I have used both methods mentioned in this lengthy posting. I like the idea of automatic corner fillets (one click away) but many times have also drawn in the mean of the standard radius needed. Some thoughts: 1. If you draw in some 1000 R.01 corner rads and then decide you would rather have them at R.005 your going to be there a while changing your geometry. 2. It seems to me that the automatic rolling corneres will sometimes skip features depending on the geometry charicteristics. 3. If there was a new feature controlling the radial size there might be some undesired and automatic rads created. For example if the print calls for some .015 x 45 corners and you have the auto radius turned to R.005 (the mean of a standard note) it would roll the tangencies of the 45 effectively wiping out the prints callout. I think the idea would be a nice addition to our software and we should all be appreciative that there are continual ideas being presented that make our jobs better and successful. [ 01-16-2003, 03:05 PM: Message edited by: Toby ]

James, Be carefull what you ask for. The webby might require that perminent Tatoo in an odd place!!

Charlie, What kind of video are you running?

Congradulations to you and the wife.

If you don't plan on an M/C upgrade soon Caimax offers a third party Thd-mill c-hook that includes taper milling. We bought it a number of versions ago and it works well.

Heavy Metal, We have had a good measure of success in sst with Mil-Tec shellmill cutters. You could easily increase the surface footage to approx (550-900) and chiploads (.007-.012).

Ozzi - $200????? what's up with that and the foul language?

Wish list for vs10: 1) I have been hounding m/c since vs9 Beta and before to fix pocketing path logic when alot of islands are involved. It still has non efficient toolpaths. 2) Multiple viewports within verification would also be nice.

Mickey is still the boss and is the same as I always remembered. You should of seen Minney...That's what I was checking out!

I was at Disneyland over the holidays and the winds were absolutely crazy.

I was forced by a job change to use old Gibbs and then virtual Gibbs after knowing and using Mastercam. All I can say is Gibbs offers some nice features buuuuuttttt Mastercam is hands down the bomb and I was elated when we deep sixed that package for Mastercam.

I was able to launch the editor by reducing the folder and executable name from approx 10+ characters to 6. It appears Mastercam didn't like the longer name. I'm now seeing another potential problem with the g-code file not passing and being visible. When I chose a g-code file, thru Mastercam, the editor will launch but without any code. Any suggestions here?

Dave, Within Mastercan I can now see the choice for the new editor but when I try to edit something the system says .exe is not found. What establishes the association for launching the executable?

What would it take to launch a 3rd party editor out of Mastercam?

I thought that for every major version release one has to pay the upgrade fee. That means if you wait until vs 10 the charge would be double if you went from vs8-vs10. I'm glad to report that we just got the P.O. sent to upgrade all our seats(approx 17)to vs9 and I cant wait. Beta was a blast to cut my teeth on.

Bill, check this place out http://www.surfacefinishes.com it looks like they can do the job complete with not much trouble. It would be a good start to send them your print and get some feedback. enjoy

Jay, Take .8mm/25.4= .03149 (english pitch) then 1/result(.03149)= 31.75 tpi That should do..

Have you asked how the company, your doing the work for, is going to inspect this part? If they can't perhaps this would be a little bonus tolerance .

Kathy, Under contour parameters pick the ramp method and use plunge. Set the ramp value to whatever depth you need per pass. This will do exactly as you need-plunge at each end.

Roger, "bldnxtool" was only in the pq postblock. I downloaded and installed the latest MP.DLL, which was newer than mine, and it fixed the problem, thanks again. I wonder if I should add the "bldnxtool" to the variable declaration for good measure?

A couple of us programmers just received new computers with vs 8.1.1 loaded and most of the extra patch goodies were added as well. The problem is we installed all our dialed in posts and they no longer pre-stage tools but instead put a "T0" at all prestage locations within the posted program. With one exception none of the posts were messed with so I'm wondering if this is a patch issue or something else were all missing? All of the posts that no longer work as they used to are new vs8.1/8.2, which I must stress were working just fine. Ironically, The one posts that still works as it should is an older post probably from vs6. This is to wierd and unexplainable. Can any of you Gentleman or ladies help?

Does anyone know of a standard font to use within Mastercam that, when translated into a .dwg format, will come up with relatively few problems in Autocad? It seems some symbols etc. come up as garbage in Autocad and other features just don't line up quite right.

John, will you be programming in mazatrol or g-code.

Long live Mastercam!!!!

James, Is that a recent photo?