As for why they are what they are I have always assumed that it just what they were set to when they burned the install CDs. Change them to whatever you would like.

If the tool settings page is set to "from tool" then the speeds and feeds are coming from the tool parmeters for the tool you picked. Double click on the tool to edit it and click on the parameters tab. There you will see the speeds and feeds that are coming up.

I don't think you will be able to much in the hardware department for this. I did some testing with the FX380, FX570, FX580, and FX3700 cards. I ran verify on the file from the benchmark thread. FX380=13m15s FX570=15m22s, FX580=9m50s, FX3700=8m36s. I dont think there would be much of a time differnce between the 1800 and 3800 - maybe a minute.

Try using the tab key instead of the enter key.

Does your machine have linear guides or box ways with tapered gibs? I had a machine that created tool mark similar to your picture. The spindle head was tilting. Try the inicator mentioned in the above post to see if it is tilting. We tightened up the tapered gib and surface finish got better. I saw another case where the spindle was deflecting in the Z-axis. This was a brand new Mazak install. The spindle was not assembled correctly and they had to re-calculate the pre-load and re-grind the spacers.

Save the already convex model as an stl file. Then use surface rough restmill or the 3dhst version of restmill

Mazatrol looks at all the tool lengths on the tool set page, and the clearance parameters for turrent indexing. Then it decides where to position for indexing. IMO Mastercam won't be able to do this. Here is an option I used on my Mori lathes, maybe the mazatrol has something similar: At the begining of each program I add: G10L50 N1241P1R0 N1241P2R-200000 G11 G30U0W0 G30 is a second home position. G10L50 directs it to the parameter page. N1241 is the parameter for 2nd home position, distances are from G28 home position in metric values. P1R0 is the distance in the X axis. P2R-200000 is the distance in the Z axis (-200000 = -200mm). G11 turns off parameter setting. G30U0W0 rapids the machine to the second home position. Each tool sequence needs to end with G30U0W0. All the setup guy has to do is manually position the X and Z axis to a position that allows a safe index (visually). He look on the screen for "machine position" X/Z values and then alters the two values on the N1241 lines in the program. The hardest part was making the guys comfortable converting inch to metric as this parmeter requires metric values only.

I have the same laptop/video card. I am currently running the 260.99 driver from the nvidia website. I haven't noticed any problems but I have only had it for about a month. What kind of video problems? Have you tried the file on another computer?

It is working here with Windows 7 64-bit in both X4 and X5. It seems like the file has to have been saved with "bitmap" turned on. Otherwise the bitmaps don't show up in the file open window. It can be turned on/off on the settings/configuration/files page in Mastercam.

Active reports can subsitute a jpg picture for the standard line drawing. No modification needed. On the ribbon bar for active reports go into the list of "images" and there are 3 options, F1,F2, and F3. I dont remeber which one it is, but one of them can be used to subsitute the jpg.

They are clearly marked "pinned". How hard is it to roll your mouse wheel down just once to get past the pinned threads? However I will have to change sides on this argument once I have to roll twice.

I used to use a gaming card (GeForce 9800GTX) for mastercam and it worked well. That same card was not compatable with Solidworks and was unusable in that application. If you are building a computer for a cad-cam application then I would reccommend a video card designed for cad-cam. Stay with the Nvidia Quadro FX series, or the newest models released just last month that are just called Quadro. 2009-2010 models would be Quadro FX580($100 ebay used), or FX1800($250 ebay used). The new 2010-2011 models are Quadro 600 ($169 new), or Quadro 2000 ($460 new).

New forum looks nice.

hit the enter key after every value I key in.

Check on Ebay for used Quadro FX cards. You can get them for about half price. Yeah Yeah I know, you are taking a chance. I have purchased 7 used FX cards from ebay and they are all running fine.

I had a Mori-Seiki SL-20 M/C lathe and a couple ZL-150 SMC lathes. Used G112 on all of them very successfully. It was a few years ago but if I remember I had to have the post changed a little for the start up and ending code. M46 engage C, M47 dis-engage C, G28H0??????? Cant remember exaclty. You turn on G112 using the misc button and it is one of the misc integers. Edit: now that I think about it, I only used G112 when c-axis milling on the face. I don't know if it works on an OD.

G112, love it.

Use the C-axis contour operation with rotray axis control set to axis subsitution. Draw the letters flat and chain them flat.

One of my classroom computers started crashing in Verify a few weeks ago. Upon investigation I remembered that I had deleted the config file several days before that as a quick way to reset things back to defaults. Deleting the config file removed the check mark from "disable hardware" box. This PC has a stock HD 3450 Dell/ATI Radeon video card that needs to have the "diable hardware" box checked. Its all good now.

One thing that will cause incorrect cycle time calculation is the fact that Mastercam does not count additional time for peck drilling.

quote: Nice answer, I wonder why the could make in look like c-axis drilling on a lathe. If you really want to see the rotation then look into "machine simulation". You might have to get the install files from your Mastercam dealer.

Set your toolpath transform parameters as shown below. Set it to "operation type" to have a tool cut all the parts before it does a tool change to the next tool. Use the "translate" tab to set the number of parts and spacing between the parts. For watching backplot you want a green check mark on only the transform operation. The ghost faces in the operations manager window will disable posting g-code for those operations even if they have a green check mark.

Here is the link to the new free "hole axis" from Verisurf. MBD and Reverse were removed for this release. We have some customers using it now. It will ask you for your email and company info before it will let you download it. Verisurf Hole Axis Oops. Well, it worked last week when I asked Verisurf if this would be availble free for Mastercam users and they asked me to promote it on the forum.

Top WCS, with Front Tplane for B0 degrees for a HMC. Thats the way we teach it here.

I use overcut when thread milling an OD thread where I chain the nominal diameter instead of the minor diameter. I put the thread height (radial depth) in that field.