Couldn't you you use "lines" on the tool axis control and pick a line(vertical) on the back wall? Your tool will follow the floor surface but stay aligned with the vertical line of the back wall.

I have had that problem. But only trying to print in color. If I send it to the black/white printer it works fine. Color printer, I get a blank page. Never figured it out but have not had the issue since switching to MR2 SP1. No idea why it made a difference, but it seems to have. My only work around was printscreen.

5 - 5 axis Routers 1 - 3 axis router 2 Haas vertical mills Me Our 5 axis machines never run any more than 75 parts per job. The 3 axis does a lot of 2-400 part runs and the mills are used solely for one part fixtures, molds, dies, etc. We generally get 5-7 new parts per week for the 5 axis routers and 2-3 for the 3 axis. I get 1-3 for the Haas per week as well. That being said, we just got a deal for 42 new parts for the 5 axis routers and 8 for the Haas all due to ship by March 1. Should be an exiting month around here since we have both mills, the 3 axis and 1 5 axis at our new facility. The rest are here with one scheduled to move next week and another the week after. Nothing like a challenge to keep you fresh and young feeling!!!!

Are you running XP? It is a known issue in XP. It defaults drives as E or F. So you can use the disk manager to change the USB to J or whatever and you are set. 1. Log on as Administrator or as a member of the Administrators group. 2. Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click Performance and Maintenance. Note If you do not see Performance and Maintenance, go to step 3. Performance and Maintenance appears in Control Panel only if you use Category view. If you use Classic view, Performance and Maintenance does not appear. 3. Click Administrative Tools, double-click Computer Management, and then click Disk Management in the left pane. 4. Right-click the drive, the partition, the logical drive, or the volume that you want to assign a drive letter to, and then click Change Drive Letter and Paths. 5. Click Add. 6. Click Assign the following drive letter if it is not already selected, and then either accept the default drive letter or click the drive letter that you want to use. 7. Click OK.

Good deal. Thanks for the input guys.

No lights out here. We run 3 full shifts 6 days per week. Pretty ballsy Ron. I proposed lights out here to save money in operator wages once. The boss laughed at the idea. Something about only paying our operators $8 an hour being less expensive than the risk of an unattended crash.

Sweet. Of course, that would mean that Vericut and MC are the only things I have encountered that work well with Thermwoods! Good to hear though. I have never used any verification software at all, but would certainly like to. In theory it will cut down the amount of time I spend at the machines de-bugging and tweaking programs.

Can Vericut be used to simulate 5 axis thermwood routers? And if so, how difficult will it be to set it all up and have it up and running? My boss is contemplating verification software, but we use Thermwood 5 axis routers and I don't see their controls listed on the Vericut website. Any help or advice would be great.

Jeff, your dancing scares me, but your idea there is pure evil genius!

Funny stuff. I sure was glad to see midwest helping you out!

For some reason I find what Terry said to be the case more often with routers as opposed to mills. It seems that most of the routers I have used will cut the egg shape and most mills will actually cut round. Since I use Routers 90% of the time here I break them.

My company is too cheap to have solids! But thank you anyway. This is the downfall of having been entirely self taught on MC. I figure out things as I need them and never learn all the nifty tricks. Just enough to do what needs to be done. No training, lessons, or even anyone else who uses it in my company to learn from. Thankfully you guys and this forum are out there, I would really flounder without it.

quote: Great minds think alike?!?!? And so do yours! I couldn't resist. Sorry...

thanx colin

I have an IGES model that has no wireframe, only surfaces. Being that I am at home I don't have access to Pro/E to save with wireframe. Anyone available to help me out here tonight? Is there something I can do in MCX2? Help me. I use contour toolpaths all the time, but am stuck w/o wireframe to chain from.

I am with you gcode. I pay for the annual maintenance now out of my own pocket. Since the buyout anyway. The new owners use, or have their guys use, solidworks. I was told that if I wanted to continue using MC I could, but they would no longer pay the maintenance so I do it myself to stay current. Yet still, I rarely ask for help, and never for a post. Seems as though both of these yahoos come from the school of welfare rolls, hand-outs and blue ribbons and trophies for participating. They don't understand the value of what they have, nor the value of peoples time and energy. They can't understand that most of us have to work hard and struggle to stay afloat and can't risk losing our jobs to some knucklehead on a free ride with pirated software using a perfect post they got for free....

I just want to say that I am flabbergasted. I read the entire topic about the free post deal and can not believe that madtown still thought he was correct in asking for a post. I am also amazed that Crazy millman didn't find a way to climb through his computer and grab him by the throat and shake him! Stunning. I have been part of some heated discussions and debates on this forum, but not once have I ever felt that anyone on here would be unwilling to help me out if I needed it. Even with a post or at very least, mods to a post. But asking for a freebie on day 1 is crazy. That, to me, is like asking for a promotion and raise at work on your first day. Quite the read....

Exactly! To Crazy Millman

That is freakin awesome! Thanks Mike-T

One of the potentially nicer things about the class structure you are going into is the opportunity to use some of the more advanced peoples skills to help you with the less advanced. When I went to get my degree, I already had 10 years experience. The instructors that I had were great about recognizing that and using my skills to help others less skilled. Which in turn frees up the instructor to help others. It also gave me the chance to hone some people skills and often learn more about the process, since new people with little to no experience tend to have really good probing questions that I would need to help answer.

My thought exactly. F9 to toggle on/off

No, no I don't. But I can tell you a great way to hide the body so he can't continue with those antics!

quote: It would be nice to see smeone take the time to run a couple extra progams to square the corners. KOMO Machine has that ability, oddly enough. In their cad/cam package "Router-Cim". They spent a-lot of time on that feature and it works really well. I never got the chance to look at the code, but I saw the machine in action making raised panel doors, and by golly, they had square corners in a snap.

Aitkin Hardwoods

Good to hear drexen.