We've cut mat. that hard before with carbide, but it was a lot of trial and error. 40-100 SFM with .002/.004 ipr. Like Odell said need to keep it cool. All we use for parting off is either Iscars DGN inserts or Kennametals NGD inserts if they'll reach. Ceramics will work, but the smallest I've seen is 3/16" wide, which is a lot of wasted material. Or quote dept (all former machinists). is pretty good at knowing what tools are required and adding extra stock if needed.

Yup, it's quite annoying when all you do is add a comment and then dirty it is. It was explained to me that MC see's the adding of text as a hard change and makes it dirty. Never paid much attention, but I wonder if it only happens when you add text and not change it? I've always just canceled (red X) if I don't change anything, and the op doesn't go dirty.

Check the settings of your RDP connection by right clicking on the RDP icon and select edit. Go to experience and make sure your connection is set for LAN (10mbps or higher). The Quadro needs to be on the pc that has MC installed on it. I believe you need to have a network HASP and license key to do this, but not sure on that. Also make sure both pc's have a 10/100 NIC or better yet a 10/100/1000, and make sure you have at least cat5 cable, cat6 cable would be better. We tried this a few years ago (installing MC on a Windows 2003 with TS and using RDP) and didn't have much luck with it. Let me know how you make out.

Top/Front, foolish do it any other way IMHO. More often then not if a job is sched. for a HMC it stays there (especially on our 50 taper Okuma), so that way I can prog. to the machines capabilities (no way a 40 taper VMC (all our VMC's are 40 taper) can run the same prg as a 50 tap HMC). We do have a 40 taper HMC, and if thats where a job is scheduled to run thats where it's programmed to. If a job is switched to the VMC, I just use Cimco to rotate the prg. and make any format changes (usually takes 10 min. or so) necessary after the prg. is completed. I may do the other op's for a VMC, but only if scheduling says it will stay there, if not HMC it is. Thats my story and I'm sticking to it.

We're both AS9100 and ISO certified, and no where in our policy does it state how programs are to be created, just that once a program/process is proven out to make a good part it needs to be documented and controlled (this only happens for customers that require AS9100). If a need arises to change the prg. the part has to go through QC again and both the engineer and the inspector need to sign off on the changes and a paper trail is needed that documents the change was made and why. AS is more about paper work and control than anything. Sometimes I prg. manually (especially if I already have a prg that is really close and only needs a few edits), and then sometimes it's MC.

I always leave the create arcs turned on. Mach. def. has minimum arc rad. at .0001, maximum at 400", but I also use the Fadal specific post. I've done passes like that before with no problems. Can you post/e-mail the whole toolpath, I'd like to put it in one of our Fadals. Also where is X-Y zero in relation to the center of the arc?

Couple of other things to try. Not sure if this applies to your lathe, but you can try putting some thick rubber between the tool block and the turret. We have some 1/4" thick rubber strips with holes for the tooling block bolts that help alot with chatter. Tighten it down as you normally would. Another thing to try that we've had good luck with are de-vibe bars. We make our own by drilling out the center and filling it with melted lead. Can you get a heavy metal bar?

Ceramics all the way, unless you have a tolerance of +/-.005 or tighter, then use carbide. Kennametal KY1540 or Greenleaf WG300. 700 SFM when cutting scale, 900 to 1100 in clean cuts. 1/2" button (RNG-45) with 1/8" DOC when roughing use .007 feed, finish cut are usually .05 or less with 1000 SFM and .011 feed. We also use SNG-656 square inserts for serious roughing. .300 DOC, 700 sfm with .0055 feed. RNG-45 time in cut is 5-6 minutes in clean material, 4 or less if you're cutting scale. SNG-656 time in cut 4 minutes or less. Greenleaf (best ceramics out there AFAIC) has programming methods in their book which help alot. We cut Inco and Rene88 on a daily basis like butter. I can send you one of our programs to show you how we do it. Edge prepping the stock is probably the most critical thing.

Is there anything in your work shift offset? Is there an active G54-59 offset?

To many ways to kill the same bird. On the mills we program to part profile with the X/Y zero's at the same location that print dim's are coming from (comp. type = control, direct. = left, comp = tip.) This way if the operators see an X-2 they can find the feature on the print easily. This works well, so if the oper. has to adjust CC he can tell he's changing the right tool because of the size listed in the tool table. Lathes, we use comp. direction = left, type = computer, and I select the TNR thats on the s/u sheets (seen to many oper's that can't remember the simple things). Our s/u sheets spell everything out. The engineers decide, I prg., they run it. The only real hassle is if we have to change the TNR, I have to redo the toolpath.

Figured why not. John, why don't you leave the training course to us poor smucks that need it :-). If I don't get one, I'm going postal!

I've used Iscar's multi-master cutters in similar situations as your's with good results. We ran 2545 rpms' with a feed of 163 IPM with air and not coolant. Kept fracturing inserts with flood coolant, to bad they aren't coolant thru.

Iscar & Ingersoll. We use Iscars FF FWX and FF EW style cutters for bigger parts, and their Multi Master line for smaller parts. Work pretty good. We've also had minimum success with Kennametals style.

What about buying MC Design LT? The shop bought this just for that reason. The price is pretty reasonable. I have the X3 version (X4 at work), so if I start drawing at work I just save it as X3 to a thumb drive and then take it home. Not sure how it would work if you have tool paths.

I don't know about the Lenovo program, or who wrote it, but I do know that I had a problem with one of the Microsoft mouse programs back in X3. If I remember correctly it messed with some menu's and backplot, but not reading stp files. I would un-install it to see if it cures the problem.

Alt+D brings up the drafting globals.

We cut a lot of Ti 6-4 and for roughing with 3/4" square and round inserts we run at 150 sfm in scale cuts and 180 sfm in a clean roughing cut at .015/.018 ipr at .300 depth of cut. For finishing we run 250-300 sfm (varies from lot to lot sometimes) and feed is usually at .025 for a 3/4" button for a 125 finish. Cuts like butter.

Yeah, I just had to get rid of my MS 6000 mouse because of it was messing with MC. I think it might actually be a combination problem with MS, Nvidia, and Mastercam. I had my MS mouse installed when I had an ATI card, and everything worked great(it was just a little slow when working with solids and large stl files) with full acceleration. When I finally got my FX570 and installed the drivers the only way to get MC to function was to turn off hardware accel. in MC. JParis and I thought it was the new card. Before I got ready to return card, PNY support had me disable all startup items, and 1 at a time turn things back on until MC crashed. I got everything back on with MC at full accel. and things worked great. Thats when it dawned on me that I had changed my mouse to a Logitech after the problems had started, and I never thought of turning the hardware accel. back on after I swaped mice. Never heard of such a thing.

I just dealt with the same thing last week. I thought it was the new Quadro card I put in, but come to find out it was the Intelipoint software from microsoft. I had never heard of it, and when I mentioned it to S4A John had said he had heard of one instance before. Who new?

I tried it with 2 different tools. It works on one but not the other. The tool it works on is a 15 deg. lead square insert tool for facing with 3/32 TNR and the tool it doesn't work on is a 1/2" button insert. Both passes are "Finish passes" on the same chain. All of my passes are finish because I draw each pass, so I can control the "Time in cut". Maybe it has something to do with the tool radius, I don't know. Anything else to try.

I thought the same thing to, but MC doesn't output the position of the break point. It goes until it changes direction of cut. That does work in mill though just not in lathe. Thanks for the try.

Been turning/programming a lot of Inconel 718 lately and anybody who has turned knows you need to cut the feedrate in half when you get close to the shoulder to avoid crowding. Is there a way to get MC to do this automatically? Straight passes are easy to edit, but angular passes are quite a pain.

A couple of the don'ts for upgrading to X3;do not install side by side with X2 (it links some files to your X2 instalation), and when Upgrading to X3 do not use migration. As for creating a new machine definition, I would start off with one of the generic ones supplied with MC and alter it instead of trying to fix a problem one if you can't get it right, you can usually fing one thats pretty close.

When I attended an X3 seminar by S4A who John works for, they highly stressed not to do a SxS (side by side). They said to create your own backup of your Mastercam files in a seperate location so as not to confuse Mastercam and do an upgrade over the existing installation into the currently istalled folder, if I remember correctly. They also said not to use migration.

Yeah John its Mike, I didn't even realize that was you. Didn't want to bother you over something stupid like this, that I should have known how to do. I guess my mind just ain't what it used to be, 'cause once I saw the code this morning, . Again thanks for the help John.