I agree the paperwork is overwhelming. My company had paperwork to keep track of the paperwork from the customer. Plus logging of phone calls and email to "offsite tooling liasons" and spot inspections and walk-abouts from the customer. I didn't get much programming done.

It's all about oil. Oil prices effect virtually everything. From raw plastics to trucking to pakaging etc. The world is dependent upon oil.

go with catia.

It is. This is a trickle down effect of certain global "activites". It takes energy to make steel. Energy is only derived in a few ways..burning fossil fuels, hydro-electric(dams), and nuclear(steam/turbine).

Actually in Asia right now there is a massive energy crunch going on with factories in China only up and running 8 hrs a day. People are stealing manhole covers off the streets in Taiwan to melt down. The Alex wheel factory got held up at gunpoint for about 4,000 lbs of steel.

I have had this problem myself with enclosed tool geometry. I removed the C/L of the tool as code breaker did and voila!. Mcam's default tool library looks like this. Would have saved me any hour or so had I looked.

I worked at a place where we bought a couple of their pieces for sinker and wire and then just made our own from then on. Anything modular is the way to go. Good system. They have a indexable, magnetic holding system for electrodes that is world class.

Thanks Millman! I forgot. Cadcam: I'm in Hollywood.

I used it for awhile also and it was pretty close. This was back in 98"/99". It's SEedit is kick xxxx and the post config. tool is good. It has less choices for toolpaths though kinda like an automatic camera vs a manual one with Mcam being the manual one. Been wanting to try it's "step reduction" milling toolpaths where each sucessive tool machines only the cusps of the previous one.

Me personally, I have my posts not post all the header stuff. No date, time, etc, no line numbers either. I go through all my programs from top to bottom and if for some reason my name has to be in the program then I'll just put it there. I will name the program in relation to what it's doing though.

Last I knew MCU would'nt work with Nethasp. I talked with Paul at Northwood last year and they were working on it. Maybe they fixed it?. Moved on to Vericut so I have'nt used it in a while.

I once worked with an arsonist. He was cool until he marched up to his girlfriend's apt with a can of gas and threw it through the window followed by a match. Never can tell who's sittin' next to you. Just have to be nice to everybody in case they go postal.

Give that man a raise (millman^crazy). Excellent work!

Lars.. I agree the control is one of the best. And you do get what you pay for. I once worked with a VB11 which is a 5 axis gantry mill and the company bought it new for about $269,000. This machine had non-functioning canned cycles in 5 axis mode that were the result of a un-tested software revision. It ran very rarely without trouble. I think if I paid over a 1/4 mil for a machine it had better work. I have progammed virtually all of the V series mills from 94' on up and have noticed a definite decline in quality.

Here's my 2 cents.. read the help files, check out the sample parts to see how the tp's were created and experiment with the parameters. No offense to anybody, but most college level training is b.s. as they take way too long. Any mid-career programmer can get you up to speed in at least 1/3 of the time. The best way is to get into the mix and do it. This forum is basically a worldwide resource and help comes quick around here so use it without fear. I didn't take any classes until a couple of years after I got started with V5, but I was really lucky to have a boss who let me take a loaded computer home where I proceded to hammer my way through. Good luck:)