Rickster, I tried that because it has worked for me also. I finally got it to go but it was 198 megs! Like I said we have four of these and the first two had blend toolpaths of about 5 megs. I tried to post it but it froze up on me. I think it is a surface messing it up, but after analyzing the surfaces nothing showed up. I changed some normals so they were all facing the same way. I'm trying it again. If not I will have to use a surface parallel to get it done. to be contd....

I deleted all regen files and temp files. Boosted Physical Memory to 90% from 80% Also, reselected machine def. rebooted No luck, I emaild you the file gcode, thanks!

I will try analyzing the surfaces. Check out my Task Manager when I try and regen the file. Is this typical during regen? I ran the benchmark a while ago and we were about average as far as speed goes. The only application running is Mastercam and the Task Manager. You can see right when I hit regen. I see the CPU is maxed out but I'm not sure about the other numbers. We have a Dell, Pentium 4 CPU 3.6GHz, 3 GHz of ram

Didn't work...I checked our temp file and we have 5.2 Gb in there. I saw this in another thread about unhandled exceptions. I tried to delete the file but the computer said it was too big for the trash can WTF! I hate to delete the file if there is important stuff in there.

I've changed the stepover from 0.02" to 0.021" Hope it works!

Hey Crazy, thanks for your help. You are always quick to respond when someone has a problem and I appreciate it. And it does SUCK! Any how it seems like it is getting hung up at Surface 80(/94): preparing edges...100% Usually when this happens I get the oppotunity to change the color of the offensive surface, but not when it crashes. Is there anyway to figure out what surface is messing me up???? Thanks

We keep getting a crash on a particular file. We have four large molds and they are very similar, although they each have their own file. The first two blend toolpaths went great. They took 30-40 minutes to generate. Now for some reason we keep crashing on the third file. I'm not sure why we keep crashing and get this error. Anyway has anyone seen this error before?

It was good as usual. Packed house. Sorry, we missed you I was looking forward to meeting you. I kept looking for quote: the short fat bald guy... After introducing myself to all the short, fat, bald guys I got real tired! Missed Colin this year, also. Anyhow, they talked a lot about 5-axis, X3 and new features. They said the release date should be next month.

We are getting paid for some R & D. I need to minimize the number of passes so we can it work.

I keep getting a No Pencil Trace Cuts Found error. I've never used the Pencil toolpath. Will it stay between two lines for containment or do you use a center line?

The max width is 5/8". We have been playing around with it using different toolpaths but haven't had any luck reducing the cycle time. I was hoping for a toolpath where you can set a curve on the two peaks and use them as boarders. Then have the cutter make a single cut using the surface for the drive.

We've got a customer that wants a 4' x 8' panel machined out of mdf or uhmw. With a 3/8' cutter at 0.03" stepover it will be cost prohibitive for the customer due to machining time. What I'm wondering is there a program or toolpath that will follow between the peaks and cut valleys in one pass with a 3/8" or 5/8" cutter. This way the cutter would run up and down following the surface while staying between the peaks. This would greatly reduce the machine time. Here is a small sample of the pattern. Thanks for your help!

Good luck in your search Jim. I would like to say to anyone looking at this position you aren't going to find a more beautiful part of the country to live. I live about 45 minutes South of Jim's shop. I've lived on the East Coast and the Midwest. I wouldn't leave here for anything!

Starry, Check out our web page We use a steel frame mounted to foam with about 0.2" of fiberglass on top. Mdf is o.k. but it is heavy. Our molds and patterns are pretty lightweight. They bolt nicely to the table.

We don't set up any geometry but we do use the clearance set to absolute which is based off of the geometry you are cutting. I usually set clearance to 2".

I haven't seen a link to the expo on Cimtech's website yet. I'll post it when they get it up. It is at Boeing Field (Museum of Flight) from 8:30 - 3:00 and you must sign up. Colin, work is going good but we've been having some spindle issues burning up the bearings. We just ordered a new spindle that might better suit our needs. We run some pretty long cutters and the material we cut can be pretty abrasive. Plus we have problems reaching the warm up range and then we get too hot after cutting for 5-6 hours. I wonder if other composite shops have problems with spindles lasting? Anyway we are pretty busy at the shop and I can't wait to get the new spindle. We will get the old one rebuilt and keep as a backup.

Nice work and good idea!

It is an expo that is put on every year by our dealer. They will go over X3, new features, etc. They usually have some different vendors get up and talk about their products. Last year they invited us to get up there and give a 10 minute presentation about what we do and how we use Mastercam.

We are planning on attending the expo up at Boeing's Museum of Flight, June 19th. I'd like to meet some of the local people that frequent the forum. Nils and I will be the two dorks in blue Technical Tooling golf shirts. We will probably be sitting next to Colin drilling him with questions. Bill

Jim, Do you use Cimtech over in Algona? I haven't heard anything about the Tech Expo yet. They usually have it up at Boeing Field. Bill

Autodesk inventor has powerful animation capabilities built in. I could help you with it if you have the models.

We use swarfs a lot with our router. Let me know if you can't get it.

I've run into this while using high speed toolpaths. Sorry to hear about the crash.

Could be in your settings regarding tolerances, material, etc.

We have been using them for awhile and like it. Boarders are a must, but check surfaces are different read below. quote: Do high speed surface toolpaths support check surfaces? Currently, check surfaces are only supported by some of the toolpath types: waterline raster spiral radial In your Mastercam configuration file settings, you can choose to automatically use all non-drive surfaces as check surfaces. Because not all of the high speed toolpaths support check surfaces, this option should be set to None or Prompt. If you do select check surfaces, and then select a toolpath strategy that does not support them, Mastercam automatically treats the check surfaces as additional drive surfaces.