I think it is only for windows 7. BTW, this problem and fix is for Kaspersky 2010 Internet Security. If you only have 2010 AV you won't need the fix. (If I understand it correctly).

Hey guys, in an earlier post I gave a tip about windows live essentials jacking up mastercam in Windows 7 Pro 64 bit. I tried it a second time and it jacked it up again , so obvioulsy I won't be loading live essentials again. Here is another tip. After re-formating and installing windows 7 again everything is great, mastercam is fine. Next I installed Kaspersky 2010 and although mastercam works, it is very slow to open after the X4 splash screen. I also notice the windows experience index rating would fail at the very end. Here is a link to how I fixed this set of problems. Kaspersky Fix After completing this fix all screens are opening faster, including mastercam. Your computer may not be failing the windows experience rating, but many others have. It has been reported many times on windows seven forum and Kaspersky.

Hey guys, beware of Windows Live Essentials. I had X4MU1 and Windows 7 professional 64 bit running perfectly all last week (and for months before that on Win7 RC). This weekend I noticed Win7 no longer has photo editing or movie maker. They are now available as a free download, part of windows live essentials. After installing photo gallery and movie maker Mastercam is now JACKED! After the X4 splash screen the main menu shows up. 20 seconds later the text "operation manager" shows up. During the next 60 seconds bits and pieces of Mastercam will show up. If I try to use Mastercam it freezes every time. Other things are screwy too. Now when I click on the windows start button it takes almost 5 seconds before anything happens. It all looks and feels like a bad video driver. I had the newest nvidia drivers loaded and it was fine before win essentials. Uninstalled win essentials, still no good. Rolled back to original video driver from Win 7, still no good. Tried everything I could think of including system restore. I finally gave up and re-installed Windows 7. Installed Mastercam and now it is working fine again. I noticed live essentials downloaded and installed Direct X9. I am thinking this may have had something to do with the problem? Anyone else want to try loading windows live essentials to see what happens?

Which operating system? It won't run on some 64 bit systems. Do a search, it has been discussed before.

I think there is a button just behind the scroll wheel that will rotate the model. Try that instead.

Hi Jim, Welcome to the forum. You will need to talk to your Mastercam dealer for that particular alarm.

Go to settings/configuration/screen and put a check mark on "disable hardware acceleration". Hit OK mark and save yes. Shut down mastercam, then open it again. Try your lines now.

Just tried a stock flip here in X4MU1 and it is working fine. I find that back plot and verify work better if I first move the red insertion arrow above the first operation in the tree. Give that a try and see if it is better. BTW, in my test just now it didn't matter where the arrow was, it verifyed ok both ways, but often times I will have to move the arrow to get a good bplot or verify.

gcode beat me to the punch.

The situation at the college is a network issue. Students computers can read from, but not write back to the network drive. It seems like Mastercam trys to write back to the file occassionally, even if the student never hits the save button. That is when the alarms occur. This should not be a problem in a business enviorment as the users probably have write permissions. However, if the company network is having issues I have seen it take over 3 minutes to open/save a very simple mcx file. This is exactly the problem I encountered with a previous employer's network which is why I always worked locally from my C drive. The point is his delay could possibly be a network issue. Just something to check.

Tim, I and my students have been copying mcx files from network drives to the local C drives for several years now. I have not seen even one problem occur with this method. If they open or save from within Mastercam, using their USB stick, it sometimes takes over 15 minutes for a simple 2D file. Another problem I always see is when they open a file from the college network drives, Mastercam will quite often generate alarm messages while they are working with the file. We always copy from the network drive using windows exporer, then paste to the local desktop, then open the file in Mastercam to avoid those alarms. Just curious, what problems have you seen specifically when doing this?

My files open up right away. Are you opening a file from a network drive, or you local C drive? Sometimes files from a network drive or even a USB stick can open and save slowly. It is always better to open files from your local C drive.

Mastercam X4 Home Premium, or Mastercam X4 Ultimate. Which flavor would you like?

BTW, this new dll has fixed the blackout problem with my ATI cards in our classroom that I mentioned in an earlier post.

quote: If one has not yet made the upgrade to MU1, is there a new MU1 download on the masterCAM site so we can avoid this step? No. Read this link edit: oops, sorry not that link. I read in one of my emails from Chris that it was just going to be replacing the file as he mentioned. No new MU (for now).

Not fixed. It has happened to me in MU1. Try the icon for "rebuild display'. If that doesn't work, I have had to exit out of Mastercam and start it up again.

G, he should check with his local Mastercam dealer. I think Mill Entry is still available in X4. I recently saw it advertised somewhere.

Here are some settings I used on my laptop to fix the verify black out. The laptop is a Dell Lattitude D820 with a Nvidia NVS 120M. (I can hear you laughing). XP-Pro/SP3. I finally got it to display a little better during geometry creation and display verify without blacking out. My settings are shown below. Most have been mentioned before. I found one setting that had not been mentioned before. I had my mouse trails turned on and it was causing problems with auto highlighting when selecting geometry. I also deleted my mcamx.config file and let Mastercam regenerate a new one. I did not update my video drivers because the drivers from nvidia are not compatible with my Dell laptop, they won’t install. Please note that these same settings do not work on my Dell Vostro 420s with ATI Radeon 3450 cards in the classroom. I need hardware disabled to see arrowheads when changing normals, but verify blacks out. If I enable hardware verify works properly, but then I can’t see arrowheads when changing normals. Hope this helps some of you with Nvidia NVS cards. Still can't get my ATI Radeons to work. Here is one more for Chris B. [ 10-16-2009, 09:27 PM: Message edited by: Scott Lundin, Shopware Inc. ]

I have tried installing new drivers for my NVS120M downloaded from Nvidia web site. It alaways says that "it is not compatable with my OEM computer, contact Dell and use their drivers" or something like that. The driver on Dells web site is the same one it has been for the last two years.

Chris - Windows XP/SP3. After further testing it is like others say. If I change to light gray backround the stock, endmill, and holder show up in black with hardware disabled.

My laptop is a Dell Lattitude D820 with a Nvidia NVS 120M. (I can hear you laughing). With X3 and X4 I have been running with hardware diabled on the setting/config/screen page. This was to eliminate phantom images during geometry creation. I loaded X4/MU1 today. Now when I go to verify there is no stock. If I hit play there are no tools shown, but the percent box at the bottom of the window shows it is working. (No its not in Turbo mode). So now I have to run with hardware enabled to get verify, but of course now I am back to phantom images during geometry creation.

Today I was showing how to chain with the solids chaining manager. When I started a new file the solid chain was still on screen. I then opened an existing file and the solid chain from the previous file was still visable. Regenerate display did not help. Had to exit Mastercam and start up again to get rid of the solid chain.

RH bar (insert cutside down), M03, feed towards chuck = RH thread LH bar (insert cut side up), M04, feed towards chuck = LH thread (both bars cutting on same side of center line)

In my testing, CPU Speed, Front Side Bus speed, and on chip cache makes the most difference for calculation times (in Mastercam). I have upgraded from 1 gig of ram to 3 gig and saw no improvement in calc times. This was on a very simple 3d file.

The thread depth calculations will never be dead on. An insert from tool company A has a different radius on the tip than an insert from company B. Most general threading inserts have a tip radius that is much more pointed than in needs to be. This is so it can do more than one pitch thread. If you use a crest topping insert for a specific pitch thread, you will notice that you won't have to offest the tool on the machine quite as much as a general thread insert. This is because the tip radius is the proper size for that particular thread pitch. A general thred insert will probably need around -,010 to -.012 offset at the machine control for an OD thread. Been that way since I started with CNC machines in 1975. Also thread inserts have a manufacturing mold tolerance of plus or minus .003 inch. This aslo causes inaccuracies in the thread height. Thats why lathes have X offsets, use em.