Okay makes sense. My place we had 4x #40 identical machines, and 3x #30 identical machines. So we were all about standardisation, so any job could go on any machine. Bottlenecks would have broken me, if only that job could go on this machine and this job go on that machine....

A few years ago my 'ol chap (Carpenter) walked into the shop and asked why I looked stressed and "what exactly are you doing"? So I started to quickly walk him through the process of grammin a part and he was tutting and sighing and getting more impatient - I was about 2 minutes into it. He interrupted and said "well surely in this day and age, all you have to do is photograph the drawing and the machine should be able to do it for you huh"? My reply was "Dad, go put the kettle on" Colin - nice explanation, and kudos to the Summers. It truly shows how cutting edge (no pun intended) they were back then.

Ron, Is this not the best thing to do? Have known tool assys with proven speeds and feeds, for each material?

Nicely explained answer (as always) Aaron. Not trying to bust you here....but why aren't the settings then saved?

Oh I get you Bob = 100%. But seriously, I just cannot believe that the coolant is done this way and not saved with the tool during setup. I guess everything is done for a reason...I'm struggling to think of a good one though for not saving the settings...

Having for 12 years ran 2x Mastercam workstations networked to 3x printers and 4x other PC's with no outside interwebz connection, I can assure you it is the only way to go. Have a separate cheap PC for emails and goooogle...

OFI !!! Opportunity For Improvement! Submit an enhancement request...

Yup. If spindles don't turn, we don't earn!

This was kept separate together with sub #2, and sub#3 etc, as they would get copied and paste onto the PCMCIA card. The main prog is obvioulsy separate, becuase that goes into the control. The subs are separate becuase they're on the PCMCIA card. You may have to change a parameter too to make this work. If you do, James (CNCAPPSJAMES) is the one to thank for all of this info

M198P0001 is the format you need. Example:- N0201T2M6 M1 ( 12MM DIA GARR KNUCKLE FINE 50 OUT SHUNK ) ( ROUGH OD ) G10G90L12P2R6. G05.1Q1 G54G0G17G40G49G69G80G90X-7.294Y-68.898S10000M3 T3M8 G43Z10.H2 M198P0001 N0301T3M6 M1 ( 10MM DIA R0.5 BULL NOSE - 25MM FLUTE - 35MM OUT ) ( FINISH Z0 ) G10G90L12P3R5. G05.1Q1 G54G0G17G40G49G69G80G90X9.75Y49.S10000M3 T4M8 G43Z10.H3 Z1. M198P0002 And sub prog #1 example:- % O0001( SUB FOR VMC-0864 ) ( 12MM DIA GARR KNUCKLE FINE 50 OUT SHUNK ) ( ROUGH OD ) Z1. G1 Z-13.738 F1500. X-7.043 Y-68.8 Z-14.421 X-6.525 Y-68.596 Z-14.723 G3 X-5.959 Y-67.301 Z-15. I-.365 J.931 F7500. G1 X-7.915 Y-62.308 CODE CODE CODE CODE CODE Z-18.446 Y-57.158 Z-22.615 X41.3 Y-55.572 Z-19.597 G0 Z-18.597 Z10. M9 G28 Z10. M19 G05.1 Q0 G49 M99 %

I would re-cut your prog, and have all your tool calls etc in the main program (in the machine memory) and call your subs via M198, and keep all your subs on the card.

My dumazz business partner.... once deleted all customers from the network, and after I left deleted all technical info that was there (machine parameters, mastercam backups/posts etc - I was told this directory is still missing LoL). Also other files at other times were moved into other directories - which was a PITA hunt and find...although nothing was ever lost as I had everything backed up. He had a habit of waking his screen from sleep by waving the mouse and left clicking (select) and hitting enter and escape and still waving the mouse before letting everything go when the screen woke. If explorer was open (generally yes), directory/files had been selected, and launched into other sub folders or wiped. And emails sent to wrong people, or CC'd in when they shouldn't have been, sub progs not saved with main prog from the machine...etc etc etc...

I know I shouldn't, but Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

Buuuutttttt formatting was lost. .doc was an enhancement request back in X9 days...