Steve, Thanks for the reply I will send you a message. Trevor

Chris, I sent you a message, thanks for the offer. I love to learn new things, and there are alot of tricks I just cant pick up by poking around on my own.

Chris, Thanks for the reply. I will try creating the geometry in the upper left quadrant. I would like to subscribe to the lathe offering at streaming teacher someday. The videos that you and Bob do are great, and the mill certification courseware was very helpfull, and well worth the cost. Thanks for the help.

DavidB, Thanks for the suggestion about how to configure a given tool to work in the lower turret, it worked great. Now when I select draw tool it appears as I wouild like it to. I am still having trouble creating geometry in the lower left quadrant and having positive diameter values. I can change the cplane by selecting the planes button, and get it arranged so that geometry in the lower left quadrant represents values of diameter positive which is what I am shooting for, But I tried to set the machine definition default plane to the same, and no matter which one I select the geometry in the lower quadrant always represents a negative D value. I can always change this by selecting planes before beginning a new drawing, but it would be nice if it could be set to default to the T/C plane that I want. Is it common to create geo in the lower left, or should I be doing all of my drafting in the upper left quadrant. Thanks again for the help, your suggestions so far have allready got me further than hours of trial and error! I should probably order the lathe book from InHouse. Trevor

Thanks for the quick replies. I have enabled the lower turret, and disabled the upper. I didn't realize that I could change the properties of a given tool to assign it to an upper or lower turret, I will try that right now. Thanks guys. Trevor

Before I start, I wold like to say that I did spend a couple hours with the search function and although I did learn some neat tricks I couldn't find a solution to my problem, so here goes- Since completing the Streaming Teacher mill certification courseware- (very usefull). I have decided to try to teach myself how to create some simple lathe code. I am having a heck of a time trying to figure out how to draw a profile and have it be usefull for toolpath creation for a lathe with a FRONT toolpost. Here is what I am trying to do. Draw half of a part and create toolpaths for a simple 2 axis lathe with the spindle on the left and the tool in the front. I would like z-0 at the right face furthest from the chuck, and x-0 at the center line of the chuck/part. I have tried to draw the profile in both the upper left(x+,z -) and the lower left(x-, z-) quadrants. I have also played with the c-planes alot, and I have changed just about everything that I could think of in the machine definition. No matter what I do when I generate toolpaths the tool approaches from the back of the part, and crashes into the stock. I am also not able to find any tools in any of the tool tables that look like they should be used in a front toolpost. I really hope that what I would like to do is possible, and hopefully I am just missing something very simple. I would appreciate any input that I might have, and I read earlier that "lathe guys" have it all figured out, so I have high hopes. Thanks Trevor

Thanks to all for your quick and helpfull suggestions. I will play with them to see which one I like the best. Thanks again. Trevor

I will give both of your suggestions a try, thanks for your time. Trevor

Hello, I am a fairly new user (X2 Mr1), and I have been reading and learning here as I work towards completing my streaming teacher X2 certification classes. I have found the classes and the posts here to be very helpfull, but now I have a question concerning something that is beond the scope of my training so far. I would like to know if there is an "easy" way within mastercam to create a very simple set of stamping dies that allow for the clearance of material of a given thickness. Put another way I need to create a set of dies for stamping very simple shapes with a female and male half that fit together with a specific gap, say 30thou between them to allow clearance for a sheet of aluminum. I realize that I may be asking for a little much given the level of experience that I currently have with Mastercam, but I guess that that is the point of wanting to learn. I have no problem creating one side of the die, or the other, but I cna't figure out a way to make the male die "undersize" to allow the clearance that I need for the aluminum sheet to bend without pinching. I also respect that proper die design allmost certinally takes years of experience and alot of training, but you have to start somewhere. I look forward to any suggestions that you may have. Thanks!! Trevor