Printing, not plotting. Yeah, it is a total mystery to me. It is rare that I need to print from MC, but it sure would be more convenient. My current workaround is, when I do need to print, I open the file in Pro/E and print from there. Oh well, what are ya gonna do. Could be worse, I could have no ability to print at all.

I can't print to any printers from Mastercam X2. I can print from Pro/E, AutoCad, Router-Cim and the like. When I try from Mastercam, the printer just spits out a blank piece of paper. Says it printed, acts like it is printing, but sends me blanks. Any ideas?

For my 2 cents, I would say KOMO and SHODA as well. Simply put, they are both very well built machines, with good controllers, and in my experience, great customer service and support.

When I was down at Thermwood for the training, which was mostly horrible, they asked me what my opinion was, seeing as how I have a background in CNC Routers. So I gave it to them. I letthem know that I found their machines to be loose, weak and not rigid enough, and their reaction was, and I quote, "we don't need to build boat anchors here, the other companies overbuild their machines needlessly" And as far as the controls, I was told that they can't understand why the rest of the industry hasn't adopted their system yet and most controls give the operator too many options that are not needed. Seemed to me that they could really care less what the customers thought, becauase the Thermwood way is the only way, in their eyes.

mowens, I have used a number of different CNC Routers, and thus far, the only one I have come into contact with that those were "options" on, is Thermwood. It seems that everything is an option on a Thermwood router. Toolchanger that holds more than 4 tools? OPTION Block Skip/Delete? OPTION Spindle speed overide? OPTION Auto Location Pins? OPTION The list goes on, and on... I swear to god, I own a Porter Cable router at my house for typical home projects that I paid $125 for, that has more standard features than my companies CNC Routers which we paid anywhere from $109,000 - $286,000 for.

CNC Apps Guy, Hooray for you! I have nothing but true respect for anyone who will stand up for what they know is right! Also, I had the same response as yours to my bosses gripe about me. Though I replaced "horsefeathers" with some slightly more colorful terminology! I don't care if you are cutting butter with a hot knife, I at least want the knife to be rigid and well built, so the butter cuts smoothly! If I am going to do it, I want it done as well as physically possible and will not stand for mediocrity.

"he means that they are not rigid both static and dynamically." That is exactly what I mean. We even have a standard 3 axis with only 10" of Z travel, and with that I have some deflection and lack of rigidity. But our 5 axis machines are really bad, and have been since day one. My boss tells me that my problem is that I spent too much time in metals and the aerospace sector and not enough time in the plastics end of manufacturing. Which may be true, but in my eyes, it should be very simple with a decent cnc router to achieve semi tight tolerances and decent finish quality, no matter the material. Frankly, If I can achieve aerospace tolerances with a KOMO or Shoda, I should be able to all but eliminate any signs of chatter in materials as soft and light as Polyethylene with nearly any other router. But such is not the case in my experience with Thermwood.

I am currently "blessed" to be programming for 4- 5 axis Thermwoods and 1 - 3 axis Thermwood. Though I have not used CNC Motion controls, I have looked into them. They are much closer to standard Fanuc controls, which I tend to prefer. I would rather have Milltronics controls, or Fanuc controls than anything, but such is not the case. There is something nice about sticking with a control you are at least somewhat familier with, so as to avoid any un-needed training of operators, set up guys and totally new posts. If I ran the company, I would switch over to KOMO 3 and 5 axis routers in a minute, and toss the flimsy Thermwoods, but we have to play the cards we were dealt.

Click on SETTINGS then click CONFIGURATION. On the bottom of that window is a drop down that says "DEFAULT (English)(Startup), if you click the arrow nest to it is gives you the Metric Option. If your part is open, then it will, once you click on the option you want, prompt you to change and scale it to the desired option, click yes, and woohoo, you are there!

Bruce, Any further updates on this? I have been having the same problem. Ever since I upgraded to X2.

I am in one of those salaried, whatever it takes positions, and I did not clarify in advance what, whatever it takes, meant. Now I am in the position of working 60 hours per week every freakin week, yet if, for some reason, I get a week with less than 40 hours in, I only get paid for the exact hours I worked that week. Of course, if I work 60 hours, I only get paid for 40. Our company just announced that we didn't reach bottom line requirements, so we will not be getting an annual raise of any sort, and we do not offer any type of bonus or comp time. I'll know better next time, I tell ya.