I called our reseller today, the guy I talked to didn't think they do that. He did say the Mastercam corporate offices offered a class on posts. He told me to call them back on monday when their head post guy would be back from vacation and talk to him. He seemed kinda bummed out when I asked about it, and I guess that is because we wouldn't necessarily be paying them to modify our posts anymore.

No I didn't ask our reseller but I will. I didn't think about them.

Are there classes or books on the posts and how to modify them? And if so where would I find info on the class? We have a few problems in our post and now more problems due to switching to x4, and it would be nice for one of our engineers to go take a class on the post so that we can fix this in house. As well as modifying our existing post to match what we want the program to look like for our newer machines.

Thanks Mic that worked. Had to play around with it to get it exactly how I wanted it but that was fine.

I'm using a high feed cutter, which is awesome by the way, cutting a pocket with a .02 depth of cut. I want to use a helix entry because I can't drill an entry hole bigger than the cutter itself. I need it to make about take about 4 helical cuts at .005 each cut to reach the .02 DOC. I can't figure out the Helix entry parameters to get what I want. Any help is greatly appreciated. I'm using X3 Thanks Jon

6 min 13 secs Dell Precision PWS 390 2 GB of RAM Win XP Pro In Device Manager under processors it has listed 2 Intel Core 2 CPU 6600 @ 2.40 GHz Not sure if that means I have 2 processors or if its just reading the dual core processor as 2 processors

I got around it by using 3d curve in the selection process for 5 axis curve instead of using the surface, which in turn will save me the time of having to create the surface in the first place. I was trying to use all the loops to create one surface, and it worked the other times it was just hanging up this one time.

Hi guys, I am having a problem in x3. I am trying to create a surface for a 4th axis cut that race tracks around the part. I've made 4 lines of the same length just different z depths, then projected them on the surface. I then copied(translate) them .05 in y. Connected the ends with lines, then used the fillet command to make them radius'. I then used ruled/lofted surface to try and create the surface, selected each loop, then clicked ok. It then has a little note saying that it is breaking up contours and it never does anything after that. And I end up having to force it to shut down. Any ideas? edit: I've let it sit for at least 20 minutes before forcing it to shut down.

Ok it lumped the drive in there with the check surfaces. I went in there and selected the outer wall as the drive and then it created the toolpath. I noticed that it was larger than the flowline but noticed that it was slightly faster. It still has an area where it leaves the surface and engages elsewhere, but no where near as bad as the flowline. But I have discovered the toolpath editor today and figured out how to use it to remove all the excess moves.

well let me ask you this... I tried to duplicate the toolpath that you created, but failed. The toolpath I created said there is no drive surface, yet the one you created shows no drive surface either. Am I missing something? Also why do you prefer this toolpath to the flowline toolpath? btw thanks for your help

LOL Did you just put that there? Cause I swear I was looking not even 45 mins ago and it was not there. Maybe I should go get my eyes checked

^ Where is that file located? Cause I can't find it anywhere.

Ok the file is here. The toolpaths in question are 59 and 61. Thanks again guys for helping me out.

I will upload the file tomorrow when I get to work guys. Our server went down today before I could do it and the IT guy was working on it when I left. Thanks for all the replys!

Josh, I'm not familiar with all the options in the hsm section. I tried it but I guess I had something wrong cause it said toolpath failed.

Well I've tried all different things to try and get rid of it. And nothing has worked, There should be a continuous motion or something so that the tool stays on the surface the whole time until it finishes it.

The surface curves in both the vertical and horizontal directions. I am not familiar with the blend toolpath or the horizontal area. Can you tell me more about them?

I've created several finish flowline toolpaths but it appears that mastercam is putting in unnecessary movements in the toolpath like retracting in one area and plunging in on another on the same surface all I want it to do is move back and forth as it goes down and dont leave the surface until it finishes that surface. How can I prevent mastercam from doing this so I don't have to spend a day editing the program to remove all these extra movements? Using X3 See Pics for example Full toolpath view: Upclose toolpath view:

No it didnt say that anything was incorrect. If I did a backplot it showed the tool. I ended up exiting out of it and reopening it and it showed the tool then. Everything appears to work correctly Colin thank you for all your help!

I created a new tool and changed the parameters to what you suggested but when I ran verify the tool would not show when it got that op. So I can't verify that its cutting correctly. Any ideas?

It undercuts yes, but the wall thickness is supposed to be .060 all the way down up to the radius on the inside there. The tool that we are using is a special made slot mill, is it because that maybe we have it defined wrong that it is producing incorrect cuts for me? When I created an stl file of that part and did the compare stl file in verify it clearly shows the walls are a bit thicker on each end on opposite sides. Sorry if I am confusing you its kinda hard to explain what I am getting on my end.

Hi guys it appears that when I use a surface finish contour toolpath it will not follow the surface correctly whereas the surface finish flowline will only if I uncheck the check flowline motion for gouge box. Otherwise it will not create a toolpath along the entire drive surface. Not sure if there is anything I can do to create the toolpath that I want short of drawing the toolpath in there myself and doing a contour toolpath. Which, because of time constraints, is the least desireable option. The file is located here. The surface finish contour paths are 56 & 57 in the Operations Manager. I'm using Mastercam X2 MR2 SP1

Ok now this is about to aggrevate me, when I try to create a surface finish flowline tool path and use the surfaces that I created it doesnt create the toolpath that I need. Its the last toolpath in the file that I am uploading here.

Ok that worked well thank you

Ok I got the toolpath to work by drawing a box around the wall and using it as the containment boundary. The toolpath appears to do what I need it to except that it is cutting at the ends of the walls as well I want it to go past the ends of the walls without touching them. How do I go about doing so? Jon