Can't you just send it to the machine when posting and skip the editor? btw Xon/Xoff seems to work for most.

Yes it is always by the end of the Month, the month it is released in that is.

ADEGILIO I have found that X2 is more stable, more reliable when creating TPs (mystery pocketing errors are a thing of the past)and though there are interface features of V9 many people here miss. All but a very few have found X is better than V9 once they committed to making the switch. Besides you are here on the forum and if you utilize the forum you will be wondering why you waited so long, in no time.

Did you try analyze angle 3points? Select one common entity endpoint, then the axis then the next common entity endpoint. This works on any type of GEO solids, wire, surfs. HTH

RAID 0 is the way to go, but the drive size doesn't really matter just speed. and 4 drives at RAID 0 gives you 4 channels for memory functions which happens to be the same as the available paths to the processor. It works like this: Processor side. Drive Side. 1 Drive Channel 1----------------------- Write1 Channel 2----------------------- Write2 Channel 3----------------------- Write3 Channel 4----------------------- Write4 2 Drives Channel 1----------------------- Write Channel 2----------------------- 1,2 Channel 3----------------------- Write Channel 4----------------------- 3,4 4 Drives Channel 1----------------------- Write Channel 2----------------------- 1,2,3,4 Channel 3----------------------- Channel 4----------------------- The 1 drive shows each channel has to wait its turn for the drive, the 2 drives channels 1,2 alternate waiting on one drive while 3,4 alternate waiting on the other drive. On the 4 drive setup each channel has it's own drive so now your limited by the write/access speed of the drive. As said before this does open up a concern for the if/when a drive fails scenario but you should already have a data backup plan in place. I would stick with 4 sticks of 1gig ram and utilize 2gig of ram for a RAMDRIVE because as fast as 10k raptor drives are they are no match for DDR2 memory.

How about taking one entity common to each blade and rotate/copy it 40deg x 8 times about the fan axis and see if they line up.

+1 for using full DOC Titanium is very abrasive and if you step down your cutter, the edge will be gone by the time you get to your desired depth(creating prime scenario for aforementioned work hardening). If you make sure your cutter is sharp and use consistent chip load and flood with coolant you'll find it can be very nice to machine. Yes it will burn, seems like not too long ago a building in Seattle was lost to a Titanium fire.

Spade I would consider getting a on site training session for just you and your Programmers. The courses that I have taken tend to be generic and inevitably someone brings up a question that will never pertain to your shop and you just spent your money getting someone else's problem solved. By bring them to your shop your questions get answered. Ron made some good points. I would add that if your shop is working in 4+ axis(or looking to do so) you will see major benefits in getting some Solids training.

So since MCAM overlays windows the Quadro series cards have more channels to support the windows within windows. Does this mean a card with say 128MB Like this one: PNY VCQFX1400-PCIE-PB Quadro FX1400 128MB 256-bit DDR PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail $349.99 Would handle perform beter then the one described above? Can anyone confirm or deny this?

Unfortunately you can build an entire system for less than the price of 1 Quadro FX card... Is there really that big of difference compared to the card he has listed?

If you uncheck it and have opened the file it will restore the NCI as soon as you go to backplot, post etc.

Offset the contour by .5 away from the wall then comp set to center and z-.5 if you don't offset the contour and just set the Z the cutter will move to center on the wall giving you a .5" gouge. Were you able to look at my example?

On the network I made a share "CNC Machines" that has shortcuts to all of the CNCs we post to in it. Then I pointed the control def to post the NC files to "CNC Machines". Now I just double click the machine I want and I don't have to fumble through explorer to find it anymore.

The two places thing is very troublesome, how many hours I've wasted changing settings and having them be gone again I will never know. The last time I was able to set the chaining dialog to open the way I want every time was in V9. It remembers the last use after I use it the first time but if I open another session it is back to 3D again. The only thing I can say is each release seems to be getting a little closer to the way it "should" work.

I made myself an example file because I never remember how I did it last. 3DCONTOUREXAMPLE.MCX In case the link doesn't work it is here: Mastercam_forum/All_NC_programs/3DCONTOUREXAMPLE.MCX

You could send it off to QC as an enhancement request. Add password protect option to toolpath lock function. I bet there is someone here who could write a c-hook to prompt for a password when the TP is locked/unlocked.

Thank You Colin and Thad... they work great.

I agree Thad, what is the point of setting up the file paths in the config if they don't go where you want. Whenever I us Alt+C to get a chook it goes somewhere other than the chooks folder. There are other things in the config that don't work either like the chaining dialog, every time I open MCAM and I use chain I have to change it from 3D to C-plane(even though the I have it set in the config for c-plane). MCAM is either not looking to the config or it is and just does something different anyway.

Last time I talked to the guys at ISCO they were still using Surfcam and had 1 seat of MCAM... Bend is a great place... So stay away!!! j/k(kinda)

If you go to the Nvidia site here URL at the bottom of the page are links to diff companies who build notebooks using Quadro cards most of them Vista is still the option and XP is standard.

At the bottom right corner of the screen click on groups,you'll notice the merged geo is in a group of it's own select it and click delete group and th4e colors will appear normal. Or you can uncheck use group color in the config (colors?)

The direction is based on which arc you break, in you example the back of a Bench assuming you are cutting it the way it would sit when finished you would break the vertical arc and rotate about the axis of the long arc to get the long arcs you need for you TP(Horizontal). If you wanted it to cut vertically or zig zag up and down you'd break the long acr and rotate about the axis of the vertical arc (in the construction plane perpindicular to that arc). Then you can window the chains select start point and set the depth to 0.0 and incremental.

+1 for coons, and Arc MultiEdit.dll, and FindOverlap.dll please.

Bill if you are using arcs, one for the vertical of the back and one for the along of the back. You could break the vertical arc into x amount of pieces to give you your desired stepover ( 14" / 560 = .025" )Then select the broken arc as a chain and xform rotate around the axis of the along arc using the endpoints of the along entity to set your start and end angles, selecting join. This will give the contours needed for a 2d contour toolpath. HTH Troy [ 06-18-2007, 12:43 PM: Message edited by: Troy Gossett, from Indepak Inc. ]

It is also one of the QM icons.