In Screen|Configure select NC settings and click on Operation Defaults. Open the standard op file and right-click in the Operations Manager window that comes up and select 'Job Setup'. Change the default to 'Add' and '0' for length and '0' for diameter. Select OK and save the defaults file. That will fix all new files. For existing files, as you have discovered, changing the setting in Job Setup after the fact is kinda hit-and-miss. New tools and new operations are affected, but existing ops and tools don't seem to take the change.

quote: NO, what I'm trying to do is translate a toolpath along the centerline in X, and follow a 10 deg rotate from pocket to pocket while the B axis is at 10.1714 deg. When I use the toolpath translate function the toolpath moves in X but does not "roll up" in A. I probably am not explaining this properly I am havin trouble with the verbageKinda strange, but this might work. 1) Post your One True Pocket. 2) Place the points where you need 'em. 3) Use Drill5ax to create a 4th axis drilling toolpath over the points. 4) Edit the resulting NC file to call your One True Pocket as a subprogram at each drill point and remove the drill cycle. If you have to do this sort of thing all the time, swipe the 'Subprogram' drill cycle from the MPMASTER post and fix it to add the correct rotation code.

Ifn you don't mind, I'd like to use these pictures in my class. They will make a great addition to my other lathe training aid: a split-in-half HAAS lathe tool holder. Anyone else with photos of spectacular crashes feel free to send 'em along. It will help me turn out better operator/programmers.

Quickpart is an add-on for MasterCAM educaitonal customers. It exposes a limited sub-set of MasterCAM fuctionality, enableing students to easily produce any of a pre-defined set of projects. Many high school shop classes use Quickpart as a fairly simple and safe introduciton to CNC programming, or as part of a modular technology curriculum where the goal is to get an overview of the design and manufacturing process rather than build a set of particular skills. In addition to taking a guided approach to programming a particular project, it also offers instruction at key points of the process, explaning many of the basic things you need to do to get your code to run. As a training tool, its actually quite useful.

Yes. Send 'em along.

quote: Microsoft says -> "Windows Me and Windows 98 are not designed to handle more than 1 GB of RAM. More than 1 GB can lead to potential system instability." But, at bit more searching finds potential problems with more than 512meg. That's funny. In my experence, any system with more than 4MB of RAM that is running Win9x/ME is unstable. Your Mileage May Vary.

quote: We recently added Quickpart to our Version 8 Mill software and are having a difficult time figuring out how to use it. There doesn't seem to be any tutorials or instruction manuals available. Any suggestions on how to get up to speed with this software? I'd suggust contacting your education reseller for general 'what is this and why do I need it' kind of questions. There are some workbooks that you can use with Quickpart. Your education reseller can get them for you. You will need to ensure that you are installing it onto a MasterCAM v8.1.1 system, not v8 or v8.1, or it may not work correctly. If you don't have v8.1.1, you can get that CD from your re-seller as well.

What did I make this week? Nothing you could touch, I'm afraid. What I did is help a room full of folks new to 3D drawing understand construciton planes and the WCS, and help another group get started on 2D drawing. Not as impressive as heart valves, space shuttle parts, or tapping 60rc steel, but it made me feel great when I saw all those circles and cubes and lines and stuff, and it was all in the right spot. Surface models and toolpaths are next. Wish me luck.

I'm going to bring one or two of my fellow instructors with me.

quote: This always seemed weird to me. I would think that if you changed the geometry and the toolpath is associated to the geometry, then the toolpath would update *without* regenerating it.Think for just a moment about how annoying that would be. Change a fillet, wait 10 sec for the toolpath, trim a line, wait 10 sec for the toolpath, move a surface, wait 15 min for the toolpath... If that ever shows up in MasterCAM, the first thing I'm gonna want to do is figure out how to turn it off... quote: If the toolpath is associative, you have to regen it. If the toolpath is NOT associative, you still have to regen it. If you have to regen it anyway, what is the great value of it being associative? Just the fact that if you move geometry, you don't have to reselect the chains again?Before associative toolpaths (introduced in V7 for 2 and 2.5D, in V8 for all toolpaths) you had to re-create the toolpath(s) from scratch whenever you changed anything, and you had to remember to do it. MasterCAM did not know that anything had changed and so would not prompt you. quote: There are a few things in life that just don't seem to stand up to their definition based on my way of thinking (emphasis on MY). This just happens to be one of them. Heh. Autodesk had to introduce 'associative dimentions' three times before they got it right.

quote: quote:4 why cant i draw an arc with a start and end at different z levels without going through the hassle of making it a helix?(actually sc wouldnt allow me to do this either) You can, you need to be in 3D C/Plane. This does not output a helix. What it outputs, at least on my system, is an arc in an inclined construciton plane. Is there a setting I am missing somewhere, or am I misunderstanding what you are saying?

quote: Does anybody know what program makes .3DS files?3D Studio (DOS) used those files natively. For a while, it was a kinda standard 3D rendering format on the PC, and supported by several non-Autodesk tools. IIRC, the data stored is very much like STL data - i.e. it is a mesh, rather than surfaces. Not all that useful for CNC. If you have one or two files in that format, I can try to convert them into IGES for you. The results may not be all that good thoguh.

quote: I'm holding windows 98 responsible.Undobtedly Windows 98 is responsible for the troubles you are seeing. Before my school upgraded, we were using Windows 98 to run MC8, and would have occasional odd-ball results. The 'fix' is to save the file, exit MasterCAM, re-start MasterCAM, and re-open the file. Occasionally, you'll have to re-start the computer as well. If you are using Windows 98, I urge you to upgrade to Windows 2000 or XP Pro as soon as you can.

quote: Patch warning: old file not found. However, a file of the same name was found. No update done since file contents do not match. Should I be concerned? Are you sure that you don't already have sp1 installed? You'll get that error if sp1 has already been applied.

quote: hi everyone! Anyone here has a post file for Hass CNC lathe??? Thankx alot, Have you asked your dealer? There are several in the post library.

quote: When performing surfaces is when I seem to be getting the problem. When I turn the filtering option off it cuts fine. But I'd like to use that option.What does the gouge look like? Does it look like the arc moves are being ignored and/or substituted with line moves? Does the posted code have G2 and G3 blocks in it where the gouges are occuring?

quote: Tom SchularThis name is familar, but I can't quite place it. I'm pretty sure I've heard it around the office. Thomas Paton and Associates has been doing CAD/CAM stuff for a really long time. Tom got stared in '84 or thereabouts selling VersaCAD [1] out of the back of his van. We are pretty sure that he was the first educaitonal CAM reseller, or at least one of the first. A lot of the 'old timers' in SoCal know Tom, and keep in touch. Along those lines, I have a cadapple system, compete with CP/M card and *two* floppy drives in my office for anyone who wants to experence a blast from the past. I'm not sure if it still works, as I'm afraid to plug it in... [1] Come to a show we are at and look inside one of our free-standing displays. They still say 'VersaCAD' on them...

quote: Interesting fact that I found out last month. The parallel port sim can be traded for a usb sim at your dealer, I only found this out about one month ago; this makes sim swapping ultra convenient for front mounted usb's - it also allows for simple security rather than crawling under the desk everyday. Yup, the USB SIM can be awfully convnent. What works even better, IMO, is a network SIM. That's what I'm using at my school. One key on your server, and you can float your MC licenses, up to the number of seats you have, over as many boxes as you like. You can even check out licenses across routers if you configure it right. I can work at home, over my wireless network, without digging my key out.

quote: Is it just that they have chosen to use a unique font? Could I avoid these troubles in the future by suggesting our customer use a Mastercam friendly font?That's it alright. If they had selected a TrueType font the charecters would have mapped correctly, or you could have installed that font onto your computer. With an .SHX font, you can't do either.

quote: Chris should be *our* customer actually based on his location, so everyone chill out, try to turn the other other cheek, and we'll try to straighten things out for him tomorrow.When you do, could you possibly let us know what the problem was? Performance issues like the one Chris is experenceing on the hardware he is using are hugely frustrating for everyone invovled, so even odd-ball soluitons that fix odd-ball problems can be useful. One of the odd-ball things I would check is the paralell port configuraiton. If MasterCAM isn't able to communicate with the lock right away, it will pause while it tries again. A flaky port, port set to the wrong mode (EPP is evil) too many things connected to the port (scanners/zip drives, ect.), or a DNC cable inadvertently connected to the port are all things that can cause severe performance problems.

quote: Rick the software Volo View Express from Autodesk's can be found on my FTP hase been ther for a while if this helps.I saw that there, but was unsure what version it was. The current version of Volo View Express is 2.01, and the 1.x versions are not compatable with the current set of Volo object enablers.

Thanks Jay and James. So it's 1:00PM, Tuesday, at the MasterCAM booth then? I'll be easy to spot. Here is a picture: Rick's picture

quote: Thanks for the help guys!. If I had my way where I work anything having to do with win98, nt, xp, 2000 etc... would be replaced with linux.Win2K is way more stable and reliable than Win98 is. So much so that the two operating systems have very little in common.

You'll need to draw it that way. i.e. if the axis of the part is 1 inch from the axis of rotation, you'll need to position it that way in MasterCAM.

I dunno that not being able to handle AutoCAD specific .SHX fonts could be properly called a 'bug'. perseid88: The .SHX font files are only useful with AutoCAD. They are the 'native' AutoCAD font file, and won't be of much use in MasterCAM. To look at the .DWG file, I'd suggust you try downloaidng Volo View Express from Autodesk's web site. Here is the download page: Volo View Express download