My tools are listed in ascending order when I open the tool manager via the menu (Toolpaths-Tool Manager) or when selecting a library tool in an operation's parameters. I have no idea how I got that to stick.

I've only clicked on geometry to select the next entity. Clicking the arrow never even occurred to me. When selecting any chain, you click on the geometry to select it. When MC finds a branch point, clicking on the geometry seemed like the logical thing to do.

On 11/4/2023 at 2:30 PM, mackenzieruiter said:

Who is Guest and where is this video now?!

Guest is someone who is no longer a member here. Not sure on the video.

20 hours ago, JParis said:

This needs a bump for the pure history of it, the long gone names, what this forum used to be.

Thanks Terry for digging this one out...

Alex passed back in 2020 but he is still talked about fondly in some circles

A side note, for those who weren't around back then...Alex's avatar was Winnie the Poo. Thus all the "bear" references throughout his posting history and replies to him.

36 minutes ago, phill heward said:

is that a serious offer?

Yes. And you'd be a fool for not taking Ron (or Aaron) up on it.

Can you be a little more specific? I don't believe I've ever seen a greyed out toolpath manager. What version of MC are you using?

Welcome to the forum!

I don't know how detailed of a comparison you need, but I just do a FIle-Merge (make sure each part is a different color) and look for differences.

Nice work, @HCProf!

I got a challenge coin from my unit in Germany. SPEARHEAD!

23 hours ago, Span said:

I see the same thing, turn off 'Automatically determine Z depth' and it works correctly.

Or just make sure you're in 2D mode. Then it doesn't matter if that box is checked or not.

Wireframe tab > Trim to Entities works for me. Moving my mouse around, only wireframe gets highlighted.

You're going to have a tough time in this trade. Good luck!

16 minutes ago, Johnward Holmeson said:

In the cases it does not work try using push-pull to extend the hole (if blind) out of the part and then delete the now boss feature. 

I use a similar technique when it fails, but I go the other way with it and push/pull the hole smaller. Like you've seen, Terry, It seems to fail if there are multiple surfaces that span the hole. I use push/pull to make the hole smaller until the hole only has a single surface surrounding it, then it will delete every time.

1 hour ago, volitan71 said:

For some reason I thought all these "adaptive", "high volume", "dynamic" etc.. were all licensed from Module Works.

Me too.

18 hours ago, CEMENTHEAD said:

ALT-E is your friend. 

I'm so used to using Alt+E for stuff like this that even it they fixed it, I'd still use ALT+E. 

17 hours ago, cruzila said:

I mentioned in another thread that allowing levels to be "active" meaning visible AND selectable vs. non-active meaning visible but NOT selectable would have real beneficial use.  Then there were jokes about CAD functions yadda yadda 

I'll say again, there is a use for this function.

Pretty sure even GibbSCAM has that. IIRC from 25 years ago when I used it.

18 hours ago, Toolmaker T said:

If there is a way to deal with this please tell. Not looking for a work around. 

Workarounds may be the only option at this point.

On 6/28/2023 at 12:23 PM, So not a Guru said:

I'm getting senile. I read that as "Does this look like it."

Username checks out.  

@Elad S, it's been a long time. I hope you're doing well!   You're from Israel, right?

On 5/24/2023 at 11:08 AM, Chally72 said:

... but we feel the visibility of the tip comp settings is the more important choice here, given how many problems it causes when you copy an op or leave it on and then drill to a wrong depth or don't understand why the path isn't giving you what you want.

You're all about considering copied ops....

On 5/24/2023 at 11:08 AM, Chally72 said:

When we talk about clicks, first we have to look at how often we're changing from incremental to absolute and back- almost never. It's a setting that's changed once when the path is initially made, and usually not touched after that.

...until you aren't. 

Just sayin. 

8 minutes ago, AHarrison1 said:

I'm guessing it's the same functions as the buttons below

I thought that's what the cursor icon was for. 

26 minutes ago, OVodov said:

OT: What does the crosshair next to the value field do?

18 hours ago, Chally72 said:

There were a few areas we specifically targeted to improve the linking page for. The biggest was- how do we get Tip Comp and Breakthrough onto the same page with the rest of the linking parameters? It was a huge impediment to learning the toolpath and also to understanding what a path was doing when you had to visit not only the linking page, but also a subpage (that depending on the toolpath was either under Linking parameters or Cut parameters) to get a complete picture of what depth the hole would actually be drilled to, for example. Adding options to a page that was already full always comes with a compromise, and in this case the radiobuttons took up too much room and had to be changed to a dropdown, but we feel the visibility of the tip comp settings is the more important choice here, given how many problems it causes when you copy an op or leave it on and then drill to a wrong depth or don't understand why the path isn't giving you what you want.

 

When we talk about clicks, first we have to look at how often we're changing from incremental to absolute and back- almost never. It's a setting that's changed once when the path is initially made, and usually not touched after that. Tip comp, or depths, however, are things that require constant tweaking as you dial in a process, and making a user take two extra clicks and jump to a different page to even view these settings is mouse miles, too! Also, as mentioned, there is the ability to simply hover over the dropdown and scroll the mousewheel- so we went from one click to "zero" clicks from that perspective. In terms of visually digesting what a toolpath is set at, as well, I'd have to mentally spend some energy to scan through the column of radiobuttons to, say, make sure that all my settings are indeed incremental, or associative, etc, whereas it's a lot easier to "tin soldier inspect" the dropdowns and spot the one that might be set wrong or out of place.

UI changes or tweaks always come with compromises when an existing interface has been around for so long and isn't in a state where it can be easily expanded. In this case we felt that these changes offered much more value than what retaining the radiobuttons offered.

In over 20 years of using MC, I've never used tip comp and breakthrough. I couldn't care less what page that setting is on, or if it even exists at all.

Doing die work, we do a lot of holes that start and end at different Z depths (inside pockets, keys, break into pockets/steps on the other side, etc) so I change back and forth from absolute to incremental multiple times per day. I also copy and reuse toolpaths all day long. So if you think Abs/Inc is changed "almost never," you're wrong.

On 5/19/2023 at 5:46 AM, Tamilyappan said:

HI EXPERTS

2010 I Learning  mastercam that time my master press one shortcut  then,  mastercam solids (imagine alt +s commend ) inside all line change hidden lines. its looking very good

still now i dont know the shortcut. masertcam version v8.1 any body know revel the answer. thanks

By hidden, do you mean dashed lines or do you mean not visible?

I'm seeing a trend with Mastercam. The more time that goes by, the more it sucks.

3 hours ago, crazy^millman said:

Thad, thank you for correcting my mis-statement.

It was probably just autocorrect. 

10 hours ago, crazy^millman said:

That is what we do. We have trained many different customers over the years. We approach with programming customers with real world parts. We can do it with gotomeeting or we can come onsite. You can send em an email and i will be glad to provide you a quote.

@JB7280I would get in touch with Ron, if I were you.

15 hours ago, MSlanker said:

I used curve all edges to get my wireframe on the part when I attempted it, is simply splines something similar?

To clarify, Ron meant to say Simplify spline, not Simply. Simplify is a command to turn splines into lines and arcs. It can be found under the Wireframe tab, then under the arrow dropdown of Refit Spline. Your tolerance settings will determine how successful you are at converting to lines/arcs.

In order to drive the Swept 2D toolpath, you need lines and arcs. As you've seen, MC will error out if you select splines. Thus the Simplify command to turn the splines to lines/arcs.