Mastercam X is far superior to Version 9. With the release of MR2 Mastercam has brought back the rest of the Hot Key functionality that was missing in the original release of X. It is faster, easier, has better toolpaths and better overall features than V9. I highly recommend that you invest in the latest version of Mastercam and some Training. Take some training classes from your local reseller, buy some training books (The Mastercam Handbook series by Charles Davis is exceptional!), or take a class at a local community college. Yes, there is a learning curve, but you will get over it. The other thing to consider is that Version 9 will no longer be supported soon with the creation of the Sunset program by CNC Software. Check on the offical Mastercam website for more information on the Sunset program.

Thanks,

Colin Gilchrist

IRC NC Programming

Mastercam Focal

The Boeing Company

Mastercam MR2 and Beta Tester

Hi Murlin,

Have you tried to run RAM Saver on any of the files that are crashing? This little utlity cleans up the graphics display database. We have used this option to repair files that seem to crash from graphics related issues. It takes a while to run on large file. Just grasping at straws here, good luck.

HTH,

Colin Gilchrist

The Boeing Company

Hi Josh,

I was just about to send in a request to be able to export the Tool List as a CSV file. I don't think that option is available currently. As a workaround I did an Impport/Export tools and saved the library as a text file. The data comes in with no formatting and looks really ugly. I then used the Mastercam X editor and did a find/replace and replaced all the spaces with another character. You will have to do a lot of text editing to clean up the data. Its a pain in the butt, but right now I don't see many other options unless you know how to write Word or Excell macros.

Thanks,

Colin Gilchrist

The Boeing Company

Can you put your file on the FTP site so one of us can take a look? I do manual entry to input comments all the time....

Colin Gilchrist

The Boeing Company

Hi Arenner,

You can use the STLHeal.dll Chook to clean up your STL files. Basically STL Heal is like a filter that will analyze your STL and rebuild it. You can give it a chordal tolerance (like .01) and really reduce the size and complexity of your file. I agree that it is a work around. If you would like to see more enhancement of the Rest roughing feature, then send an email to [email protected] as an enhancement request.

HTH,

Colin Gilchrist

Hi Steve,

It depends on what you are trying to accomplish. There is the ability to define standard forms and then have Prodrill create them automatically by just picking points on the screen. Very useful if you take the time to set up the libraries. Ask yourself "how much hole making do we do and how complex is it?" If you are a making molds, it could save you hours and hours depending on how complex the work is that you are doing. For us it works like a dream. Import your model, select the appropriate library and execute. All of the hole operations in a couple of seconds. Some adjusting of the toolpaths can be necessary sometimes but it is really powerful once you get used to it.

Thanks,

Colin Gilchrist

Arenner,

Try taking your STL model and using it to verify Op #1. Set your STL and Tool tolerance to .001 and turn your quality slider bar all the way up. Run your toolpath and when it is finished, use the Save STL file button to save a copy of your model after Op#1 has run. Call it "PART NAME- OP 1 Done.STL" or something like that. Now select the new STL file as the stock in your second operation. We use this work around all the time. We even do this using different WCS's. Sometimes it requires you to use STL Transform to move the model into position if you change the operations WCS. If I remember right it will save the model with the coordinates relative to the "system origin". That is why you need STL Transform sometimes.

HTH,

Colin Gilchrist

The Boeing Company

Also, remember to do your backplot in "run" mode not, "trace mode". I'm not sure if CNC fixed it yet, but I remember the geometry not saving if you were in trace mode.

Thanks,

Colin Gilchrist

The Boeing Company

sorry for the spelling guys, I got off on a tangent.

Hi Guys,

My reasons to not like Okuma have more to do with they way they implement Gcode and setup their machines than with the features the controls contain. I'm sure the control will give you good results once you learn how to use it, that goes without saying. I'm not sure if they still do things the same way, so if they have changed their ways, please enlighten me.

Its been a while and I haven't seen the new controls, but here are the features that I didn't like (for mills):

[*]Using G15 H#'s for fixture offsets (I like G54's because I like H to be used for height offsets, its less confusing for the operator who has to switch machines)

[*]Machine Home (0,0,0)- has the gage line of the spindle just above the bed of the machine. I like my machine home with the Z axis retracted in Z, not down on the table. Call me crazy. Try running around working on several different machines and then giving an MDI command of G30 X0.Y0.Z0. because you forgot. It happend to me.

[*]Basically Okuma did not implement EIA gcode the way *most* other 'fanuc style' machines do it. They may have changed recently, but when I ran a newer Okuma (2001ish) with an OSP 7000 control, they still used gcode as I mentioned above

I've worked in many different shops and probably used 30+ different types of controls. I know thats not a lot compared to some people, but most of those controls used or had the ability to use (think a Mazak running EIA code) fairly standard Gcode. I was in a shop in Seattle a few years back and of the 8 different types of contols there, only the Okuma used a different work offset/height offset arrangement.

If you work in an Okuma only shop then they are great. If you have a mix of machines I don't really care for them. It can lead to confusion for the operators. Please don't get me wrong guys, Okuma's are rugged, rigid, and dependable. I love the way they cut metal and operate with very little maintainence. I just don't care for they way they are set up and programed. To me this is Gcode:

[*]G0 rapid positioning

[*]G1 linear interpolation

[*]G2 circular/helical interpolation (clockwise)

[*]G3 circular/helical interpolation (counterclockwise)

[*]G4 dwell

[*]G10 coordinate system origin setting

[*]G17 XY-plane selection

[*]G18 XZ-plane selection

[*]G19 YZ-plane selection

[*]G20 inch system selection

[*]G21 millimeter system selection

[*]G28 return to home

[*]G30 return to secondary home

[*]G38.2 straight probe

[*]G40 cancel cutter radius compensation

[*]G41 start cutter radius compensation left

[*]G42 start cutter radius compensation right

[*]G43 tool length offset (plus)

[*]G49 cancel tool length offset

[*]G53 motion in machine coordinate system

[*]G54 use preset work coordinate system 1

[*]G55 use preset work coordinate system 2

[*]G56 use preset work coordinate system 3

[*]G57 use preset work coordinate system 4

[*]G58 use preset work coordinate system 5

[*]G59 use preset work coordinate system 6

[*]G61 set path control mode: exact path

[*]G61.1 set path control mode: exact stop

[*]G64 set path control mode: continuous

[*]G80 cancel motion mode (including any canned cycle)

[*]G81 canned cycle: drilling

[*]G82 canned cycle: drilling with dwell

[*]G83 canned cycle: peck drilling

[*]G84 canned cycle: right hand tapping

[*]G85 canned cycle: boring, no dwell, feed out

[*]G86 canned cycle: boring, spindle stop, rapid out

[*]G87 canned cycle: back boring

[*]G88 canned cycle: boring, spindle stop, manual out

[*]G89 canned cycle: boring, dwell, feed out

[*]G90 absolute distance mode

[*]G91 incremental distance mode

[*]G92 offset coordinate systems and set parameters

[*]G93 inverse time feed rate mode

[*]G94 units per minute feed rate mode

[*]G98 initial level return in canned cycles

[*]G99 R-point level return in canned cycles

Again this is just my opinion. I don't mean to step on anybody's toes, but Kyle was asking for advice.

BTW, Kyle, what G codes do the other machines in your shop use?

Thanks,

Colin Gilchrist

Thanks for the responses guys. I'm happy to help.

And to second Chuck, it is only available in MR2.

Colin

Hi Guys,

ProDrill is awesome but it takes a while to get all of your libraries set up. We have two seats currently but we are looking at picking up another 20 seats for the rest of our programmers. If you have any specific questions, feel free to email me.

Thanks,

Colin Gilchrist

The Boeing Company

I agree with you Terry. Good machine, terrible controls.

JM2C,

Colin Gilchrist

Hi Kyle,

Mazak is short for Yamazaki. A short quote from their website:

IMHO they are way better than Okuma.

Thanks,

Colin Gilchrist

Personally, I'm not a fan of the Okuma controls. I would go Mori or Mazak.

Just my 2 cents,

Colin Gilchrist

+1 on freezing.

Dry Ice works really well for this type of cutting. Store your parts in a styrofoam box with lots of broken up chunks of dry ice. About 30-60 minutes of freezing works pretty well. You want the rubber to be hard but not too brittle. Be careful and wear gloves when handling. I ususally buy mine at QFC. Lots of grocery stores carry it, the meat department should sell it. Sharp High Speed Steel cutters would also be to your advantage. The sharper the better. I have seen some single flute cutters out there for cutting rubber/plastic. We used them on an acrylic plaque we made ages ago. Check with any tool suppliers in your area, they may have some tricks too.

HTH,

Colin Gilchrist

The Boeing Company

Hi Guys,

I'd like to share the method that we use at work to avoid problems with Backup and Autosave. This setup will help minimize all of the problems that people have reported with Autosave.

The main reason we have developed this method of storing our files is system stability. 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.

Other people will have their own opinions on this issue, so feel free to give your method/advice on this matter.

I hope this helps,

Colin Gilchrist

IRC NC Programming

Mastercam Focal

The Boeing Company

www.boeing.com

----------------------------

Mastercam X MR2, Multi Axis, Solids, Prodrill

Dell 670, Dual 3.4 Xeons, 4GB RAM, Quadro FX 3450

ASCII STL files are about 4 times as large as a comparable binary file. If you are only using it inside Mastercam, go binary. If you need to output to another program, go ASCII.

-Colin Gilchrist

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STL_(file_format)

NOTE: you must put http://

in front of the en.wikipedia

I guess the forum has a problem with paraenthesis in an HTML tag.

I'm happy to help Kyle. This forum has saved my behind plenty of times. Mastercam has a pretty good explanation of the whole WCS/Construction Plane/Tool Plane scenario in the Help menu. The "Reference Guide" is also a good place to do some reading on learning how to use version X. Go to: Help - Reference Guide from the main menu. There are about 30 pages explaining the whole concept. It is really one of the most useful features in Mastercam these days. No more moving the geometry just to mill the bottom or side of your part. I can't tell you how many parts I scrapped in Mastercam versions 6, 7, and 8 because I made a mistake moving/rotating my geometry. Before coming to Boeing I used to teach Mastercam full time. I used the reference guide to learn X before X was officially released. Nothing like trying to learn and teach a new piece of software at the same time.

Take some time and read through the guide. You will learn so many new things about Mastercam.

Regards,

Colin Gilchrist

The Boeing Company

Hi Bob,

You could always build a cheap compressed air reservior out of 4" PVC pipe. Just get about 10 - 10' pieces and use two 90 deg. elbows to connect between the pieces in a zig zag pattern. I built a large reservior like that on the ceiling of my garage at home. A 4" PVC pipe 10' long will hold about 5 gallons of air. It takes a while for my little craftsman compressor to fill it up, but I have air for hours. Get the biggest PVC pipe and connections you can. Then your compressor won't have to kick in while your machine is running. That of course depends on how much air you are using...

HTH,

Colin Gilchrist

Hi Josh,

I really prefer to use the "use square point for tab location" check box. I got tired of the manual tab placement crapping out on me. Just put a "square" point over your contour anywhere you would like a tab. Then you just chain your geometry like normal, enable tabs, use square point for tab location, check the "settings" button (I like to set my tab location to midpoint), and presto! If you want to move a tab, just move the point and regen. We do very large parts with hundreds of tabs occasionally. It will save you lots of hair pulling.

Hope that helps,

Colin Gilchrist

IRC NC Programming

Mastercam Focal

The Boeing Company

BTW How is life across the water?

Kyle,

Also check your backplot. I have noticed that the coordinates that appear in the lower left hand corner of the screen are in relationship to the system origin. Not your current WCS. If you expand the backplot dialog box (press the double drop down arrow in the upper left corner) you will get a bunch of position/parameter information about each step in your toolpath. If you use the "forward step" button on the VCR menu it will show you the correct position relative to your current WCS/CPlane/Tplane. The only limitation to this is that is only works correctly with step. If you use run mode the coordinate locations don't refresh fast enough. Alternativly you could also run your program in Verify and turn on "verbose" mode which will display your cooordinates and Feed/Speed in the Ribbon Bar. Again you are going to want to step through the program...

Hope that helps,

Colin Gilchrist

The Boeing Company

What is the configuration of your machine?

Hi Terry,

Almost all 5 axis posts output drill cycles using X,Y,Z position moves with the head locked at an angle ( ex. A -37. C 132.). All of the 5 axis machines that I have seen do not use a canned cycle to do drilling. A canned cycle would require that only the Z axis would move. This is impossible with the head tilted.

This type of cycle may exist on a machine with a Table/Table rotary configuration, where all of the rotation is in the table, but I have never seen it on a gantry 5 axis.

As a side note, the X,Y,Z drilling output works great!

Hope that helps,

Colin Gilchrist

I assume you are vacuum forming plastic sheet into some sort of tray like part. That is the *typical* application for vacuum forming although there can be many others. Vacuum forming is accomplished by making a male (positive form) of the shape you wish to create inside the plastic. Let me give you a simple example.

Let's use a candy tray as an example. You want to take a flat sheet of plastic say 12" x 12" and form a tray that holds 9 pieces of candy. Basically when you are done you want a tray with 9 square pockets in a grid. You would create 9 positive bosses, probably square in shape, seperated by some distance say .500. These bosses would need to be tapered(usually around 5 degrees, but that depends on the depth of the draw and the thickness of the material) so that the vacuumed formed sheet would seperate from the form. You will also need very small air holes in the form if you need to suck the plastic down into recesses.

You can watch a very nice video on the web here:

MultiAxis.com

Cimtech Inc. (multiaxis.com) also sells vacuum forming machines as well. I highly recommend buying one, you DO NOT want to attempt to build your own. There are a lot of mechanical/electrical/temperature/timing issues that go into building one. Plus the UL seal of approval means you won't have the fire department hassling you. Here is a link to the machines:

Cimtech Inc. Vacuum forming machines

You can also reach Cimtech Inc. by phone at 253-922-8770. Ask for Steve Kidd the owner and tell him I sent you.

Good luck on your project. Vacuum forming is fun and fairly straight forward once you get the hang of it.

Thanks,

Colin Gilchrist