Hi Justin! It works out as you told me thanks a lot for your help! Best regards, Boris

Thank you for your detailed information. This helps me a lot to understand a little more, what is going on. You are right, I do not necessarily need the 4th axis to machine the part but this was just only an example. I initially asked for the rotary offset machining; John did here a great job with the screenshots. All siedes were eqal so I just could do the transform "around the axis" but what if the siedes are not equal? lets say i want to engrave different letters on each side of the pyramid for example. I would have to create an own toolpath for each side and let it rotate in between. Do you understand what I mean? Really thank you for your assistance! Regards, Boris

Hey guys, by the way - milling the 5-sided pyramid works. I tried it this minute! Absolute great! There was only one strange thing: After the toolpath of the first side there was an call like G55 with an x,y,z and a value. then the machine drove to a total different place where it went on with the second side. After that there was the next call with G56 and the same coordinate values except the a because of the additional 72deg. Hm What does G55-G58 mean or why does Mastercam post this command? I changed all the G55-58 to G0 and it worked out perfect all sides at the same place. I made myself familiar with the T/C Planes; O.K. but where or when do I nsert the rotation of the axis in order to mill the test2 part and which toolpath do I use here? Multiaxis, 4-Axis,...? Thank you for your patient. Regards, Boris

Hi Justin, thank you for your answer! After you explanation it is definitely a vertical mill with the exception that my rotary axis is parallel to the y-axis. After the machine is set up correctly, which toolpath is then the right to mill parts like the second file? Thank yo! Bye Boris

Hi guys, John - perfect thank you so much for this hint works out perfect! Posting your Screenshots was brilliant! This was only a test for creating toolpaths around an axis with the offset move. The next thing would be to mill something with different sides. I made a new simple test file like a cylinder head for a model engine; FILE You and Justin mentioned tool planes I think these I have to create here, right? I found a vid on youtoube to make more clear what i mean; VIDEO After 22 sec it is doing what i would like to do; Mill the top side turn about 180deg and mill the other side. o.k. forget the 5th axis in the vid :-) in my case... I read through the multiaxis tutorial and tried some things, also but all toolpaths, which came out where more than strange... It would be nice, If you could give me a hint here, also. Justin, you are totally right, the machine def is really not that how it should be but I just played around a little in order to get something what could work for me. I have a portalmill. The y-axis with atached x and z-axis including the spindle is moving over the table. The 4th axis is on the machine table parallel to toe y-axis, as mentioned. So, with the mpmaster 4axis you mean the file from this site mpmaster ? can you tell me whats the difference between the horizontal and vertical machdef? I will change the 4th axis in Mach3 to the B-axis that I can just take the mpmaster file... thanks for your help! Bye Boris

Hello experts! I have a problem regarding progamming a toolpath with my fourth axis in Mastercam X2. As Example file I have a 5-sided pyramid; As Machinetype I use the standard Mill default MM. I deleted the B and C axis in the Machine-Definition-Manger and set the A-axis to rotate around the y-axis. My 4th axis is rotating(parallel) around the y-axis. Now I want to have the toolpath generated like this: Mill the first side of the pyramid - then turn 4th axis and do next side and so on. O.K. in this case it would be an x-offset milling. can you please give me some hints how to get this working? My Mill is controlled by MACH3, by the way... here is the example file: FILE Thank you very much. Regards, Boris