Camdude, Your idea worked quite well! Another tip to keep in mind! Thank-you. Zero, We tried saving it to a MC8 file, but it won't save the toolpaths. Kind of defeats the purpose. Thanks for your help!

Ok, the file is uploaded. Cadcam - do your worst! I mean best! Thanks!

Oh, I forgot to say... The air time is really prevalent in the "Rest-Mill" operation of the file 1959-172.mc9... Still uploading the file.... darn 33.6k connection!!! Give my file another hour (after my post time here ) before anyone tries to get it from FTP... Thanks guys, keep these suggestions coming!

Zero, No problem! I am currently uploading my file into the FTP. It is called 1959-172.zip, and I put it into the MC9_files directory on the FTP site. I am glad to hear this is not just a problem we have here! Now lets fix it!!!

Jay, OK, I'll see if I can get the file! Is there a central FTP site for emastercam?

A few of our MC users are complaining that their tool paths tend to cut a lot of air... Is there anything that can help? A setting etc. I am not a MC user as such, but I will relay any info to them. Thanks!

What we have done is set up a third computer to act as "file server" with a shared directory for all the .mc, .ge3 files. Each workstation has this directory mapped using the same drive letter. Now you can set up both: mill9.cfg and/or mill9m.cfg files the same. Also, make sure you copy the post directory to each computer, so you have the same post files. I believe: x:/mcam9/mill/posts/ where x: would be the drive Mcam9 is installed. I guess you could theoretically make a shared directory off the server and have all the posts there... but how often do you really modify the posts? Just have the same ones in the directories. Did I miss anything?

Actually, the recommended hardware for MC should be updated.... http://www.emastercam.com/info/hardware.html Feb 16, 2001 is over a year old. No, harsh criticism here, just a suggestion. Maybe a note that you don't need to "go-all-out" on your hardware, just get something nice!

Well, I need to take a lot of the blame on this one... I asked "What do I need to buy to get max. performance from MC9?" The response was "...as much horse-power as you can get..." Which, to me, meant Workstation class machines... But, in reality, most shops don't outlay that type of cash for a computer... What was truly meant was the best COMMONLY available - off the shelf - components. Now I know.

Greg, Thanks for the advice. It seems everything about the computers is slower in some way.... Well, the tech guys came over and have come to the conclusion that MC doesn't have full support for Xeon Processor, or the High-end graphics card... To test we threw a common nVidia Geforce 256 card into the new computers and it ran better with that card! Wow. Guess we'll be pushing those computers into engineering and have them put together an "optimized" computer for MC! (As long as I live long enough after I break the news to the boss!!!) Well, thank-you everyone. I certainly learned something from this experience! I'll definately keep watching this board further for MC tricks and tweaks!

Wow, Great responses! Firstly, Peter, Our MC supplier is sending a tech guy here this morning to look at these anomalies... I'll watch closely, and see if he does the tweaking you describe. I played arround with the tool path allocations etc, but didn't succeed... Maybe I didn't hit the "sweet spot"! As far as tool parameters go, the PIII and the Xeon were running the same "benchmark" file, would this mean they were facing off on a level field? Secondly, Simtech, Interesting observation, I'll go try that right now! Thirdly, plasttav, I'll look at those pages. Lastly, K_Herzog, It isn't Stepping through, it is simply Running the Backplot that is slower... Now the guys in CNC are telling me MC9 is loosing toolpath info at different stages!!! I am glad someone is coming out now!!! This has been extremely frustrating... I've always believed that to get the most from your software, you need to put as much into your hardware... This didn't seem to work this time arround! Oh well, I'll keep everyone informed as to what happens today! Again, thanks everyone!

Peter, Thanks, I will try your suggestion out! My response will be a little delayed as the guys are trying to get some work done too! As soon as they've finished their toolpaths I'll try it and report back! Thanks!

Bullines, I appreciate everyones help thanks!

Bullines, No, this would be helpful knowledge! Please tell me how. I am not a MasterCam user as such, I am the system administrator for the company and so my knowledge of MasterCam is limited... I rely heavily on the users to tell me something is wrong. But I know something is up when a PIII700 beats a P4 Xeon 1.7GHz! Thanks!