Do you have your WCS set to top and ToolPlane set to front?

I've been using the Space Navigator for well over a year. Loved it. Now its in the drawer. R.I.P. JP set me up with a Space Pilot Pro, and after a couple weeks of getting used to it, I'd have to say that Mastercam should just come with one. I just can't imagine working without it. Thanks a million John. Now that I'm used to the Pro, I wouldn't recommend the Navigator to anyone, its only half of what makes for a complete tool to contribute to an efficient programming environment. For anyone not using one, you're short-changing yourself. The Pro is worth the price difference, will alllow you to become a more efficient programmer, and saves alot of needless movement. If you're contemplating getting one, spend the extra cash for the Pro. You won't be disappointed.

Just came accross this. 8 way raid 0 ssd array on a pci-e card. A bit pricey, but fast. Whatta ya think? One of those and a pair of 6 core Xeons could do some serious damage...to your wallet that is. Z Drive Little pricey though

Are you clicking on the green ball on the "Ribbon Bar" after you select the target body? That's what finalizes the operation. Just thought that might be easy to overlook when you're frustrated.

Can't you extend the tool body outside the stock body enough to select the tool body? If one is "hidden" inside the other, you will need to move one solid to another level, pick the target, turn off the target level, then you will be able to pick the tool body.

For the boolean remove to work, you need to Xform -> Translate the core solid (Z-) into the stock solid so they occupy the same space. It won't look right (graphically) until after the remove, but should give you the cavity you're looking to create.

What OS ? Xp, Vista, Win 7? 32 bit 64 bit? Try disabling your antivirus, and right-click on the install file, and select "run as administrator". As best as I can recall, this error was traced to an x64 issue. I'm not sure. If you're running 64 bit this might be you're problem. If this is the case, there's a hotfix for it. hotfix HTH

There are some really nice deals on the refurb site. You gotta keep a close eye on what's available and grab a nice one in your price range when it pops up. I'm more than happy with mine.

Thanks Code...Tyler. I'm ordering one right now. I can use one Velociraptor for storage, the other for a Backup image, and the ssd for windows & mc. Sweet. I'll break that minute barrier yet. LOL I'm still at 1:10.223. [ 05-28-2010, 05:23 PM: Message edited by: Rob @ R & D Engineering ]

Ex. T1M6 G0 G90 G54 X0. Y0. G68 X0. Y0. R90.<----Set Coordinate Rotation G43 Z.05 H1 S6000 M3 . . . . G69<--Cancel Coordinate Rotation G91 G28 Z0. G28 Y0. X becomes Y and Y becomes X rotated about G54 X0. Y0. HTH

[hijack_on] quote: You ask the people in the Mastercam booth and the guys at S4A what kind of person I am just after being at Eastec for the last 3 days with them. Ron, I would have liked to meet you in person at the show, but I'm too busy to go this year. I'm planning to bring the whole shop next year. I hope to see you there. Maybe I can buy you a beer after hours. Just cuz your a good guy I hope you had a good time with John and Doug. Hope to see you next year, Rob @ R & D Engineering aka Mastercam Guru .[/hijack_off]

Nice. I wonder how those slc ssd's perform versus the mlc drives. I'm thinking of spanning a volume with 3 64gb ssd's to total 192 gig. Just sooooo expensive at $630 apiece. [ 05-27-2010, 08:31 PM: Message edited by: Mastercam Guru ]

Thanks Evil. I'll order a SAS6/iR card this afternoon.

I just installed my second Velociraptor today and set up raid 0 through the Matrix onboard raid control and only see a second or two gain in the benchmark. Is this all I should expect? Should I format and reinstall? Everything says that the array is working properly, but in windows disk management, it is still recognized as a simple volume, not a dynamic or striped volume. I'm guessing that's because the raid array is controlled by the bios.

I got Acronis Backup and Recovery 10 Workstation today for $74.00. Acronis Backup and Recovery 10 Workstation A little more dough, but the "Peace of Mind" is worth the price difference. IMHO Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

I'll try it out. Does it support striped volumes? Home or Business version?

The Matrix Manager software/firmware that comes with the Dell T3500's and up seems to be able to do all that if you have the spare drives. I just bought a second 10k 300gb Velociraptor. It'll be here Tuesday. I'm ordering the NAS and a 2tb backup drive Monday.

quote: I really like Norton's Card's and Login utility. That's why I'm using Norton. I have too many login/password combos, Credit card info, Tool Vendor accts., etc. that I don't trust windows to manage for me. I think I've got my bases covered. I'm installing a NAS unit(for offline backups) and a dedicated backup drive (in case I have to rebuild my raid array). Ahh, I feel safer now.

Thanks gcode. I'll check out the link. I'm running Win7 64bit with Norton Security Suite installed and I'm behind a NAT firewall. I was considering Kapersky, but I saw a thread complaining that it doesn't play well with MC.

quote: Hey Bob, You get that because Nortons is one of the worst computer protection program I've ever come across. It doesn't protect your computer any better than free programs and hogs way more of your system resorces. That's all I had at the time to put on my T3500. I didn't want to use nothing at all. I just bought a personal seat of MC and was strapped for cash. Then my lappy $hit the bed at the worst possible time, so I bought a Dell refurb. No A/V comes with a Dell if you go 64 bit. I don't see any native 64 bit A/V programs available that haven't been complained about already. Any suggestions?

quote: What's the 4 sec dwell about? Time to clear out the chips and ramp up from 6,000 rpm for the entry to 10,000 rpm for the pocketing.

That MD/CD/Post has mi1$ set to 0 or 1, and the post is missing an e$ at the end of the line outputting "G91 G28 Z0". Normally it should be set to 2. code: # mi1 - Work coordinate system # 0 = Reference return is generated and G92 with the # X, Y and Z home positions at file head. # 1 = Reference return is generated and G92 with the # X, Y and Z home positions at each tool. # 2 = WCS of G54, G55.... based on Mastercam settings. This is how we set our work offset back in the late 80's LOL. / G91 G28 Z0. / G28 X0. Y0. / G92 X-14.5678 Y-5.1234 Z-12.9876 Before that(G92's) we used G45's G45 X0 D97 G45 YO D98 G45 Z0 D99 Machine coordinates for x,y and z went into the D97/98/99 offsets. Sorry Mike, I didn't get your email until just now. Glad to see that you got this worked out and the peck tapping is working for you.

All joking aside,(CNC you're listening, right?) now that its been mentioned in the forum, I'm noticing how much I have to "clear colors". I wouldn't mind a radio button or similar on the Xform toolbar so I can choose whether or not I want the group/result colors while I'm in the function, rather than a switch in the config settings. BTW - The trojan episode was a Vista thing or a corrupt download. IDK. Advanced heuristics was turned on and Norton didn't like the file. The second time went without a hitch though. All in all, I think Vista just doesn't work at all. Win7 64bit hasn't crashed on me yet. :fingers crossed

Hitachi - I think he means that's his gauge length. Matt - Why don't you read the help file? It can explain how the linking parameters work better than I can, since there are so many possible ways to use them. I would recommend using all absolute values until you understand how they work.