Hi Mick, Ok, I'm in. Some info for others seeking to move forward. I found out that I needed to link my email account to my Hasp key by downloading and running the code generator found on Mastercam dot com. I usually run Mastercam on an XP box in the shop and on a laptop running Win 7 64 bit Pro at home. Since the code generator apparently doesn't run on XP, I needed to download the code generator onto the laptop with the Hasp plugged in and configured, and run it to link everything up. Then, poof, everything instantly appeared on the download page. A ton of material including the SDK's for the CHooks all the way back to X5. Awesome. It looks like the Chooks are the most mature and inclusive of the API's but it looks like a bear trying to match up the right version of the Microsoft Visual compiler to the right SDK. For that reason I'm going with the C# and Visual Basic .NET solutions. My C++ application runs 25 pages of dense code so it won't be fun reporting but it will be easier in the long run to keep current. I've already run into a small problem that you might be able to help with. I have a VB script that uses the ShellAndWait command to run an external exe file with an NCI file as one of the arguments in the command line: I setup the strNciFilename in advance then append it to the path to my NCI directory in strCommandLine like this: strCommandLine = ("c:\mcam9\mill\nci\Dosomething.exe & " " & strNciFileName Call ShellAndWait(strCommandLine, 1) As you can see it's pointing to my old V9 path to the NCI directory and works perfectly. I would like to point to my X5 NCI directory which was set up automatically in the X5 install to be c:\users\public\documents\my mcamx5\mill\nci\ but the ShellAndWait command gets hung up on the space between "my" and "mcamx5" in the X5 path. It keeps trying to execute an exe named "my.exe" which of course doesn't exist. Is there a trick to get the ShellAndWait command to be able to see my X5 NCI directory? I guess I could just create a new NCI directory with a path with no spaces. ??? Jim

Hi Mick, Still getting "access denied" after successfully logging in to Mastercam dot com while using the link for the CHook documentation. Hope to download any info/tools on the SDK's, etc. that are available, to get started. I can email you my Hasp key# if that would be helpful. We've been with you guys since V3, many, many moons ago. Also I'll give my local reseller a call today to see what I can shake loose at their end. Thanks again for your help. Jim

Hi Mick, And thanks for the tips. I decided to go the C# route as it seems to be the right choice for managed database ops and it's pretty similar to C++. So I did download the Visual Studio Community 2013 and it's awesome. I have already ported my database stuff to SQL and it miraculously worked the first time through. I know you said I would need an older version to match up with the X5 version I'm running right now, but I see there's a compiler directive to port the code out to earlier versions of .NET (3.0, 3.5, etc.) if necessary. Has anyone out there had any success compiling DLLs for an older Mastercam version. Would the SDK I need also have to be older to match? Also I wanted to retrieve the info on the CHooks you offered in the more recent post but I'm getting an access denied on the page, even though I'm good for everywhere else. Or do I need to be on current maintenance to get that stuff? Thanks, Jim

Hi, I am an X5 user and I'm looking to update my older VB scripts from V9 to work with my X5 installation. I have a few questions: I'm not that experienced with the .NET languages like C# but I've written a few dozen C++ stand-alone utilities and quite a few VB scripts to operate on Mastercam NCI files. I'm looking to migrate my former free-standing C++ programs to operate inside Mastercam. There would be fairly substantial database operations involved so which of the 2 languages (C++ or VB) would you recommend for me moving forward? Also I would be favoring whichever language is more likely to be supported in the future. You used to offer the chooks years ago...is that still actively updated and anticipated to carry into the future? Incidentally, my X5 installation doesn't seem to have the VB .dll nor any of the sample scripts in VB...is that unusual? What would I need to do to get that setup properly? I believe I have .net 3.5 installed on this box but not sure. Also I have Visual studio 2010 Express C++ that I've used for compiling my stand-alone utilities. I will be looking to download samples in VB and C++ eventually to re-familiarize myself...so what else would I need to get going? Thanks, Jim