We have had more trouble with our fadal post than the mp master over the years. The R values in the fadal post caused more gouges while surfacing ( which is pretty much all we do here) The guys on the floor do not want to run them in the other “Fadal” format. I tried to set the min change in arc plane to .001 and the line in question still post out with the small z move. X0 y0 is c/l of the part. We are using the mp master that was released around x4. I have set the mach def to min rad .10 max 399.00 a long time ago and it helped. We write 25-40 new programs per month here. This has only happened twice since we went to the mp master and tuned off create arcs. Even though it is rare this happens, I still don’t like it. Luckily the fadals are on their way out the door over the next 18 months. Thanks for all the help

Our max is set to 100 and min is set to .1 the problem we have is using X4 and MP master will output a samll z move during an arc move. Also it usually seems to be .0001 like the code shown above. I was just wondering if anyone else has seen this and found a way to prevent it. and yes.......the cutter was just fine. the part......not so much! Thanks for the help

One of the programmers left the create arcs on. the tool was cutting away and made a left right thru the middle. any ideas on how to force this from not hapening agian? post ? mmd has it turned off Thanks, Damian [ 05-12-2010, 04:41 PM: Message edited by: dforsythe ]

quote: Who have you been using ?? Laser INC has been doing our machines for a few years. Thanks, Damian

We are looking for a new source to do the laser calibration on our 5axis machines. If anyone knows someone in ca please let me know. Thanks, Damian

FYI here is a video the rep sent me that shows a little bit about the verify

Bill, If you get time please send me an e-mail. right now NX is our first choice. i just want to talk to someone who uses it, not sells it. Thanks, Damian

Nick, all good info. i have only used mc for about 18 months so I’m not too attached to it. We have guys here that have only used it and have been on it since v8. I’m the lead / supervisor so I have to deal with all the hiring of the programmers. I will keep what you said in mind about finding people who know other systems. We have a little trouble getting mc programmers, but cali has quite a few of them once you search around.

GCODE, I have alrady gotten quotes for catia, we have one seat already but the R&D guys use it. NX has a new pricing plan that is within 10% of MC. The rep will be here next week to go over the new features in V7. and we already have 6 seats of mc, so that isnt going away anytime soon. Thanks for the insight.

Let me start this thread by saying that mastercam is a good cam package. It handles 2d work with ease and has some powerful 3d tools that work well. As of yet I haven’t come across a part that I wasn’t able to do with mastercam. The only question is at what cost ( time, work, ect). If you were looking into a new software package for doing complex 3d and 5 axis parts what direction would you go? And why? I know this is a mastercam board, but there are a lot of good programmers on here and im sure the used sothing else at some point. Thanks for the imput.

FYI from mastercam: , Consider the following workarounds: Move the speed quality slider closer to speed in the verify dialog. -Click the options button and increase the tool tolerance. - For stock Model use block instead of a solid or stl file. - If your model or toolpaths are very complex consider verifying a smaller number of operations at one time.

mark, No its kind of random, but always near the end of the prog. i will try using cad instead of prev operations for the restmilling. Im 99% sure its a mastercam issue. i saved a copy of the file, deleted the prev 5 ops to bring the file back down to 60 meg and it ran the rest of the way through. its a work around, but i like to have one file, one model and to verify the whole part and use stl compare. thanks for the help.

Mastercam x4 mu3 mastercam might crash on me once a month since x4-mu3. the only problems i have are in verify. i sent the below e-mail to my local mastercam reseller and support @mastercam.com. If anyone has any ideas to help please do so. Thanks, Damian This is a relatively simple part. It has 6 machine groups in it. 4 3 axis and 1 5 axis and 1 angle head. A lot of surfacing using surface high speed and surface rest roughing, pencil ect. The file size is around 125 meg. I have tried lowering the resolution all the way down along with the stl tolerance. I have tried ram saver and also tried saving multiple operations as STL files and tried to finish it this way. I have called before with the same issue and the answer I got was “I’m not sure what the problem is.

thanks for all the help. you guys have shown me a few nice looking machines i have never see before. I will forward all the info to my VP

we will be cutting a lot of composite and a small amount of al.

Anyone know who makes a good 5 axis gantry mill. We need min 32 in z and 160 in x. Thanks, Damian

G code, works great. Thanks a lot!

Haas 5 axis with trunions 90% of our work on these machines have ball locked fixtures or dovetail / rail fixtures. We do a fair amount of work on them using a regular Kurt 6 “ vise to do complex angles, holes and surfaces on secondary operations of tooling and parts. My question is, when doing these secondary vise ops we program the part and tell the operator to cut jaws to a known point in Z and Y. over the weekend we had about 6 parts we needed to run, this resulted in the operator having to move the vise to a location that would work and cut jaws for each part. Long story short, we get killed on setup time. I understand these are tooling and will never come back but it still hurts. Does anyone have a better idea or know of a better system to do vise work on a 5 axis haas. Having 5 programers here, im the only one comfortable with programming my parts off center of rotation. Everyone else puts the part on top view and on c/l of the wcs then programs it. I will say I do get bad tool paths once in a while when using front or a rotated view instead of top view. It’s kind of weird that I have to regen an op and the then it post correctly but that’s a mastercam issue. Thanks, Damian

We have a seat of it here. We have 5 programmers using MC and one using Catia over in R&D. It seems real simple yet very complex. Its tough to describe. setting up WCS is just like Dynamic plane. It also allows you to select clamps and bolts and plates as fixtures not just check surfaces. I hope we make the transition soon also, just to learn a new software. Good luck. All of our designers use V5 and they come into MC prefect using the catia trans. if you step it out somtimes you get a few bad surfaces. depends on the guy doing the model.

volumill trial expired on monday. I have put 5 seats of it into the budget, but that will take a few weeks to get aproved. Josh, do you draw a custom tool for these cutters? Thanks, Damian

I have never used the AJX before. I have just heard a lot of good things about it. This is a really simple part, i was just looking to try a new cutter out. Since i am stepping down the whole part i was ok with the shallow doc. Sorry i cant show the part. but here is some of the verify. Thanks for the help

Master cam X4 using Surface high speed core roughing Mitshbishi AJX 1.0 cutter Material is a 450 lb 40 x 8 x 4 pc of INVAR 36. Not a whole lot of flat areas just a ton of surfacing to get it down to 180 lbs. a few deep ramps and go down 3.0” that are about 1.250 wide. When the tool get into this area it will over engage. I turned on the Trochoidal cuts to avoid this and was hopping someone who uses this tool may have some recommendations and parameters for the Trochoidal settings and verufy the feeds and speeds. This is where I started 450 SF .039 per tooth x .039 ADOC with a max RDOC of 30% S1757 F137. Thanks, Damian

One way i get around this is to open up a brand new file. drill a hole and setup a stock. verify the tool using your stock. then save your settings. Its a pain, but i keep this file on the desktop so it makes it quick.

99% sure its a dog leg issue with the rapid. We had the same problems on our old fadals. we only use feed retract set to 500 imp. the problem has gone away.

We have 3 of these here. Never get any alarms like that. we do post out most of the feedrates using inverse. all the 3 axis and positional cuts are normal 10 imp to 80 ipm. the rotary paths are inverse 100 to 500. we set up a max feed of 500 ipm in the mmd.