It's a little late to look into that unfortunately. This company I'm doint some contract work for has 1 Haas VR8, one seat of MCX5 and just a few other generic machines (drill press, band saw, etc.) I just need to make a few of these deals for a small in-house project for some bio engineers.. Tolerances are not very tight, not a production thing, and just about can take the time I need to finish them.

I need to cut some small (~.25") squares out of a Ti sheet (1/16" thk). I have two OSG carbide 6fluted cutters. I will probably ramp in and leave .002-.004" from the bottom and just break them out, then deburr.. If there are any better ideas, please share! Also, what speeds and feeds would any Ti experts recommend? (I normally only work with aluminum and carbon fiber and I'd like to get this right the first time.)

And boom goes the dynamite! It was the checked EA mgr box. I've never checked that to see what it did. wow... It's been frustrating for the past 2 months since I've worked here. Before, I Catia imported in all my own parts and have never seen that on any file i've ever done. Thanks!!

We have the verisurf add on on all the computers and he does use the bounding box to get the stock. What's happening is when I get a file from him, for the entire duration that I work on the part, any time I move or adjust any wire geometry -even those that I create- it changes to a different color. He likes working with all lines being the bright green, arcs being blue, spines being red, and there's a few others. So I can make a red line, then translate it 2" in Y, and it will turn green. Even when I trim a wire, it will change to one of those colors. It's kind of frustrating really...

I've been working with Mastercam since early 2008 from X2 through X5 now. We have a programmer at this new place I'm at who's job is to figure stock size. Whenever I get any file from him, all the arc, spline and line entities will default to the colors he uses on his computer. (He likes to use a different color for every, so even my part wire frame looks like some big rainbow on my screen.. :-/) I need to know how to fix this in the file because even though i'm the only one opening the file from here on out, whenever I do anything to any wire, it changes back to the color he had them. I've never seen this before until I started working here. He has been using Mastercam for about 5 months but doesn't want to change his way to use solid colors for wire frames of things. Any help would be greatly appreciated.. X5 MU1

Have you used the "Regenerate Display" icon? That often works for me when scrolling the mouse doesn't work.

Oooooohhh The suspense... Who doesn't like suspense?? *crosses fingers to be using X6 before 2012*

I'm using a Solidbox built computer that was recently connected to the our network at my work. It ran great, and I could never get Mastercam to crash(not that I was trying) with some decently complex two sided 5-axis trunion parts, but now I have problems with verify and big tool paths using up the memory real fast and I get fatal errors, or mastercam crashes and shuts down. I have the exact same setting files as two other computers that don't have this problem with the same part. Is this a solidbox problem not liking runing on networks, or a mastercam problem? I'm programming the part saved locally to my computer. Dell Precision T3500 Quad Core Xeon w/ [email protected] Quadro 2000 Windows 7 x64Pro / 6.0GB RAM X5 MU1, Mill L3 Solid Box Cobalt Level 1

We use PCD cutters. There's a decent selection of them. Everyone I talked to 'round here does the same. We also use flood coolant to cut down the dust. The finish is great!

I have never tried using that yet.. Is it pretty straight forward to pick up?

Is there a way to change the view/WCS from which you dimensioned a part? I had dimensioned a part with a point map all around it and while I was in the middle of it, I was interrupted to help out with other work. When I went back to the file and finished dimensioning, I was defaulted into the "TOP" view without realizing. So my axis was different giving me incorrect point dimensions. This has happened before and I usually just delete the incorrect but I want to know if I can avoid that step and just refresh the dimensions from the correct view. Any help is greatly appreciated! MCam X4 MU3 user

I recently found out how to access the FTP files. How do I upload to them? Also, did you use the subprogram function in the transform tool path, and does it keep the nc file approximately the same size as just running one part? using X4 here

ok thanks, i'll go have a look at them.

I would like to do that as well if it is an option. Having the capability to post out and do manual edits would be nice So yes, with Mcam as well.

We have 16mgb of space on a machine here and I have an 8mgb program loaded. I want to run 4 parts at a time set up in a square pattern (order of run doesn't matter) with different offsets. I want to do this without having to leave the probe in the machine -as previously done- and calling it up to just reset the one offset for every part. Any help is greatly appreciated as always! Machine: HAAS VR-11

I've only used them with some completely different software for the government in the past. I never realized I could use them in MasterCam. I can only see that you can assign keys for functions like -opening the macro manager- just not to run a specific macro. Sure would be nice though...

In for the new knowledge... Also I have a follow-up question to go with yours Bama, How can I default my macros manager to pull files from a folder in my documents instead of the original default? I can't seem to find anything in the Configuration Menu about it. Am I over-looking something? -X4 MU3

We have one machine that just does not like cutter comp. We haven't figured out why but when it is on a program going to that machine, the program may be correct, as well as the code, but the machine seems to have a mind of it's own and make random movements it is not supposed to.

Are you using cutter comp?

What are your opinions on trochoidal milling and do you use it? What about using it with inserted cutters? I'm trying it out and it seems to work decent. I have not been using it enough to assess tool life on the inserted cutters yet. I also can't figure out how to keep the cutter from the circular motions when it works its first pass around the outside of the stock. I have been using the original stock dimensions for my boundary. Any suggestions or comments? Thanks Mastercammers

Are we looking for the total time to regenerate, or the total time to run through verify?

Must be nice... I get my whopping 40 in every week.. I need another job if I'm ever going to finish my basement. -sigh-

WOW! That is exactly what I have been trying to do with them. That worked great! Thanks guys!!

Thanks Ernie! that was pretty helpful. So now I can view the STL file as if it were a solid... Am I able to make it a solid or surfaces without needing a code for more verisurf features? Basically what I'm doing is programming a 4-axis part and installing a fixture after a few operations. I just want to take the STL file from the part, and add it to the fixture to run the rest of the part(To check tooling clearance). So I was thinking if i could get the STL back in as a solid, Boolean Add it to the fixture, save as STL, then continue on with the rest of the part.. Any suggestions?

quote: quote: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- it seems like every day there are updates for the Vista. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I've noticed this too! 5-6 times per week there is an update, I was beginning to wonder if my pc wasn't installing the updates correctly lol. Oh well, better than no updates I guess :/ I had my laptop, with Vista, not connected to the internet at the house for a couple months since i didn't want internet at that time, but I still kept getting update notices... Unless it was magically connected to some kind of microsoft space center and recieving signals from aliens, I think it must be timed say there are updates. And just before I had pulled the internet, I made sure it was completely updated at that time..