thank you. that did the trick.

I have a simple question but am not sure of my terminology: In X4, when I open a SolidWorks part I can select edges of the part/features for toolpaths, etc. In X5, I open the same SolidWorks part, and I cannot select the edges at all. I can "see" the edges in wireframe view, but can't select them. I can open the part in X4, save it as a MasterCam file, open that file in X5, and I am able to select the edges. I know this must be a simple configuration option of some kind, and I appreciate any help. thank you, a.j. reilly

i would like to bring several parts ( different formats, some stl some solidworks) into a single mastercam file, arrange them relative to each other, then program as a single part (meaning i end up with a single program from a single work offset instead of several programs or a single program with several offsets. thnx, ret5hd

Tinhman: That worked exactly as advertised. Thnx.

I can't believe nobody has mentioned "RAM Saver" yet.

Thank you Tim, that worked exactly as I wished. I had tried this exact thing on an X2 MPFan post and it treated the # as the start of a comment, so I just lived with the ascii workaround (complete with spaces). We recently got X4, and I was tidying things up and thought I would ask here, and now it works. I didn't even re-try that option till you said it. Now, got a fix for the G41 D[#599] prob? I think I will go try a variant of the above solution first.

Well, I tried that and now get this: G43 H [ # 599 ] (even more spaces) Note: It isnt the 35 that is in quotes, it is the H[ on one side and the 599 on the other side that is in quotes. Thank you for replying.

Fanuc, X4, MPMaster One of the programming conventions at the shop where I am employed is to fomat a G43 line like this: G43 H[#599] rather than: G43 Hxxx What this does is set the length offset # to the current tool #. We do this because tool numbers are often (always?) edited at the machine and it insures that a length offset is not forgotten. In the post, I edited this line: pbld, n$, "G43", *tlngno$, pfzout, scoolant, next_tool$, e$ to this: pbld, n$, "G43", "H["35"599]", pfzout, next_tool$, e$ info: 35 is the ascii character # The output then looks like this: G43 H[ # 599] (with a space on each side of the #) Surprisingly (to me, anyway) this doesn't seem to affect how the code runs. BUT, is there a more elegant way to accomplish this? Also, the way MPMaster sets diameter offsets (G41 and G42) is more complex and it seems the best I can do is to get something like "G42 D0 Xx.xxx Yx.xxx as my output then do a global search and replace in a text editor to get this: G42 D[#599] Xx.xxx Yx.xxx). Thank you.

Thanks a lot Millman. Exactly hat I needed.