yes, I am sort of in the same boat as you. That is why I was asking. I made a post the other day. It seems no one really thinks outside of the box. I would rather engineering do something simple at the beginning of the process. to make it easier for everyone down the line.

Usually very complex i may spend a couple of days programming one part and then it is on the machine for severl days maybe evn weeks. we do on occasion do some simple stuff. I am self taught in mastercam so i am sure i do things different that others may do.

are your parts complicated? Ours are generally plates with holes on 2-5 edges which require multiple setups in our 3 axis machines.

My only problem with that is we run one off's. So i program say 30 different parts in a day that will be run say one or two days later. I am trying to make it easier to program for me and less likely to make a programming mistake by not making my own geometry. I like to use multiple d offsets for a tool only because it allows the operator to adjust the size on the fly at the machine.

Yes we do have engineering inside our companyand we struggle with the same thing that you are. Everything is modeled to nominal. In that situation what I will do is create geometry to accomidate the tolerence and program to my created geometry.

We have one VF-1 and two VF-2's, and a proposed VF-9 coming for this year.

Do you have an engineering department inside your company? I am trying to figure out what people do with toleranced features on solids that are drawn to the nominal size. I have asked them to draw it to the median value, but they don't like that. It would save me fromusing multiple offsets on the machines for multiple toleranced features done with the same tool.

Haas, Miltronics, Topper lathe with fanuc controls

What type of machines are you programming with mastercam?