I thank all the moms and dads for the good advices for life! And now back to the how2 please. - I have a 3D-model of Solidworks. A block, some holes in it, some contours. - I push it to Mastercam via the Solidworks interface - I define the milling machine - I define the unfinished part - what is the next step for the first milling process? I think I should define the tool. And I hope Mastercam recognizes the holes automatically - or do I have to pick them in any way? Thanks Horst

Lars, I only tried the Demo of Condacam 1.2 and it's a lot easier as Mastercam but has only few of the options I think. I am German so that can be the reason. But it's like: - load 3d model - define the unfinished part & material - add NC jobs like Z-milling - create the NC-Code in the postprocessor That seems to be all. In the animation the part is done automatically. Mastercam has to be able to do this, too - but I don't know how, any further help would be appreciated. The tools can be defined in Condacam: - right click NC-Jobs - add a NC job like "Z-Ebenenschruppen" - double click on that job - go to "Werkzeug" (which means tool in german) - define the diameter (Durchmesser) and type of miller (click the icons) Horst

Thanks. I've been already so far. I tried to get the engravings by following the pdf tutorial. The result was really near to the part - but not exactly. And there were so many steps to do and too much decisions to make I hoped getting the part done automated, get the NC-Code, prepare the suggested tools, import the NC-code and GO! But it seems to be harder than I wished it would be.

Hi there! I am starting learning on Mastercam X2 at the local university. We use Solidworks 2008 and Mastercam X2. I just wanted to get further and learn how to import a part created in Solidworks and let Mastercam do the job. I'd like to see many automated steps for easy use and saving time in programming. I expected Mastercam could recognize the part and make a suggestion how to mill the part. I know Condacam which does it: after selecting the material it suggests which tool to use and so on. How can I do this in Mastercam X2? Are there any cool tutorials apart from the delivered ones? At first I'd like to start milling an engraving in an acrylic glass. I have the file in Solidworks. So - how do I continue? Thanks and sorry for some narrow views: I am just starting learning it I know that no software can know what to do with one click - but I hope Mastercam would be a great help in programming. Horst