Thanks for the replies. Cannon - as you pointed out I'm talking of legacy files here. Randle - we are set up properly and our defaults load correctly for new files. I'm talking legacy files. Anyone else with any thoughts? Cheers

Hi All, When we open an exiting mastercam file, we always load (our latest) machine definition file. This is in-case there has been a post mod since last time of opening, and our re-seller has advised us it is good practice to do this. Is there a reason why mastercam doesn't load the latest automatically? Would it be advantageous to have a setting (tick box) in the config file that would allow the user to have mastercam either do this automatically, or leave as legacy? If it's seen as a good thing, I'll send it to QC enhancements. Cheers

Phil, Have a look in the yellow books - it's at the front. By memory parameter 100 (ish) is around where you need to be looking.

Our robodrill is dual contact 30. We cut ally the same speeds and feeds as we do with our bt40 (non dual contact) machines. I wouldn't cut steel on the robodrill as we do with the bt40 (as in face milling), but I haven't used the robo with dynamic milling paths yet!

Hot machine??? There will be a few in the UK becuase they make machines now for Hardinge/BP. I believe they (Hardinge/BP) don't make any machines now, and that they buy the majority of the range from Quaser with different name on the front. HTH

2x Chevalier QP2033 VMC with 4th axis (Fanuc 0iMC) 1x Chevalier QP2026 VMC with 4th axis (Fanuc 0iMC) 1x Robodrill T21iE with Indexer (Fanuc 31iA5) 1x Prototrak Turret Mill (SMX) 1x King-Rich KR-TC 200 CNC Lathe (Siemens 810T) 1x Prototrak Lathe (SLX) 1x Schaublin 102TR 1x CMM 2x Seats of Mastercam (that's 2x seats!!!) James - That's just showing off!

Hi All, Anyone ever had a R value dissapear? Posted a job, ran it ok, back into mcam tweaked a couple of operations and went into drill to increase the depth (linking parameters only), posted the lot and the R was then 0? I never went into the cut parameters at all??? Anyone ever seen this. Thanks

and don't look back, just keep on running...

Thanks for the feedback. Yep, fingers crossed for X5!

Hi All, Ref dynamic mill. Going say 2" deep, with 1" depth of cuts (ie 1x pass at Z-1, 2nd pass at Z-2). 1st pass works well, Z starts spiralling at Z.1 down to Z-1 and runs. 2nd pass starts spiralling at Z.1, (cutting lots of air down to -1) and then down to Z-2 and runs fine. So question of the day: is there any buttons I'm missing to have the 2nd pass start at say Z-.9??? Cheers

It is a nice cycle for roughing and it would be nicer if it had the option to turn off for a finish pass.

Sounds like the servo's need their parameters tuning. The machine probably left the factory with a 'standard' set of values in the parameters. Standard (non G05) machining uses one set of parameters, where lookahead (G05) uses another set. Depending upon how confident you are, you can do this yourself in an afternoon.

Colin, Thanks for the tip

You can hard code info into the pcomment area. We did to allow the table to go to X0 and home in the Y (as we only use manual entry to add clamps or flip a part over). pcomment$ #Comment from manual entry [must call pcomment2] if gcode$ = 1005, pcomment2 else, [ if gcode$ = 1006, [ if g28commsw = 1, [ pbld, "X0.", e$ <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< pbld, "G28", pfyout, e$ <<<<<<<<<<<< g28commsw = 0 ] scomm$, e$ ] if gcode$ = 1008, surcomment = scomm$ if [Comsw = 1], pcomment3 ] HTH

All, I haven't 'played' with the active reports and all of our set-up sheets (tool lists really) are produced in word. Hence me saying it would be nice to be able to open them in word. When editing the active reports can you change colours for instance? Again, sometime things need highlighting and bold red seems to do the job! Cheers

Dave, a bit OT but is this driven by your machines struggling to accurately contour? If they're fanuc you could look at G05 options? As for highfeed, we've never tried it but our re-seller said it is very good. We better start looking into it by the sounds of it.

I would like it to output to a MS Word template. Easypeasy for adding info then - even photo's of set-ups if you want to.

I believe it is a paramter option. You need C-EXT by memory. This then works as a soft key. I'm not sure if you would need hardware - I don't think so. Give fanuc a call. HTH

Dave, We did something similar recently. Run 1xD DOC. 150m/min surface speed 0.1mm/tooth feedrate Radial cut of 1mm Rounding radius of 1.5mm We prog back feedrate the same value as the feed. This way the post doesn't output feed on every line. This is better for experimenting and trying/editing at the machine. I've never used microlift. The post here ref false brinelling has frightened me to death... If you're in any doubt, throw a bit of ally in the vice and get a feel for what the machine will behave like. If your machine parameters aren't set well, it will bang around and you won't want that. HTH

I'd be cautious cranking it up, depending upon the tool. Some of these lolypops have to be very long, and have a small dia shank (so read weak). You don't want to be in the same factory if that snapped spinning at 10krpm...

Out with the yellow books and http://www.dncsetup.com/fanucoi.html HTH

Ron, Rolldie worked but not as configurable as 5ax. No multicut/leadin-out etc. Curve 5ax looks good with point at centre as you suggested. Having never 'played' with this path before I needed pointing in the right direction. So thanks for that.

JD, Please can you save that back to the FTP so I can look at it in the morning? There's nothing like a practical example! BTW, ref your earlier comment - how do you break the spline into segments and what size did you do to make it run? Many thanks again.

Many thanks for the pointers guys, I'll have a look when I'm back at work in the morning. BTW, the part shouldn't be undercut - it's badly modelled. Cheers

Hi All, Newbeeee by name and by nature... I've uploaded a file to the ftp called NewbeeeeHelp.mcx in the X4 folder. Please can someone have a look and advise the best way to cut the form? It's a VMC with a full 4th, and the file is (hopefully) set-up correctly but I cannot get it to work. We have Curve 5ax but no luck there... Many thanks in anticipation.