why is my sim# visible?

Visible to you & admin only.

Scott is correct: all white = no warnings. The bar has been there since the new site actually - it's just visible to regular members now as well. Its mostly a tool for mods & admin to keep track of what others have done over time, you know, so we don't have to actually talk to each other

And the forum guideline thing - if you remember waaaay back, we had 'em on the old forum as well. They just took their time getting here is all. But yes, we prefer they be read and abided by.

If I buy a GTX 560 and a Quadro FX 4800 can I run one for Cad/Cam and the other for Gaming? Or how does the two video card thing work? Thanks. I have two 27" Samsung 1080p HDTV's for monitors. I am thinking of going to just one 32" Sony LED instead.

No. Right from nVidia's SLI Zone website, "No. For example, an XXXGT cannot be paired with a XXXGTX in an SLI configuration." It goes on to say that the largest deviation from two identical cards you can do is getting the same card from different manufacturers.

While there's certainly nothing stopping you from using TVs as monitors, it definitely isn't my preference. I guess it depends on how far away you sit from your "monitor". For me, while 1080p does offer decent resolution, the dot pitch is still too high (you can see space between each pixel). Before Christmas I moved to Dell's 27" U2711 monitor with 2560x1440 resolution. With an IPS screen, that thing is a beauty and a beast!

I was actually playing around last night with a few benchmarks between laptops - one with an FX1800 in it and another with a GT460M. No comparison. The latter trounced the former (in a gaming benchmark). Of course there were other hardware spec differences as well, but they were both Core i7s. So in the end, I suppose it really depends what your priorities are, or as was suggested - build two rigs.

Sounds to me that the solution he is quoting is recommending full hardware acceleration rather than disabling it like we're used to doing when graphical problems arise.

Some helpful information would be:

• What operating system are you running?
• What graphics card do you have?

There is a Hardware Acceleration slider within Windows that controls how the graphical processing requests are handled - - all by the graphics card (provided it can support everything) or some/all by the processor (software mode). As JParis said, there is an override setting in Mastercam that allows you to disable hardware acceleration completely, but this is not recommended unless it IS causing the issue and dialling it back a bit doesn't resolve it. You want your graphics card doing as much work as it can as this not only frees up your processor for other things but the graphics card is usually much more efficient for accelerating graphical UIs (obviously).

Maybe you can tell us what type of issues you are having with X5.

While I agree that going from 0 to machinist overnight is going to be a tough feat (and the idea of local community college would likely get you there reasonably fast) if books are what you are looking for, I do have a couple of suggestions.

You have the beginner book which is a good place to start for getting a feel of the software.

You didn't specify how complex you need to get. If it's just basic 2D stuff then your goal is more attainable. If you're a visual learner and don't "have the time" to do a full college course, you could always pick up the Mastercam X4 Multimedia Bundle. You can read the description and decide for yourself but essentially this is 3 classes on Mill 2D, 3D and Lathe offered in a convenient, reasonably priced package. Will it get you machining tomorrow? Nope. But it would help you along the way.

The Handbook Volume 1 will give you some insight as to how and why things work the way they do (a nice compliment to the Beginner as it just gets you in and doing things within the software.)

Finally, the CNC Programming Handbook takes a step back from Mastercam and focuses on the generalities of CNC machining. The author, Peter Smid, also writes a title (for Mastercam X3) that details virtually every menu option within Mastercam. It's a shame it hasn't been updated since - but much is still relevant.

As others have cautioned, learning from a book/video/etc. will only take you so far. The best bet would be to get some hands-on time with a machine with a trained instructor.

The HLE referenced above is the Home Learning Edition of Mastercam - a demo version included with all of the X5 books (and available as a download for eBook purchases through the store), as mentioned by MotorCityMinion.

My suggestions, based on what you said would be to start looking at these titles:

Mastercam X5 Mill Level 3 Training Tutorial - to get you up to speed on wireframe creation and surfacing. Also includes training videos.

Mastercam X5 Lathe Training Tutorial - This book includes a good set of training videos as well.

Mastercam X5 Solids Training Tutorial - should you be so inclined to (re)discover solids

As mentioned, if you want/need them sooner than they can be printed/shipped, there's always the eBook options.

You could also try contacting your local reseller and ask for the "Mpmaster Quick Reference Guide, (Fundamental post processor customization techniques for 3 to 4 axis mill)" published by In-House Solutions.

It's a 170+ page reference book that uses mpmaster for its examples.

You could also try contacting your local reseller and ask for the "Mpmaster Quick Reference Guide, (Fundamental post processor customization techniques for 3 to 4 axis mill)" published by In-House Solutions.

It's a 170+ page reference book that uses mpmaster for its examples, published Nov 30th, 2009.

There are alternatives as well. Head over to the store, specifically: http://www.emastercam.com/board/index.php?app=nexus&module=payments&section=store&do=item&id=52

I'm a little confused here Jay, was this in reply to someone else's post?

If you're in need of a generic Mill or Lathe post or simply want to dabble with one, check out the the following free offerings from the Post Dev Team at In-House Solutions.


Mpmaster - Master G-Code Mill Post
Based on CNC Software's master mill post - Mpfan - this post has additional features.
To find out more, choose your version and download this file, click here.


Mplmaster - Master G-Code Lathe Post
Based on CNC Software's master lathe post - Mplfan - this post has additional features.
To find out more, choose your version and download this file, click here.

If you have any specific post development requests, please check out the Post Request Page.

To keep this post clean, it will be closed. If you have any general post-related questions, feel free to start another topic.

For those of you who skip front page news...

In-House Solutions Inc. is pleased to announce the signing of a Strategic Post Processor Development Partnership Agreement with Barefoot CNC, Morganton, NC. Under this agreement, In-House Solutions will develop, sell and support Mastercam post processors and Barefoot CNC will become an integral part of the post processor development team. Two long term and reputable Mastercam Resellers join forces to develop superior and reliable post processors along with machine simulation for the Mastercam Reseller network.

 

Mastercam programmers worldwide can continue to benefit from In-House Solutions’ post processors for machines such as Mill-Turn machines (multi-tasking machines), CNC Mills from 2 to 5 Axis including horizontal machines (with probing routines, rotary axis), CNC Lathes such as 2-axis turning to C-axis machining, Wire 2-5 axis, CNC Routers 2-5 axis/Point-2-Point machines (with Multi-Head, Drill Blocks, Aggregates, Pods, Nesting Functions), and 2–5 axis machines such as Waterjets, Lasers, Plasma Cutters, off-line programming of 6-axis Robots and specialty machines.

 

In-House Solutions’ professional post processor development team will work closely with Jimmy Wakeford, President of Barefoot CNC to ‘write and field test’ post processors for popular CNC machine tools.

 

eMastercam.com and its Forum will be a focal point for post processor communications and eventually post processor distribution. This will improve communication between post processor developers and Mastercam end users with the intent of simplifying the post processor modification process.

 

In-House Solutions is proud to add Barefoot CNC as a ‘Post Development Partner’ with its many years of Mastercam and post processor development expertise.

 

 

ABOUT IN-HOUSE SOLUTIONS

In-House Solutions Inc. is the Canadian Mastercam Distributor, a Developer of Mastercam Post Processors, and a manufacturer of Mastercam training tutorials and training videos. It is also a North American Distributor of Robotmaster used for Off-line programming of 6-axis Robots. In-House Solutions has been a CAD/CAM solutions provider for 23 years and holds a proven sales track record of performance ranking #2 or #3 worldwide in the Mastercam community. It has accumulated a significant amount of Mastercam and related manufacturing experience.

 

In-House Solutions is 50 people strong with 7 offices in North America. It provides Mastercam based CAD/CAM solutions to both manufacturers and educational institutions and is extremely service oriented.

 

ABOUT BAREFOOT CNC

Barefoot CNC is the exclusive Mastercam Reseller for North and South Carolina, a Developer of Mastercam Post Processors and a Developer of VB scripts. Barefoot CNC is a successful CAD/CAM solutions provider with over 15 years of experience. It holds an impressive Mastercam sales and support track record of both growth and performance. Barefoot CNC provides Mastercam based CAD/CAM solutions to manufacturers and is an avid technical supporter of educational institutions.

You can read the original article here: http://www.emastercam.com/archives/520/in-house-solutions-partners-with-barefoot-cnc/

You can download the full press release in PDF format here: http://www.emasterca...ds&showfile=191

Hi Jay,

I have moved your post to the Educational Forum.

As to your post, I'm a little confused as to what you're asking. Which training are you going through currently?

Welcome to the new eMastercam John You'll notice a lot has changed and some is still changing. We welcome your feedback.

Ok, playin' catch up to all the posts here. First off thanks for all the kind words! Glad you like it! Off to a bit of a rocky start but I guess that should be expected when trying to launch a new site AND switch to a new host. (I wasn't quite anticipating all the "fun" it's been )

To your points/questions:

@ Jay - the "dealer area" currently consists of multiple areas. Eventually that may all come together in some fancy portal however for now that means dealers see the reseller forum which has some stuff added over before, the reseller downloads area and the reseller blog.

@ Justin - avatars weren't brought over however we've opened it up so you can add your own. One less thing for me to do

@ Keith - If you think the front end requires a training seminar... count your lucky stars you can't see the back end! Regarding the time, I had to make a small adjustment so the site knew what the new native server time was. It's showing up correctly here. If it's not for you, be sure to use the member drop-down menu (upper right of the screen), choose settings and the first option there is to set your time zone.

@ JMC - Not yet, but there will be. We had some issues getting the book images in the store with transparencies to work. I ended up re-uploading all the images multiple times and just a few days before launch got the issue fixed but the temporary fix had been to put the grey background behind each image. If we were to allow colour scheme changes now, that would look ugly. Once things settle down I'll re-up images with transparencies so it won't matter what colour scheme or "skin" is used. this will always be the default but we do want to offer choice. I'm thinking at least one even darker one (mostly black) and a lighter variant.

@ gavetta - regarding emoticons: definitely. I'm not fond of the white... blobs around them. I know the default set is meant for a light background. Again, with time we'll be adding more - probably more complete packs! Just wasn't sitting to high on the priority list

@kunfuzed - welcome

http://www.emastercam.com/board/index.php?showtopic=57681

All in due time

http://www.emastercam.com/board/index.php?showtopic=57681

You should see the permissions back end to this site. It's a little insane. Once set up; great, in the meantime.... real pain that we couldn't get them brought over from the old site.

Going to start working through the list of mods and resellers that have either emailed or PM'd me tomorrow morning once we get the SSL issues sorted once and for all.

we are missing a few forms like Beta?

http://www.emastercam.com/board/index.php?showtopic=57681

The "opening in edit mode" should actually just be the forum adding the comment you're replying to in your post as a quote. As of yet I have not (purposely) enabled your moderator abilities. There's still a bit of sorting to be done on what has or hasn't been brought over now that active members are here to play.

Sorry for the short notice guys - the forums will closed sooner than we anticipated due to restructuring in the timeline. It is out of our control. We will be back in business as soon as possible but expect that to be in the realm of 48hrs+. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Forums will be closed as of 7am EST Oct 7th.

Thank you for your patience.

I honestly hope everyone shares your sense of humour

Sorry for the short notice guys - the forums will be closed sooner than we anticipated due to restructuring in the timeline. It is out of our control. We will be back in business as soon as possible but expect that to be in the realm of 48hrs+. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Good question. I'm actually not seeing that much of an emphasis on member number in the new platform. That being said, the date you joined should carry over just fine...

We are going to work with a company that specializes in these conversions rather than messing with it ourselves. The upside is of course hopefully having a clean conversion and losing as little data as possible. The downside is they're a M-F outfit.

If we do it on a Friday, there's no support over the weekend should something go wrong. The current thought is to try for a Thursday, if there are issues, iron them out Friday then we should be all systems go by the following Monday the latest.

Not yet But getting there.

On that note, there will have to be some downtime *gasp* as we try to bring over all the content from this forum to the new one. Anyone have preference as to when that should happen as far as days of the week?