Thank you guys for getting back to me. All I need to do is retrain myself to delete the chains before reselecting. Have a great day!!!

Just wondering if anyone else has green arrows from the previous chains on a toolpath. For example, we programed a lower die set to cut 100 counterbores that are oddsize diameters. After we have the lower half done, we want to copy that operation for the upper half. We have the upper half on the screen and when we go to rechain that operation with new geometry, we have green arrows that represent the starting point of previous chains that have been cut. We are running X2 MR1 SP1 Mill Level 1 and Level 3 with Solids. Is it settings on our computers that need corrected or is this normal? Thank you for any responses

Hi all, After starting with Mastercam Version 7 Wire and working my up to Mastercam X2 MR1 SP1 Mill 3 with Mastercam Solids and doing mold tooling I have learned a lot by checking on this forum frequently. Have been doing blow mold tooling for 5 years now. We have stepped up to Mastercam Solids on our shop floor about 6 months ago. I have modifed customers math data with it successfully. Wanting to improve my capabilities, I have asked our engineers for cad data of customers product so I can create a solid model of it. I was wondering should my time and efforts be better invested in Mastercam Solids or Solidworks 2005? Thank you for any responses, David Lucas

G30 P1 will send spindle to tool change position. Our warm up programs for 5020 and U100 controls include going to preset positions for G30 P7 and G30 P8. I dont remember off the top of my head where you go to calibrate these positions. Set your zero set page for z with reference tool, "calibrate" the other tools on tool data page. I can understand your confusion, until about 2 years ago we had all okuma's then miltronics showed up. Now we have a new mazak set up and ready to learn how it wworks. Good Luck David

mick, we have a vertical and horizontal with the U100 control try this in your program G187 F600 E.003 this sets max. feed at 600ipm and cut tolerance at .003 G186 this cancels a G187 command and returns to parameter settings in control when I run 3d I manually type this in my program to speed up movements and am still able to hold tolerances. if you go to parameters and set work tolerance from .0001 to .003 you will notice some difference when you interpolate dowel holes. cant explain what super hi-cut option is or does but these commands work for us. good luck, david

Look for Country Bob steak sauce bottle with engraving all around the bottle. Thats me. Gotta love it when a plan comes together.

Thanks for the prompt replies. We are trying to use the "show desktop" icon to minimize the window but sometimes old habits die hard. Did a little experiment today with one of our engineers computer that has Mastercam loaded on it. Pulled up a simple cad drawing on my computer with no toolpaths, then minimized using "-" and the hard drive light lit up about 3 seconds. Then I went to the engineers computer and opened a complex 3D salad dressing bottle and hit "-", hard drive light bearly blinked. Both computers have the same OS. He has a faster processor though. I will do some checking into setting up another computer to communicate with. Thanks again to all, David

We are running mill 8.1 level 3 with 2000 professional. The processor is 933 mhz with 1 gig of ram. Just installed the extra 512mb of ram to get the 1 gig but this did not help with our troubles. Video card is a 3d Oxygen Lab(I think this is the correct wording). Main Menu-Screen-Config settings are using 256mb of ram. From time to time we have to drip feed up to three machining centers at the same time and communicate with a 4th vmc and still create programs on the same computer. Our problem is if mastercam is minimized with the "-" icon at the top right corner, the hard drive is so busy minimizing the window that dnc information stops long enough to alarm out at the mill. Hard drive light comes on even if no other programs are running. If you click the icon next to the "start" icon,"show desktop" icon, the window minimizes in a couple of seconds without any problems. I was wondering if anyone else has run into this situation. Is this an OS problem? Thanks for any response. David

Had the exact same problem yesterday. Changed nci file to the same on all operations then posted as usual with no trouble. With Mill 8.1.1 level 3 is there a way to set the toolplane to default to work offset #1 instead of clicking t/c plane in the toolpath parameters and activate toolplane then set to #1 ? Post is for Okuma mill. [ 11-30-2001: Message edited by: david ]

I use the Cimco program that comes with Mastercam to send programs currently. Will the "lite" version or whatever its called that we use transmit with several machines at the same time? Thanks, David

We are currently programming on the floor with two seats of mastercam. We are getting another computer to do programming on off line and want to use the current computers in a network configuration. We will be communicating to 3 maching centers via dnc-b, and two wire machines, 1 machining center, and 3 lathes via downloading programs to the controls memory. I was wondering how some other users with experience in this does it. One suggestion was to use the newest computer that we are getting with the faster processor and all the kicks and giggles that our dealer suggested as the workstation to create the programs. Then use one of our existing units as a server and the remaining unit to be hooked up to the cnc controls on the floor. Any and all comments are appreciated. Thanks in advance. Anyone using Muti-DNC or OK-DNC32? David

Hi awheeler, Dont know if this will be helpful to you but this is the way I program our wires with version 7.2. First I choose the post processor for the machine I am programming. Then I set the STCW position. For a circle, like a punch retainer, I will set the start, thread, cut and work origin at the center of the hole. Then choose wirepath, contour then select the chain I want to cut( if you choose wirepath, contour, chain, partial you will need to select the first part of your chain then click on the last part of your chain and set the start, thread and work origin close to where the start of the chain is and set the cut position close to where the end of the chain is). Then set the parameters in the prm file. Post it and start burning. I hope this helps. Good Luck! I would be happy to look at your file if you want to email it to me at [email protected] David

43 years old and trying to teach this older dog new tricks. Started working for my company as a hole driller 5 or 6 years ago. I was and still am fascinated with the capabilities of the CNC machinery we have. I asked my boss if there would be a chance to learn to run them in the future, response was learn mastercam. Three years later I started to run the wire machines. With all the help on this forum and EDM TALK forum I tought myself to do everything that has came through our shop so far on the wires( by far not an expert). The better I get with mastercam the more advances come my way. I moved up to running our machining centers full time not to long ago, have done a few 3D jobs and loving every bit of it. We are a small shop but with a lot of hours of work and practice on my home pc and dedication to do whatever at work to do the job, the rewards are good for me. Thank you all very much.

Thank you for your responses. I will try to respond to all replies. I have set the fifo transmit buffers everywhere between 1 - 16, no luck. We can use either computer to transmit nc programs. The new and old computers each use com2 for the mill that we do dnc milling. On the new computer I kave switched the cable and settings from com2 to com1, no luck transmitting dnc. On the new computer we can send nc programs to the other cnc machines with no trouble(none have dnc capabilities). Settings at the machine for dnc is set for baud-9600, parity-none, stop bits-1. Settings have been duplicated on the computers. I get the same alarm at the machine by sending the nc program, file, next menu, communicate. I set the baud, parity and stop bits to the same settings, again no luck. The new computer has a faster processor in it, would that matter?

Having troubles with sending programs from one of our computers and was hoping that someone could relate. We have our 2 computers set up side by side and for some reason our newer one(about a year and a half old now), has trouble sending programs to the mill that we do our 3d work on. The new computer communicates sometimes without giving an alarm(parity not set right). I have opened both screens to control panel-system- com1 & com2 properties and set them the same. I have also set MC screen-configure-communications to the same settings. We use cncedit to send programs to the mills and wire machines. I have also opened the setup window in the cncedit for each port on each computer to verify that each have the same settings. The newer computer sends programs just fine to one our mills and both of the wire machines without a problem. I have also took the cable that plugs into com2 from the older computer thats works and plugged it into the newer computers com2 without any luck sending programs. I think I have eliminated any cable trouble by switching the cables. The strange thing is that once in a while the newer computer will send a few programs correctly. Go figure. A computer shop in town suggested disabling windows from powering down after a preset time, did that, didn't work. They suggested deleting and reformating the hard drive and then reloading windows( yikes). Using version 7.2 with an Okuma VMC. Any help is appreciated. Thank you much, David

Thanks for your help, BerTau. I searched for toolend in our post but nothing like it existed. I got to looking and at the toolchange section and the end of program section, the *zh, *xh and *yh lines had been disabled with a #. I removed the # and now the nc program has what I want. Thanks, David

I have been fortunate enough to run one of our Okuma VMC for the past 2 weeks or so and I have been able to do a little bit of tweeking to our post processor to make very little editing after the post. One problem I haven't been able to fix is when I select refence point for the tool on a contour, at the end of that toolpath it goes up in Z and across in X and Y but the M9 for the coolant off isnt read until it reaches the reference point. I would like for the M9 to be read when it reads the Z refernce point. I have looked up and down in the post processor file to find where it gets this information, but with no luck. When a drill cycle runs, the coolant is turned off at the right time. Could someone tell me where to look for the line of information I need? I am using version 7 with a post that has been modified by Mastercam when our company became a customer. Granted, the worst that is happening is that coolant is running in mid air for a very short time, from the end of the toolpath to the reference point, but it would be a little less messy and be a little more professional looking when a customer happens to be looking at the operation while it is running. I am trying to make our post processor almost edit free. Thanks for any advice, David

Depth cuts was set on absolute and -.005 for the minimum and -.1 for the maximum. Stock to leave value is .002". [This message has been edited by david (edited 03-13-2001).]

Thanks for the quick response. I was using a depth of cut of .03".

Thank you, everbody, for your responses. I used Charles method to get the job done. Very tricky, but effective, Charles. How in the world did you come upon that one? Now I have a version of Corel Draw and I am getting ready to try to figure out how to use it. Best regards, David

I am using mill 7.2 level 3. I have an aluminum part that has a slot .3 wide x .08 deep x 5 inches long. On the last 2 inches of the slot there is a taper that expands from .3" to 1 inch and increases in depth by .005". I created a surface on the flat and on the taper and tried to do a toolpath with a .25" flat endmill. I used surface-rough-pocket with cutter center chosen for tip comp., but with no luck, the cutter stopped at the .08" depth. I also created a tool boundary chain to restrict the tool to the .3" width. Am I going about this project all wrong or am I not selecting something right? Any and all responses are appreciated. Thank you all, David

I am needing to do an engraving job and the drawing I have to work with is in bitmap format. Is there anything in Mastercam that I can convert the drawing into something I can make toolpaths from? Any help is appreciated. Thank you

We are using MC 7.2 mill level 3. I was wondreing if there is anyone that uses the highfeed c-hook on a regular basis and if it is a simple procedure to setup the parameters for our Okuma milling center. Advice and suggestions are appreciated. Thank you

Thank you for the help. I was able to do exactly what I needed to do. After drawing the two chains at the correct length and depth, I used transform toolpaths to transalate to the other locations and get the job done. ------------------ David

I was wondering if there is a way to drill through the top wall of a 3" tube with 1/4" thick wall and rapid down to within .100" of the bottom wall and resume the drilling operation. I have a situation where we have a 3" square tube that gets 50- 9/16" holes through the top and bottom walls. How can I utilize Mastercam to do the program and not drill at a given feed rate all the way from the top to the bottom? Thank you in advance, David ------------------ david