That was it! Thanks again. Re-installed MR1 to do a repair and everything works fine now.

Thanks Smit, that's got to be it. I also re-installed V9 for the Cimco editor I like recently.

Has anybody else experienced problems with the level manager once switched to MR1? It will allow me to create entities and move them to a level, but will not let me turn levels on and off. It keeps giving me an error box that says: "member not found" when I click on the level manager box. I have never had any issues with it untill I installed MR1.

Thanks guys. So now that I have backed up my old preferences, settings, machines,..etc and replaced my old install, is there a way to migrate my old settings easily?

It never asked me to migrate. I had two options at the beginning of the install: Replace current install & install next to current install (or something like that) I chose to replace the current install and it gave me the option to back-up all of my current settings but then it installs everything with the stock set-up and configuration files. This leaves me with the task of copying and pasting all of my old settings into the new ones (quite time comsuming). Nowhere in the install did it give me the option to migrate files.

Why is it that you have to save a back-up file of your settings and install all of the standard settings over again? It seems like the software should be able to recognize what you have changed and automatically transfer the settings. I am always hesitant to upgrade levels of mastercam because of the complexity of transferring all of my settings over. Does anybody have an easy solution to this? Thanks guys

I have also found that if it is a round part without the center at z zero you might have to unckeck center on axis to get it in the correct location.

Yep, saves the file as an stl then goto the confiruartion folder in verify options and select file. After that you will have to click on the little file cabinet button next to the stock file box in the middle of the screen. Select the stl from the directory you saved it in.

This is an Iron-Copper-Carbon steel that apparently has good wear qualities. Have any of you guys machined it before? Any specific qualities to be aware of? Also, what common steel does it compare to most accurately? Thanx!

Doug, Thanks that took care of the degrees problem. My only problem now is that the x-axis is still posting/programming in radial rather than diameter. When I select c-axis face contour it automatically shifts to right view which doesn't allow the D+Z+ Do I have to distort the geometry to make it work?

Thanks for the help guys. I'm going to put the file up on the FTP because for some reason (probably the post) it will not output how I need it too. It keeps giving me degrees instead of writing it with the c-axis as a y-axis. That is how the machine I'm running works. Also, the x-axis must be posted as lathe diameter (double the normal value). I am having trouble getting this to post as well. I have been doing X/Z lathes and 5-axis mills for a few years but this is my first live tooling c-axis lathe. I'm not sure what the other options for these lathes are but mine runs a program with the c-axis 1:1 and the x-axis 2:1 (like diameter).

Hi guys. I am trying to get a program to work for doing live tooling c-axis contours. I think I can set my plane to D+Z+ and run a mill contour then alter my y to c and it should be good. I would like to figure out how to do it so that I dont have to alter anything and the program posts how it should be. I have been farting around with the c-axis live tooling machine group, but when I run a toolpath it will either post nothing or post a program with degree inputs rather than the c-axis, distance from origin, that the machine recognizes. Can anybody give me a hand with this? Thanks guys

I tried a total tolerance of .001" with the ratio at 2:1 (cut=.0003" and filter=.0007"). It seemed to cut better with a more generous setting though, maybe because the surfaces are so sketchy. A friend suggested surface finish project. I think that might be my only hope of not re-creating the surfaces. As I recall, I had to use this in the past for similiar situations. Thanks once again.

yeah, I've tried all different gap settings as well. Tried to keep the tool down over the hole part and also tried smaller gaps. What it really seems to be is that the surfaces are kind of crappy and I am trying to make it smooth with the toolpaths. If I can't get anything much better that it is, I might have to go back in and recreate all the surfaces.....DOHT

I have tried a stepover of .010", .008", and .003" I have also tried a filter tolerance of 1:1, 1:2, and off with creating arc in xz and yz as well as no arcs. Sorry I cant post a file on the FTP. It's kinda top secret stuff per the customer. Thanks again

I tried a waterline and it looked pretty good on the toolpath screen but verify still looks very chunky.

Hey guys, I am doing some surfacing over a complex shape that has many radii and blended surfaces. I would usually use a flowline if the surfaces were good enough and maybe a pencil to trace the outlining radial areas in. The problem I have is that the model came in from a laser scanner and is composed of about 900 tiny patches. I have tried a surface finish parallel with a surface finish leftover for inside the radii, but the leftover pass is making lots of bumps in the recessed areas. I tried to run a pencil toolpath over it but there are way to many tiny patches on the model. Does anybody have some good suggestions for me please? Thanks

Yep, cut depths was the answer. I had the min depth set to my feed plane and the max to my finish depth. It wanted to run through the cycle at each Z. Thanks guys!

Hey all. My company has never really gotten into plunge milling, always use contours and surface rough toolpaths with feedmills. Our Sandvik rep stopped by the other day with a 2" plungemill for us to try out on a job but I have no experiance with programming this toolpath. I messed around with it a little and got it to basically do what I want, but it seems to be going through the cycle twice, cutting nothing but air the first time through. I did a search on the topic as well and got a little info, but was hoping you guys could shed some more light on the subject and tell me what to watch for or be aware of. Thanks

What are you using for coolant? We run .032" drills on 14-4 ht quite often. When we drill it we turn our coolant off and soak the drill with WD-40. Run out is definately the most important issue to address though.

definately axis substitution. What diameter is the part and what diameter is the slot? Over what distance?

Cool, thanks guys!

Does anybody know of a way to save a solids layout as a .tif or .pdf? I need to send a copy of a print I made over to a customer that does not have the software to open cad files. Any input is good. Thanx!

Simple, but sometimes the problem also.....make sure they are all at the same Z depth. I've had them come out a .001" or .002" different from time to time depending on how they were created.

I'll be watching this thread too. Every time I want to merge points from the CMM to a model on Mastercam I have to print them out and manually enter them in. It seems there should be a relatively simple way of saving the points to a readable file for Mastercam and merging them without all of the typing. Good luck. It would be nice If I could do this for UG too.