A big THANK YOU to everyone who responded. Your help and insight is much appreciated. Steven

Running a secondary toolpath as you mention might work well. Again, will have to test it and see if it solves more issues than it causes. Thank you for the feed back. Steven

Thank you for the reply. I will try your solution for test purposes, but I really don't think that step up cutting will work in my application. Thanks again, Steven

Hello all. I have installed the 2023 release of Mastercam and I am having a bit of difficulty getting my depths to work out the way I would like them to. Using the OptiRough toolpath, is it possible to recognize all flat surfaces in a cavity the way that the old "surface rough pocket" toolpath did? The results that I am getting "seems" to recognize the deepest surface but not the flat surfaces above that level. This results in additional stock left on different flat surfaces. Please advise if I am missing something, or just don't have the settings right. I read that 2023 gives you more control than did previous versions. Steven

Hello again, I currently use Visual Basic with Microsoft Visual Studio 2019 to create my nethooks in MASTERCAM 2020. Can someone pass along some code samples of using the TOOLNETAPI ? I am interested in creating holders for tools without holders, Identifying holders on tools that have them, and so on. Any samples would be most appreciated, even samples in "C", Of particular interest is being able to replace existing holder with a holder from a standard library. Can anyone help? Regards, Steven

Thank you for the additional information. Steven

Roger, Thanks for responding. Would you post a link for the ToolNetAPI for mastercam 2018 or any information regarding it? I have been looking for it without any luck. Regards, Steven

Hello all, I am currently using VB studio 2015 and I am in need of a little guidance. This is more a programming issue than anything related to the Mastercam API. If I sort through machining operations and get the slot number of each tool, what is the best way to gain access to that tool for the purpose of changing feeds, speeds, an so on? If I create a collection of all tools, can I pull out the tool that I want by knowing the slot number or tool number? Do I need to work through a FOR / EACH loop? Any ideas and help is most appreciated. I am still learning. Steven

As for what I am trying to do, I was just reading through the API help file, trying to get a better understanding. No specific applications in mind. Yet! Steven

Roger, As listed in the API document I have: Public Overrides Function Retrieve As Boolean "Updates the current operation object with any changes that have been made to the version in the Mastercam database." Steven

Thank you for the information. Does the public "Retrieve" function work in much the same way? Steven

Hello all Can someone give me a brief explanation of the following? "LoadDefaults()" What is the actual function of the method as it applies to Operations, and Tools? Where does the default data come from? Thank you for your help. Steven

Thank you, I was aware of the selection box in the machine definition. That is one of the reasons we have multiple machine definitions and posts. Some for old style, and some for "X" style. thank you for your response. Steven

Nickbe10, We use several machine definitions / posts daily. It is too easy to start programming a part and then find you have the wrong machine loaded. I am trying to find a way around it. So far, I can change "X" style to V9, but not the other way around. Still working at it though. You mention SWITCH in the CD. To what are you referring? Maybe I missed the obvious. Steven

Colin, Actually, I thought I had posted in the right forum. If not, I do apologize. I have contacted support for their input. The basis of my problem is that I am currently using both formats of coolant. The problem occurs when I load a machine definition with the "other" style of coolant. The settings are fouled up. I must then go through manually and reset the tool settings, and then reset each of the operations settings. Thought it would be nice to have a single mouse click to do the job. Thanks for responding Steven