quote: Do you mean spiraling in, morphing from your stock shape to your finish profile shape? Yes. Sounds like I could offset my finish chain and use pocket with stepover, keep tool down, huh? Other options sound good too. Thanks for the suggestions guys. You've given me a few things to try and see what works/doesn't work for me. Thanks, again. This site rules!

So, I was thinking.... I use contour ramp quite often when profiling parts. There's peel mill, cut depths, all kinds of ways to do things. In contour ramp, you set the depth per pass in Z. I was wondering how things would work if you could set the depth per pass in X/Y offset from the chain. Not exactly like multi-passes with stepover, but constant ramping in towards the chain. You could chain your finished contour, your stock contour and make one depth or multiple depth cuts, but have it ramp in to the finished contour @ .005 per pass or whatever. Just a thought, running it through my head and it seems like it would work. Just trying to decide if it would be beneficial or not. Sometimes there's a reason people don't do things a certain way...... What do you guys think?

quote: I don't really know forum etiquette. Neither do I. I love the forum and I love pokin into the Off Topic, too. I wish some people would have a tad more patience for us beginners. Some have been here almost 10 years and seem to jump us newbies for unintentional slips. We're just here for the same reason as everyone else. To help, be helped, and have a little fun. When you're surrounded by people at work all day who have no idea what you actually do or how hard it is, (Don't you just load a model in the software and hit a couple keys and, presto, perfect program, code, tool lengths, tool lists?), it's awesome to be able to pop in here and converse with your own kind. Thanks Mastercam!

I have much to learn, myself. But I will try to help whenver possible.

It's much easier to transform the geometry in lathe than to mess with planes, in my opinion.

Sorry, wasn't able to finish today. Way too much work to do. Ever have those times at work when you go to the network spreadsheet to cross something off only to find it's been replaced by 5 more things? Been like that for months for me. Plus, I'm only an amateur post editor. I am close, try to finish tomorrow or next week. Until then, "Find/Replace"

David is right. There should be a "Z, then X/Y" box in the MD or CD somewhere.

G0 T5D5 G97 S3600 M04 M8 G0 G54 X.7 Z.005 G50 S3600 G96 S1000 G99 G1 X-.0156 F.003 How's that? Still gotta work on the return (T5D0)

G0 T5 D5 Getting close, just need to get rid of the space between!

I'll give it a shot, but some of the other guys will probably beat me to it!

Fantastic advice, truly appreciated! I was hoping you would just send me one of those tapes I could listen to while I sleep and it would all just "sink in". quote: If there's one thing I learn every day is that there is more to learn tomorrow. 100000000% true! Thanks!

Many of you (CNC Apps Guy 1 and others) seem to be very well educated in the posting/programming language issues. I am only a begginer and tend to muddle through post editing. I do not fully understand how it works and it seems very complicated. Buffer, reading parameters, nci, etc.... I have not taken computer programming, but it appears to be necessary to fully understand this aspect of Mastercam. I don't have the luxury of working with someone who has this knowledge and experience. I am the "go to guy" at my place. Yet, I have very much to learn. Question: How have you done it? What's the best way to learn the in's and out's of post processors, how to tweak things and write things? Basically, how does it all work? There's many things I am determined to learn. Multi-axis, mill-turn, etc.... How do I gain the knowledge that some of you have attained? Thanks in advance!

Things can work a few different ways. I just prefer having completely separate MC's with their own CD and post. That helps me keep things straight when going back and forth.

Keep in mind I am still in X3MU1. I don't know if the same rules apply for X4. I have a PDF called "Working with Machine and Control Definition". I can e-mail it to you if you want. Again, X3, but may be helpful.

Import your part. Don't mess with your views. Use X-Form rotate, translate, et.... to get your part correctly oriented to the WCS/T/C-planes. Centerline axis of part should be located on the X-Axis of your WCS. Then, slide it left or right to your desired position and build your stock around it.

I've had issues with the level manager. If i open a new model or program, the level manager does not update. All the level numbers and names from the previous file are still up. I have to close the level manager and re-open it every time I go to a different file. Very annoying. Do you still have problems if you close the level manager and re-open it before moving/copying entities?

Check up on the MCAMX3_RREFGUIDE.PDF in the documentation folder. It states that a control file can point to only one post. My suggestion is create two completely different and separate MD's, CD's, and posts with two explicitly different names. This is what i normally do for similar machines that I need different posts for. It always works. It's also easier to keep everything straight if you keep the names the same: EXAMPLE - POST NAME: Haas TL-2 MD NAME: Haas TL-2 CD NAME: Haas TL-2 Hope this is somewhat helpful!

Are you attempting to create new T and C planes? If you enter a new view and mess with the settings in the view manager, you can end up altering the existing planes that your toolpaths are associated with. If you want all planes to have the same origin, just use "Planes" at the bottom of the screen and select "Rotate Planes". This will rotate the default plane, Top, however you want, but still keep the origin at the original "zero" location. Keeping WCS, C-Planes, and T-Planes straight can be confusing, at times. Especially if you are trying to create a plane that already matches an existing plane. My suggestion is check all available planes first. If you need to create one, be careful. I normally don't mess with them within the view manager unless absolutely necessary. The view manager is quite handy if you need to cycle through your current planes to see how they are oriented and where they are located. Only thing I don't like is you cannot zoom, pan, or rotate your view while in the view manager. Hope this helps!

Thanks, guys. I will be sure to try these and see how they compare and try the fancy slider bar when I install X4.

I will try that as soon as I install X4. I am currently still using X3MU1. Can you please tell me what the actual numbers are? Thanks!

Thanks, I've seen the post before. However, my wonderful IT department has the pic's blocked so I cannot see what I'm guessing is a screen shot of your settings. If you could type them in, I would greatly appreciate it! thanks.

I do a lot of prototype parts out of aluminum before they become castings. I am looking for the best filter settings to get the best-looking surface finishes on complex 3-d surface toolpaths. I figured the guys making molds or similar parts would have some suggestions. Question: What do you guys suggest for filter settings on surface and HST toolpaths to get the best finishes? Any other tips or tricks? Thanks in advance!

If solid, I use c-hook silhouetteboundary to get my 2d proflie. Then, orient propertly and go. Check your turret position in your machine definintion. Also check tool position/orientation in "set-up tool".

Try checking your tool orientation. Right click on the tool, edit tool, set-up tool. Make sure your spindle direction is correct and tool orientation is correct. Also check your machine definintion. Verify "turret", your version of the "cross slide" is lower.

Can you post a file or explain better? I'm not exactly sure what you're trying to do.