it into the setup sheet automatically.

HTH,

Colin Gilchrist

The Boeing Company

MR2 and Beta test site

September 11, 2006

Maybe one of the other Yemenesse will come to the rescue.....

September 11, 2006

Do you have the "display Rapid moves" button turned on?

Colin Gilchrist

The Boeing Company

September 11, 2006

Hi Randy,

You should be able to select all of the arcs (200 holes) and extrude them using one extrude operation. Just be sure and click the "Combine Ops" check box. That will give you one extrude operation that cuts all the holes at once. After you extrude cut your holes into the solid, run the "NoHist.dll" Chook. This Chook removes the solids history tree and gives you a "brick" solid which should take up less memory. The main component of your computer that will bog it down is your graphics card. We work with large Mastercam part files every day. Typically 10-50 MB part files. With the NVidia FX3450 (256MB of RAM) our models pan, zoom, and rotate with no problems.

HTH,

Colin Gilchrist

The Boeing Company

MR2 and Beta test site

September 7, 2006

+1 Thad

Analyze Dynamic will let you analyze any surface or individual solid face. The dialog box that appears shows you MINIMUM radius of curvature and Angle from verticle. In version X you will also see that the angle from verticle will be positive for any wall that is tipped outward and negative for any surfaces that are undercut. Very nice feature to become familiar with.

HTH,

Colin Gilchrist

The Boeing Company

MR2 and Beta test site

September 7, 2006

Really good man, Life is sweet these days. Good to hear Combi is still kickin'. I've been checking back on the website occasionally to see what kind of stuff Combi is creating these days. Looks like the stock price is starting to come up too. Some fun for the forum members:

CombiMatrix

Colin

September 7, 2006

Hey Jeff,

How is life at Combi?

Try these guys, one of the tooling guys that I know down in Auburn recommended them:

diamod coating

HTH,

Colin Gilchrist

September 7, 2006

Hi Henk,

Our scripts do not read the .SET file. Our VB Script prompts the user with a series of dialog boxes and the user inputs the relative information. Then the VB Script builds a Word document by creating text boxes and filling in those boxes. Here is a modified version of our script. IT IS AN EXAMPLE ONLY! I just want to make that clear for everyone because it will not create a setup sheet if you just try and run it. If you take the time to learn a little VB it is a good starting point.

code:

'////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

'//

'// Description: setupsheet example only!!

'//

'// Comments: Makes a job setup sheet. Work in progress!

'//

'// Revisions:

'//

'////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

'///////////////// My Constants /////////////////

'///////////////// My Global Variables //////////

' -- Start Script

' ////////////////////

' Sub Declaration

' ////////////////////

Dim wordDoc

Dim i

'///////////////// My Constants /////////////////

Dim companyname

Dim Program

Dim HeaderName

Dim ToolList

Dim Description

Dim Post

Dim programmer

Dim notes

Dim Auth

Dim Sheet

Dim Rev

Dim Fixture

Dim Part

Dim nCount ' number of operations

Dim nToolNum ' tool number

Dim arrToolNumber() ' array of tool numbers

Dim arrToolComment() ' array of tool comments

Dim arrToolDiameter() ' array of tool diameters

Dim arrToolFluteLength() ' array of tool flute lengths

Dim arrToolLength() ' array of tool lengths

Dim idx

Dim toolcount

Dim strText

Dim Position

Dim FileName

Dim Path

Dim graphic

Dim stockx

Dim stocky

Dim stockz

Dim material

Dim saveworddoc

Dim lineY

Const wdTabLeaderSpaces = 0

Dim DateTimeFormat()

Const wdAlertsNone=0

Const wdWindowStateMaximize=1

Const wdLine=5

Const wdEnglishUS = 1033

Const wdCalendarWestern = 0

Const wdColorDarkRed=128

Const wdAlignParagraphCenter=1

Const msoTextOrientationHorizontal = 1

Const wdTextOrientationDownward = 3

Const msoFalse=0

Const DEF_SPACING_ONEANDAHALF=1

Const wdAlignTabRight = 2

Const wdAlignTabLeft=2

'///////////////// My Global Variables //////////

' -- Start Script

Call Main()

' ////////////////////

' Sub Declaration

' ////////////////////

Sub Main()

On Error Resume Next

'Filename = GetCurrentFileName()

Path = GetPathFromExtension("MCX")

ShowString("Setupdoc.vbs" & vbNewLine & "Graphic from c:temppart.jpg")

Filename = replace(ucase(GetCurrentFileName()),ucase(Path),"")

'HeaderName = GetGroupNameFromNumber(3)

HeaderName =Replace(ucase(Filename),".MCX","")

Post="MACHINE TYPE"

'Set objNetwork = CreateObject("WScript.Network")

'strUserName = objNetwork.UserName

'Do 'ask until a real programmer name is input

'programmer=AskString("programmer?")

'Loop While programmer="programmer?" Or programmer="" Or programmer="((ESC))"

If askYesNo ("Setup Style 1?")=mcMSG_YES Then

Auth = "Style1"

Sheet = "SHT" & Ucase( AskString("Sheet?"))

Rev = " REV" & Ucase(AskString("Revision Level?"))

Else

If askYesNo ("Style2?")=mcMSG_YES Then

Auth = "Style2"

Sheet = ""

Rev = "REV " & Ucase(AskString("Revision Level?"))

Else

Auth = ""

Sheet = ""

Rev = ""

End If

'notes=AskString("Notes") 'better a blank line than seeing Notes: notes

' If notes="Notes" Or notes="" Then

notes=""

' End If

'check and get material

material=GetJobSetupMaterial()

ShowString "mat ", material

If material="NONE" Or material = "" Then

Fixture=AskString("Fixture?")

Part =AskString("Part?")

material = Fixture & " /Part:" & Part

End If

' get the number of operations

nCount = GetOperationCount("")

If nCount = 0 Then ShowString "No operations found in current drawing": Exit Sub

For idx = 1 To nCount

' get the tool number using the current operation

nToolNum = GetToolNumberFromOperationID("", idx)

ReDim Preserve arrToolNumber(idx)

ReDim Preserve arrToolComment(idx)

ReDim Preserve arrToolDiameter(idx)

ReDim Preserve arrToolFluteLength(idx)

ReDim Preserve arrToolLength(idx)

' copy tool data into our individual arrays

arrToolNumber(idx) = nToolNum

arrToolComment(idx) = GetToolComment(nToolNum)

arrToolDiameter(idx) = GetToolDiameter(nToolNum)

arrToolFluteLength(idx) = GetToolFluteLength(nToolNum)

arrToolLength(idx) = GetToolLength(nToolNum)

Set wordDoc=CreateObject("Word.Application")

wordDoc.Documents.Add

programmer = wordDoc.UserName

With wordDoc

.Visible=True

.WindowState=wdWindowStateMaximize

.DisplayAlerts=wdAlertsNone

.Selection.PageSetup.Orientation = 1

.Selection.Styles(-1).Font.Name="courier new"

.Selection.Font.Name="courier new"

'Sets Margins

.Selection.PageSetup.LeftMargin = .InchesToPoints(0.5) 'start of margin setting macro

.Selection.PageSetup.RightMargin = .InchesToPoints(0.5)

.Selection.PageSetup.TopMargin = .InchesToPoints(0.5)

.ActiveWindow.ActivePane.VerticalPercentScrolled = 20

.Selection.PageSetup.BottomMargin = .InchesToPoints(0.5) 'end of margin setting macro

'Puts "Program Info" top center

'.Selection.Font.Bold=True

'.Selection.Font.Size=36

'.Selection.ParagraphFormat.Alignment=wdAlignParagraphLeft

'.Selection.Font.Name="Courier"

'

''.Selection.Font.Color =wdColorDarkRed 'Running low on red ink!

'.Selection.TypeText Program '"PROGRAM INFO"

'.Selection.ParagraphFormat.Alignment=wdAlignParagraphRight

'.Selection.TypeText "FWC:" & Post '"PROGRAM INFO"

'.Selection.TypeText vbNewLine

'Puts program number in box, top of document

.ActiveDocument.Shapes.AddTextbox(msoTextOrientationHorizontal, 20, 20, 520, 42).Select

.Selection.ShapeRange.TextFrame.TextRange.Select

.Selection.Collapse

.Selection.ShapeRange.Line.Visible = msoTrue

.Selection.ShapeRange.Select

'.Selection.ShapeRange.IncrementLeft 36 ' -- Removed # not valid in VBS mag

'.Selection.ShapeRange.IncrementTop -18

.Selection.Font.Size = 32

.Selection.Font.Bold = False

.Selection.TypeText HeaderName & " Setup Sheet " & Post

.ActiveDocument.Shapes.AddTextbox(msoTextOrientationHorizontal, 540, 20, 230, 42).Select

.Selection.ShapeRange.TextFrame.TextRange.Select 'First box header info goes this section

.Selection.Collapse

.Selection.ShapeRange.Line.Visible = msoTrue

.ActiveDocument.Paragraphs.TabStops.ClearAll

.Selection.ParagraphFormat.TabStops.Add .InchesToPoints(1.6)

.Selection.Font.Size = 36

.Selection.Font.Bold=False

'.Selection.TypeText "Date:" &vbTab 'Description

.Selection.Font.Bold=False

.Selection.InsertDateTime "M/D/YY", False, False, wdEnglishUS, wdCalendarWestern 'get the date

.Selection.TypeText vbNewLine

'Puts program number in sideways box, right side

'.ActiveDocument.Shapes.AddTextbox(msoTextOrientationHorizontal, 675, 100, 45, 800).Select 'start of macro code

'.Selection.ShapeRange.TextFrame.TextRange.Select

'.Selection.Collapse

'.Selection.ShapeRange.Line.Visible = msoFalse

'.Selection.ShapeRange.Select

'.Selection.ShapeRange.IncrementLeft 36 ' -- Removed # not valid in VBS mag

'.Selection.ShapeRange.IncrementTop -18

'.Selection.Orientation = wdTextOrientationDownward

'.Selection.Font.Size = 24

'.Selection.TypeText Program & " FWC: " & Post

'Print out notes

.ActiveDocument.Shapes.AddTextbox(msoTextOrientationHorizontal, 20,62, 520, 68).Select

.Selection.ShapeRange.TextFrame.TextRange.Select

.Selection.Collapse

.Selection.ShapeRange.Line.Visible = msoFalse

.Selection.Font.Size = 18

.Selection.Font.Bold=False

.Selection.TypeText "NOTES: "

.Selection.Font.Bold=False

.Selection.TypeText Ucase(notes)

'puts out tool list

.ActiveDocument.Shapes.AddTextbox(msoTextOrientationHorizontal, 675, 150, 90, 200).Select

.Selection.ShapeRange.Line.Visible = msoTrue

.Selection.Font.Bold=False

.Selection.Font.Size = 18

toolcount=1 'prints first tool

strText="T"&arrToolNumber(1) '& vbTab & _

.Selection.Font.Bold=False

.Selection.TypeText "TOOLS" & vbNewLine & "=====" & vbNewLine

.Selection.TypeText strText & vbNewLine

ToolList = ToolList & " " & strText

For idx=1 To nCount

strText = "T"&arrToolNumber(idx)'& vbTab & _

If instr(ToolList,strText) = 0 Then

.Selection.TypeText strText & vbNewLine

ToolList = ToolList & " " & strText

End If

.ActiveDocument.Shapes.AddTextbox(msoTextOrientationHorizontal, 20,150, 650, 35).Select

.Selection.ShapeRange.TextFrame.TextRange.Select

.Selection.Collapse

.Selection.ShapeRange.Select

.Selection.ShapeRange.Line.Visible = msoTrue

.Selection.Font.Size=24

.Selection.Font.Bold=False

.Selection.TypeText

.Selection.TypeText Ucase(material)

'Misc. Info

.ActiveDocument.Shapes.AddTextbox(msoTextOrientationHorizontal, 540,62,230,20).Select

.Selection.ShapeRange.TextFrame.TextRange.Select

.Selection.Collapse

.Selection.ShapeRange.Select

.Selection.ShapeRange.Line.Visible = msoTrue

.Selection.Font.Size=12

.Selection.Font.Bold=False

.Selection.TypeText "AUTH: " & Auth

.ActiveDocument.Shapes.AddTextbox(msoTextOrientationHorizontal, 540,82,230,20).Select

.Selection.ShapeRange.TextFrame.TextRange.Select

.Selection.Collapse

.Selection.ShapeRange.Select

.Selection.ShapeRange.Line.Visible = msoTrue

.Selection.Font.Size=12

.Selection.Font.Bold=False

.Selection.TypeText Sheet & Rev

.ActiveDocument.Shapes.AddTextbox(msoTextOrientationHorizontal, 540,102,230,20).Select

.Selection.ShapeRange.TextFrame.TextRange.Select

.Selection.Collapse

.Selection.ShapeRange.Select

.Selection.ShapeRange.Line.Visible = msoTrue

.Selection.Font.Size=12

.Selection.Font.Bold=False

.Selection.TypeText "BY: " & Ucase(Programmer)

.ActiveDocument.Shapes.AddTextbox(msoTextOrientationHorizontal, 540, 122, 230, 20).Select

.Selection.ShapeRange.TextFrame.TextRange.Select

.Selection.Collapse

.Selection.ShapeRange.Select

.Selection.ShapeRange.Line.Visible = msoTrue

.Selection.Font.Size=12

.Selection.Font.Bold=False

.Selection.TypeText "MANUFACTURING REFERENCE ONLY"

'Load Graphic into textbox

'graphic= Replace(LCase(GetCurrentFileName), ".mcx", ".emf") '"J:datatetest.emf"

'Load Graphic into textbox

graphic="c:temppart.jpg"

'DoMetafile graphic

.Selection.ShapeRange.SelectThe

.ActiveDocument.Shapes.AddTextbox(msoTextOrientationHorizontal, 20,190, 650, 420).Select

.Selection.ShapeRange.TextFrame.TextRange.Select

.Selection.Collapse

.Selection.ShapeRange.Line.Visible = msoFalse

.Selection.InlineShapes.AddPicture "c:temppart.jpg"

'save word document to same directory as MC file

'saveworddoc= Replace(LCase(GetCurrentFileName()),".mcx",".doc")

saveworddoc = path & "NC51-" & Ucase(HeaderName) & ".doc"

'ShowString(saveworddoc)

.ActiveDocument.SaveAs saveworddoc

End With 'end output to word

If Not wordDoc Is Nothing Then Set wordDoc = Nothing

ShowString "Setup Sheet Finished"&vbNewLine&"file saved as "&saveworddoc

End Sub

' Writes tool list to word

Public Sub WriteToWord(strOutText)

Dim wordCounts

With wordDoc

.Selection.MoveDown wdLine, .ActiveDocument.Words.Count

.Selection.TypeParagraph

.Selection.TypeText strOutText

End With

End Sub

Public Sub PlyLine(yVal,strOutText)

With wordDoc

.ActiveDocument.Shapes.AddLine(510.0,yVal,580.0,yVal).Select

.ActiveDocument.Shapes.AddTextbox(msoTextOrientationHorizontal, 590,(yVal-15),200,20).Select

.Selection.ShapeRange.TextFrame.TextRange.Select

.Selection.Collapse

.Selection.ShapeRange.Select

.Selection.ShapeRange.Line.Visible = msoFalse

.Selection.Font.Size=12

.Selection.Font.Bold=False

.Selection.TypeText strOutText

End With

End Sub

Public Sub CoreSketch(yVal,strCoreText,strFoamText)

With wordDoc

.ActiveDocument.Shapes.AddLine(510.0,yVal,510.0,yVal+40).Select

.ActiveDocument.Shapes.AddLine(515.0,yVal+10,515.0,yVal+30).Select

.ActiveDocument.Shapes.AddLine(520.0,yVal,520.0,yVal+40).Select

.ActiveDocument.Shapes.AddLine(525.0,yVal+10,525.0,yVal+30).Select

.ActiveDocument.Shapes.AddLine(530.0,yVal,530.0,yVal+40).Select

.ActiveDocument.Shapes.AddLine(535.0,yVal+10,535.0,yVal+30).Select

.ActiveDocument.Shapes.AddLine(540.0,yVal,540.0,yVal+40).Select

.ActiveDocument.Shapes.AddTextbox(msoTextOrientationHorizontal, 550,(yVal),240,20).Select

.Selection.ShapeRange.TextFrame.TextRange.Select

.Selection.Collapse

.Selection.ShapeRange.Select

.Selection.ShapeRange.Line.Visible = msoFalse

.Selection.Font.Size=12

.Selection.Font.Bold=False

.Selection.TypeText "CORE " & strCoreText

If strFoamText <> "" Then

.ActiveDocument.Shapes.AddTextbox(msoTextOrientationHorizontal, 550,(yVal+20),240,20).Select

.Selection.ShapeRange.TextFrame.TextRange.Select

.Selection.Collapse

.Selection.ShapeRange.Select

.Selection.ShapeRange.Line.Visible = msoFalse

.Selection.Font.Size=12

.Selection.Font.Bold=False

.Selection.TypeText "FOAM " & strFoamText

End If

End With

End Sub

Hope that helps guys,

Colin Gilchrist

The Boeing Company

September 5, 2006

Hi Kyle,

You would have to create a custom tool profile that includes the cutter and holder body for each tool. Lots of work, but it is always nice to see your tools as they exist in the real world. The problem with this as you may have guessed is that you will have to create/edit the tool's custom profile every time you want to change something. Sorry there is no easy answer.

Thanks,

Colin Gilchrist

The Boeing Company

MR2 and Beta test site

September 5, 2006

John,

We see system instablilty like this quite often here at work. Try running RAM Saver when you encounter the problem. If that doesn't fix it then you will have to restart Mastercam. That is our basic test to see if there is really a bug or not. If the problem still appears after a restart of Mastercam then you know its repeatable.

CNC Software is still fairly new to the Windows world. We have noticed some problems with the "Standard Selection" feature in Mastercam. Some of our programmers will be tooling right along in Mastercam and then all of a sudden none of the entities on the screen will auto-highlight. The solution is almost always to restart Mastercam. I have also seen RAM saver fix some of the problems. I tell all of our programmers to save and restart Mastercam about once an hour. Its a small price to pay for the system stability you gain.

HTH,

Colin Gilchrist

The Boeing Company

MR2 and Beta test site

September 5, 2006

Do or Do not, there is no phase.....

August 31, 2006

I would bet that it is the File Permissions. You need to enable Full Access to all users for the entire Mcamx folder.

Colin Gilchrist

The Boeing Company

August 31, 2006

Hi Guys,

Do either of you know of a good book to get started with learning "C"? I'm learning a little Visual Basic right now and I'd like to switch over to C and C++ so I can start really writing Chooks in Mastercam X. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Colin Gilchrist

The Boeing Company

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