ya, as per hardmill above, you have a choice to ramp a entry hole with a cutter that cuts on face (feedmill ). Then, you can use mastercams dynamic mill,full depth, 6-8 fluted solid carbide,v-small stepover. Go for it, you see! Keith advised top of the range Fraisa.

Machine dry Use Solid carbide high feed cutters as mic6 said. Also I would go for good branded cutters when conditions are extreme. They are little expensive but pays you back. Not to mention the toolpathing--even chip load, ramping, leads, rounding etc With Ceramic you have to find break even cost analysis, how many parts?

Just quote it with the:- Best thought, Make an experienced guess, Consult fellow coleages,ask for opinion, Can use mcam as a calculator by quickly doing some cutterpaths, See whether u have competitive market around,and fear if others can do cheap, Think smart/cleverly to do the job, Profit & loss are part of bussines--do not worry!! Either way you will learn. Loose but dont loose the lesson.

Lake Zurich!! Swiss made of course....Studer Just joking

convert

1 Try Changing Vector Lengths if it makes difference ? 2 Tolerance? 2 Cents

Surface Finish Parallel is the most simple,easy quick and reliable Toolpath strategy . Try altering some values in Parameters for eg:- Instead of 0 deg or 90 deg try changing the angle to 5 or 7 deg. Check Gap settings , try put arc rad 0 and length 0 Have a small boundry, throw the toolpath, keep changing the boundry till you discover which area the arc is alarming. 2 Cents

I think do Transform #1 ,use Transform by coordinate, lets say 1 Have 3 more duplicate WCS set with different WCS #'s Then Copy Paste Transform #1. Change The Work coordinate in Parameters, to lets say 2 Then Copy Paste Transform #1. Change The Work coordinate in Parameters, to lets say 3 Then Copy Paste Transform #1. Change The Work coordinate in Parameters, to lets say 4 2 Cents

The definition of "Ease of use" lies within the skill of operator. The truth is once the operator learns the tools/buttons where they live and how they operate, the Software becomes easy!! Now for 2d 3d Both softwares are alike. Surfcam has little better 2D Strategies. Surfcam had long ago TrueMill which is mastercams now so called Dynamic Milling. For 3 Axis they both are same. Surfcam has simply layed the strategies but MC has strategies scattered in two places ( Normal and High speed) Having said High speed but results may not be great. If you have 5 axis and are going to use toolpath 5 axis for your parts, then MC has more strategies. Jerome if you buy 1SC then you have 1MC and 3 SC,,,sure one day you will oudate MC and will need 1 more SC. what about buy 1 more MC and have 2 SC and 2MC seats. That way you have power of both. ....2cents

Jerome, what do you use these sofwares for? 2D,2-1/2D 3D,Mold Making 4 Axis 3+2 OR at last 5Axis simultanious It may depend

Depends upon your "CAD-Modeling" plus the "Mold- Making" skills you should be able to extract the Electrode shape that may fullfill the Cavity Shape. Yes it is the same shape as Cavity (sometimes it is not 1 piece but may be broken into few number of electrodes with necessary overlap) During machining, overmachine the electrodes to accomodate the spark gap. Depends on your EDM skills, you may need :- 1 Finisher Electrode Or 1 Finisher + 1 Rougher Or 1 Finisher + 1 Medium +1 Rougher I Dont think if there is some tutorial about it. Have Fun!!

A Very Good Topic!!

High Performance Cutting Condition????

Custom tool!! voaoo! JParis could you pl shed some brief light to make custom Lathe tools.

Why does a toolpath show up "repaired NCI"?

Import someone!! Help them get H1, Plenty talent accros the globe.

There must be a way with your way, another way is:- Under Multiaxis, pick the constant Z strategy, play with the settings/parameters. This will do exactly what you want to accomplish.

""backplot the toolpath and use the backplot options to have separate colors"" Set it permanently in config. This works and does the great job. Just the way mastercam works!!

Roller Burnishing

Is it realy absolutely needed to post a heidenhain? just keep life easy and post an ISO prog. You machine will understand that well too. ISO is far easy. 2cents

Flowline is the most "touch of a button type toolpath". Things dont go wrong with that. Just keep trying some different values/settings

Yes there is way I suppose. Create total 4 copies of the same tool with same T no. In tool description you can brief them to be a Spot, Csk, Engrave or Chf indipendently and assign the S, F there. Now,keep picking the respective tool when toolpathing. Force tool change in parameter page is one way. While you post,just accept the prompt, "different tool with same tool no" Your post cane be made understand this situation if you want to.

Tool Crib people can create/update tools for MC users with this!! Hope am right?

Scale up/down by 25.4. Easy!!

Check surface dirction ( The Surface Normals!). All should be outward. Other than patch work, capping or some surface extentions I do not recreate surfaces. ( I respect Customer design as is)