Hey C Jaynes, why dont you contact your buddies in Cal. Namely the two that work at the mold shop.This is J.H. Write me back @ my e-mail address. You should be able to use the little icon on this reply.

What if you want the shortest distance from any point to the nearest entity, not an end point,midpoint etc.

I too use a spaceball and I feel like my left arm fell off when it quits working in MC.I do alot of 3d modeling in " other" softwares and it is a great tool. You can find them pretty reasonably on ebay. I ve seen them go for anywhere between $100 - $300 . Get either a 3003 flx or a 4000 flx. The 4000 model allows you to program hot keys on the pad . If you have the bucks, get one.

Nope

Im sorry,miss explained myself. MCs rough toolpaths suck!!everything is treated like a pocket and they shouldnt be. This can be pretty hazardous when roughing a standing island, core,whatever. The current cut patterns do not allow you to mill outside in without creating a stupid "containment boundry" which usually results in air cutting around the outside.

I to feel your pain as I also use a different cam software in which you can model a solid of you stock whatever the shape or size. The software then only applies toolpath to the difference between the stock and part. What a time saver. Another problem I have with MC is roughing from outside in towards the part instead of treating it like a friggin pocket.

I too have experienced this phenomenon. Its seems random and has no pattern. As for the offset thing, even our local MC sales rep. wouldn't have beleived us had he not witnessed it with his own eyes.

I too would like to know the answer to that question . If there is not a way to disable the prompt then let this be a formal request. Its pretty damn annoying.

For you post gurus out there , what should the line look like in the " End of File for non zero tool " block , to omit a tool change command if there is only one tool in the program? I know it should be a formula statement but I'm a beginner here so bear with me. Thanks.

Is there any reason why after I create a new wcs somewhere on a part I cannot create slice curves from the new wcs? It seems that when you specify an axis to create the slice it is always from the absolute 0,0,0 position and not the present wcs location.

Propagate along tangencies works great, it greatly reduces the edge picking. But the question is can you "array" "copy""transform" assosiative features from the solids manager tree.

Is it possible to transform or array solids features? I have a round part with about 10 radial slots in it with an edge radius around both sides of the slots. Can I create one instance with rads and then array it with 9 copies, or do I have to cut the slots then pick all 80 edges to put the rads on.

Thats what I thought judging by all the replies. Thanks. [ 10-03-2002, 10:14 AM: Message edited by: FUSION ]

Hi dOgFartz, Sorry but you lost me. I am trying to AVOID creating, copying, re-picking, regenerating etc.,etc. The only solution we have found is to create perp. lines in x+ y+ at the work origin and use those entities to orient x and y of the saved wcs.As long as the associative toggle is on you can rotate the saved wcs by xform, rotate, the two lines at the origin. BUT Im looking for a better solution.

Is it possible to simply rotate a named,or created wcs. As many repeat parts are not held or clamped with the same x,y orientation every time due to multple or existing set ups, different machines etc. Its a real hassle to create a new wcs and re-select it in every op, then regen.

Thanks PACTEC thats exactly what I was looking for in this apllication. Now is there any way m/c will recognize a solid as a blank?

Is there any way to get m/c to recognize a specific rough stock blank when using surface rough pocket? Im using v9 sp1 solids on a solid works parasolid. I have created a solid on a layer the size of the blank but am not sure where or how to select it. M/c always starts cutting just outside this part solid.Problem is Im creating a round part from a squre blank. Any 2d multiple passes results in lots of air cutting.Any insight on this common problem would be a big help. Thanks

Try OSG TOOLS

It seems that an ATI card might be the culpret.Tried saving in shaded and it crashes.Save unshaded has no problems. Our admin installed Ati 8800 cards recently but one box has a g-force with no troubles shaded or not.Thanks

M/c always crashes on me if I have the "save thumbnail image with geometry" toggled on.This seems to be pretty consistant with the 4 P/Cs in our shop. Nice feature huh.Top shelf.

Why does m/c always seem to create untrimmed surfaces and blank them when bringing in a solidworks sldprt. We have 3 mill 3 licenses, 2 with solids. About 4 guys share them so I cant always get a solid license. No big deal when Im just doing 2d or simple 3d. Do I need to change something in the config? Any help would be appreciated.

Can someone please give me an understandable explanation of the memory allocation table in the system config.And maybe some #s that they should be set to. I deal with mostly complex solid models of mold components so files are generally pretty large. Why does there need to be a limit on any of the fields? Is this a throwback from the old days or what?

Hi peter, When I try to use the project-blend-3d toolpath, I get nothing. After I select surfaces, I select blend 3d-along, say ok and it brings me to the chaining dialogue with "resync:full1" in the prompt area. What else is it looking for? Any help would be appreciated as I find myself using flowline alot. I also read that project toolpaths are NOT associative. How come? Thanks

Hi NY, The term "overburn" as applied in the mold company I work for has to do with the amount of overlap the electrode has to the w/p or another trode.For example if a cavity trode burns right to parting line you dont want the finish detail on the trode to end exactly at parting line as this can be detramental to the parting line shutoff, As well as difficult to machine.If two trodes burn in the same area say on a contour, if the trodes do not "overlap" you may get a witness line between the two. Spark gap in this shop has always been referred to as Spark Gap.Our company just had its 25th anniversary, pretty good for a mold shop.

Because when MC is processing, the prompt line reads 5/600 SURFACES 10/30 slices processing. I did use the entire solid as the drive geometry which probably contributes to the exessive processing time and yes I did have the skip hidden face option on.