I'm learning X8 Verify and trying everything out. It has Clipping Planes (xy, xz, yz) so the part can be cut to see a section. The help says the plane (a gray square) can be dragged, but its not working for me. Any tips?

I mean the actual operations, not the toolpaths. Cathedral's method is what I do now: select all and then ctrl select the ones to leave out. I would like to be able to have maybe half the ops selected, then with one click switch to the other half.

Another quick question. Is there a way to "invert selection" of operations in the Op Manager?

The control sees left or right looking from the positive end of the axis towards the negative. Does not matter which axis. With the G18 code, which is the XZ plane, then the tool axis is Y and the control sees G41 as left, looking from the positive end of the Y-axis towards the negative end of the Y-axis.

I grew up with Autocad which draws a lot like Mastercam. It was difficult learning Solidworks but now that I have, it seems more natural. What really sold me on parametric modeling, is the use of equations to control dimensions. For example, making the length = 2 x width, so whatever the width is changed to, the length always stays proportional. That's just a simple example, there's a lot more functionality to it. In Mastercam, you can go back and change some things. Like Oppiz said, Analyze allows you to change the size and location of existing drawing entities. Another function I use is Stretch, which enables you to move geometry and the connecting geometry stays attached.

I'd venture that the comp value was changed a little before the second part. The program leads in with a straight move of .0625 length and then a circular move with .0625 radius. The tool is supposed to be a 3mm diameter which has an .059 radius. If the comp was changed to be more than .0625 for some reason, like it was mixed up with a 1/16" endmill, then the comp would cause that gouge.

I did it once for kicks on a slow day. Not many lathes have a 10k rpm spindle

Try adding G0 to the Z.118 right after the G71 line.

Downside of leaving an aluminum subplate on a machine is galvanic corrosion on the machines table.

I was given a workstation with onboard graphics and it actually works well. I think it's just a matter of having enough memory that the video chip does not have to share with the cpus.

Try replacing the mouse. My $2K workstation came with a cheap mouse that never worked right.

I'd like to see a "dry run" option on the probing macros so the probe cycle can be run without a part in the machine. As it is, it will just alarm out from overtravel if you try that.

Ingenious devices. Of course, a multi-axis lathe will do the same thing a lot easier.

Thanks everyone!

We often have a need for small O.D. washers for fixturing parts. The washer would have an outside diameter just a few thou bigger than the head of a socket head cap screw. Usually we end up making or modifying standard washers to fit. I'd like to find a source to just buy them.

I could see parking the car in there and in five minutes have a convertible

It looks okay to me. I did have a problem a while back, a dulled 1" HSS endmill in steel pushed a subplate .010 out of whack. But it should be good for most else.

ugh, filter. I had the filter on yesterday and it skipped a .001 long line in the chain. I needed that line.

An extra benefit: you don't have to pump your own gas in Oregon. No sales tax either IIRC

Thanks Bob, some good ideas there. Back in the day, we used to use block skip on M8's because the machine did not have a coolant off button, so we would dry run with block skip.

After reading about what Bob is doing with multiple block skip option, I was wondering if anyone does other things with it. We have nine block skips on our machine and I'm wondering what I could use all of them for?

SP3 Diabide endmills

I liked that scissors button too. It would be even better if they had a Section tool, like in Solidworks

Colin, I just finished your post processor course and I'm looking forward to the new installment.

Solidworks is a _parametric_ modeler, which is different from Mastercam solids. In Mastercam, the geometry drives the dimensions, whereas in Solidworks, the dimensions and relations drive the geometry.