Thanks to all for your quick responses. I tried updating my home computer drivers from the NVIDIA site without much luck. Now that I have Matt/Gcode's "how-to" maybe I can kill 2 birds with one stone. Reason I was considering an update at work was because of something that happened in Mastercam. My new system (with FX570) was showing a blue color whenever I picked one of the line option buttons. I liked. Now it doesn't. The old system never did color these buttons. I have to guess which one is selected to unselect it. Should I be looking elsewhere for this problem? Not sure when, or if, I will get the driver update done. I can download it, but have to get someone with "administrative rights" to run the .exe. Again, a big "Thank You" to all for your help. Dale

Quadro FX570 and FX540 video cards? Can I go to this site, download, and be done? http://driver-pro.com/related/english/spec...o-card-drivers/ I'm not the brightest bulb in the chandelier when it comes to this type of stuff. Any steps I should be aware of when updating them? Other than maybe having to reboot?

Saying I feel a little foolish is putting it mildly. Must have been half asleep. I was only looking at the XZ before tool went home. It was making another pass before that. I left the default DOC at .1 because the front of the part is about .7. The .05R on the front caused it to make 2 passes where I was figuring on only one pass. Moderator, please delete this thread. Thanks.

7/8 inch alum. running -5 degree taper from X.875Z-.75 to face. Don't want to rough turn full length. Using Finish Lathe Toolpath I can define how much to leave and shorten the geometry in Lead Out Adjust Contour, and it outputs what I want. Using Rough Lathe Toolpath...problems. With "Use stock for outer boundary" it turns to X.8947Z-1.0324 with nothing in the Lead Out Adjust Contour section. If I shorten the geometry by .35, it turns to X.875Z-.9199. If I lengthen the geometry by .2, it turns to X.8392Z-.7151 (more like what I am looking for). This is counterintuitive to me, and makes no sense. If I disable stock recognition, nothing in Lead Out Adjust Contour, it turns to X.7813Z-.3846. What? If I lengthen geometry by .5 in Lead Out Adjust Contour, it turns to X.8249Z-.6337. This makes more sense, but why does lengthening the geometry by .5 result in turning only .2491 further? Why is it stopping so short in the 1st place? I defined .01 in X & Z for amount to be left.

Do not want the G83. G1. I do need to get a custom drill cycle made for the Hardinge deep drilling subprogram.

Some of our old posts didn't convert to X2 very well. Dealer set us up with new ones. Trouble is some are using G83 for drilling. I don't see a switch for it like I did for the canned thread, turn, face cycles. I did send an email to the dealer, but thought I would also check here. Depending on how busy they are I could hear back in a few minutes, or maybe tomorrow. Been a few hours. I did get a work-around for the time being, but it isn't right. Had to hard code the G1 as it would only output a G0. Don't have enough post experience to find what else has to be changed. thanks, Dale

SuiteFactory here. We are a smaller company. 41 cnc's, I think. Not familiar with the other software. I believe SuiteFactory is very versatile. Allows addition of packets and much more. Don't ask me, tho, as I don't use them for lathes. Just had the mill guy mention it a couple times.

Greg. Very nice! We have one Okuma in the shop, and it is a lathe. Other lathe programmer does the programming for it, but I was able to follow your code. I do get to play with it once in a blue moon. Been teaching myself Macro B programming (Fanuc controls). I didn't think MC could handle this type of programming, but I'm not so sure now after reading this thread. Looks like it could be done. How do I go about modifying my post for this type of programming? Should I even give it a try? Is it already possible, and I just don't know how to use it? I've done some post modifying, but am not anywhere close to being in the same league as most of the guys posting here. I think one of the things holding me back from learning more is that I only program for lathes. Plus I don't have much time at work for playing with MC. Always plenty of other work that needs doing. Also, I would love to learn how to use cantext like I see it being used here.

Sorry about not getting back sooner. Gave a printed copy of this thread to the other programmer. Not sure how far he got, but he still wasn't having any luck. I asked him if he had checked this statement out. "Make sure you have read/write access to the Mastercam install folder...". He hadn't. Couldn't find the install folder. Did see an uninstall folder, tho. Also he must have made a no-no change along the way. Now the post outputs until it gets to the G71 cycle and stops. (Only need to run the one tool.)

Other programmer has imported his tooling and material libraries. He uses the material libraries to set his feeds and speeds. Trouble is all the edited values are 100% after being imported into X2. Is there a way to import these files and have them retain the edited values? Thanks.

We have not only gotten our post processors setup so we can finally start using X2, but just got new computers. Now we need to set all the defaults. Other lathe programmer tells me he can't get them to 'stick'. Did a search on "setting defaults", but came up empty. Anyone care to give step-by-step directions on how to do this? They were easy to set in v9, but like a lot of other things, they aren't so easy to set in X2. Thanks.

wcarmn. Like you (& many others, I'm sure) we only use line numbers on the 1st line of an operation. Except our posts are set up to put out the tool's offset times 100. We have a lot of subspindle lathes, and want to differentiate between T0101 on the front spindle, and T0121 on the subspindle. Our headers are set up to output the date on the 1st line. Second line gets the customer's company name, part number, material description, short operation description, and machine the program is for. Third line gets the REV. number. All these items are easily inserted into the post by you. You only need to know the format. It is in the MC manual. As already stated, Mastercam will put out a tooling list for you. Standard MC list wasn't what we wanted. We don't need, want or use the parenthesis since our DNC doesn't output anything to the control until after it sees an asterisk. Nor do we need or want the tool manufacturer's part number for the tool. As you can see, MC is quite flexible on these type of things...if you didn't already know it. Lathe old or new style canned cycles (G71-G76) are controlled by a switch. Easy change to make. Getting a post that will run on your machines is relatively easy. Fine tuning it to put out exactly what you want to see (and remove a lot of unnecessary code) can take time. BUT it is well worth it in my opinion. I don't like having to edit a post any more than absolutely necessary. (I will edit out code that doesn't need to be there, and slightly modify lead ins/lead outs when MC can't be made to output exactly what I want. It would run fine, just not look like I want it to!) And believe me there will be times (at least on lathe) that you will have to modify the post because MC can't be made to put out exactly what you want. I don't care what anyone else says about this. There are some things MC just...can't...be...made...to...do. I can't comment on mills, but don't expect a post to be right the first time unless it is a simple 2-axis lathe, and you have supplied the dealer with EVERY little detail.

Thanks Steve. Not at work now, but will try Monday. Pretty sure I was already at Settings-Customize. Will have to see what I was doing wrong that I couldn't get further. Not in Categories, maybe?

Reseller rep was in last Monday for some training. Showed us how to set up a custom 4-operation section for the tool bar. Remember how to get to the C-hooks, but don't remember 1st thing he did to start creating the custom tool bar section. Didn't have time Friday to look for it myself. Did try helping the other programmer for a few seconds while he was attempting to add the same custom section to his computer. (Example was done on my computer.) Can't reach rep for another week. How do I start the new tool bar section? Thanks.

Semi-retired office manager asked me today if the new computer was any faster than my old one. Told him I ran a benchmark test on both of them. The new one was almost exactly 3 minutes faster. He told me that was nothing. Going to the bathroom would take that long. Told him "Okay, next time boss comes to me because a job is running 5 seconds slower this time than it did last time...on a different machine, I will send him to see you. You can tell him 5 seconds is nothing to worry about. Time is money in their pocket." Afraid I let him have both barrels for several minutes. He has the same attitude as the owners and IT guy. Squeeze a nickel til the buffalo cries 'Uncle'. Step on a $20 bill to pick up a quarter.

See you posted while I was typing. Typical

You didn't include the face as part of your chain, did you? If so, face first, then do the rough turn. Remember...lead-in/lead-out are your friends. If your chain starts with a line, then there are a couple ways to do it. Usually I turn off the lead-in, and extend the geometry until I get the dimension I want. If the first selected entity is a radius, then you are going to have to 'add a line' to get it to start in the clear. However, you won't be able to start at .025 unless roughing with a 1/64R tool. The line has to be bigger than the radius of your tool, or it won't start in the clear. If you want the face to be part of the chain, then you will have to 'add a line' for that also. Course there may be someone here that can make it start at the same dimension as the tool radius or less. If so, I'd like to know how it's done. I haven't figured out how, now could our reseller.

Thanks guys. Been reading PC magazines off-and-on for the past 25-30 years. Figured he was full of it. He (and others in command) want to do things the absolute cheapest way. Usually it's false economy. Save 10% on a drill. Never mind the fact that the more expensive drill lasts 10 times as long.

Just got 2 new Dells. Came with 1GB of RAM. IT guy tells us that another gig won't speed things up. I find this hard to believe. Every PC magazine article on speeding up your computer I've read over the years has said the same thing. Add more memory.

Haven't machined burnouts in a few years as we bought a Jet Machining Center, but as I recall the US735 insert made by Mitsubishi was the best of those we tried. Know we tried Kennametal, Sandvik, and Seco and probably a couple others.

Grease. No way will the end points of the thread and bore taper match if your hole size is anywhere near the correct diameter. Taper will end quite a ways before the end of the thread. I layed out my pipe threads using the Machinery's Handbook. We use 6-step gages to check the bore. If I bore to the mean, and then use a lay-down NPT insert to thread with, the 6-step gage will be at the maximum diameter or even over. This tells me that the offset on the inserts should be larger. Since we run small parts, I normally bore close to the high limit. This helps with chatter because there is less tool pressure.

I have to agree with Phil, tho I have no experience with Haas lathes so I wouldn't venture a guess as to what the correct feed code should be. S3000 would be about 150 sfm which is pretty darn slow! We thread 316 SS at 365 sfm with the normal threading inserts we use. Most of the lathes we have had will thread at least at 120 ipm. This equates to S3800 so your S300 is way too slow. That slow is not good for the insert. Material will stick to it and either chip the insert or build up giving a nasty looking thread. As an example, several years ago I tested roughing inserts on 420 SS. First test was on a small part where SFM went down to 245. Insert from one company wouldn't last more than 10 pieces. Yet when tested on a part large enough to keep RPM within the specified sfm for the insert, it was one of the best. Insert kept chipping on the smaller part.

As stated above, the pitch given was for UNF 2A threads, not UNJF threads. Pitch for 7/16-20 UNJF-3A is .4019/.4050. External threads have a controlled root radius. Root radius tolerance is .0075/.0090.

I altered the section under prcc_call_end$ #Rough canned cycle end Don't know how to insert code like you guys do, so I have to cut-and-paste. Here is the section where I made the change. I almost always preview my post before submitting. When I previewed this post, I saw that the pound sign was missing before my first comment. Made the change, and no longer have the unwanted sfm output. As they say, "My bad." [ #Add the finish spindle speed to the first move speed = n1_ss #Mastercam is reporting 0 and 2 backwards for parameter 10124 #Note that G71 type 1 and 3 are never allowed (can't change Z dir) if g71type = 2 | g71type = 3, pbld, *n$, *string3, e$ #DEW-deleting *speed, removes sfm in G71 if g71type = 1 | g71type = 0, pbld, *n$, *string3, *speed, "W0.", e$ #DEW-no help removing *speed, ] else, [ if omitseq$ = one & rc3 = size3 + one, pbld, *n$, *string3, e$ else, pbld, n$, *string3, e$ ] Thanks for showing me how to delete all the M8 codes without having to find and delete each one individually. Should have realized there was an easier way.

Should have mentioned that some of our lathes require the M8 while others don't. Sorry.