Should be no problem. We haven't dressed wheels, but have cut like a lathe, mostly electrodes. Have your geo like you want in front view, use top c-plane/t-plane. I always move to world zero to keep it simple. Your shape is reversed in the sense that the "top" as you look at it in front view, will be the "bottom" as in farthest away from spindle. Make sense?

That is a little confusing without seeing the geo.

Frank, Having been to Makino School, the Technology Transfer Class, I can tell you it is VERY much worth it. I know it is difficult to have someone away from their job, but it will pay off if the person going has active interest in betterment of the company and themselves. Makino is known throughout as being the best or in the top 3 for its training. Plus you get some one on one with people you can call later and get help when you need it. Then you already have a relationship with that person and you communication is much more effective. Personally I think for the price of machine tools it is counterproductive NOT to send someone. Especially since its your first MAkino. My $.02 HTH

Cindy Welcome to the Froum, and to MC as well. My guess would be the trainer didn't know what negotiations had accomplished between the person writing the check, so to speak, and the reseller. The reseller can provide/modify/have modified your posts, but each deal is different as to where the no-charge stops. If you or someone in house has aptitude AND desire to work with your posts, some of the changes are not real difficult, just depends on what you are wanting. HTH

WOWSER Thanks for the heads up Jimmy. Hey Craig-- Do y'all do tours down there?? Is it as much fun as I think it would be to have you job? I have a brother who lives in Maine and the last time I went to visit him, I tried to get a tour at Bushmaster. Alas they don't do tours because of the "sensitive" nature of their customers.

Have you guys tried the "ncdatasheet" c-hook set-up sheet? It offers all you are asking for, I believe.

rickcact1 Do a search, there is a recent thread that has lots of info. The set-up sheets are the way to go. For years I used my own "program sheet" and loved it, but it was not automated and so if somebody lost the sheet or it got destroyed, I had to reconstruct from memory.....................and memory ain't what it used to be. imho

Lee I guess I wasn't clear what you were trying to resolve. I always restore NCI on file get as you will have less errors (in my exp) but you have to live with file size as program count goes up. What I do is when the save get cumbersome, because my puter isn't real fast, is to save the file as "(name)copy-1" etc and dump the toolpaths out of it to continue on. That way I have all the relevant geo in my latest file, but can go back to adjust any toolpaths or what have you and have all my associativity, while keeping smaller file sizes. For me its at about 70meg that I make the cutoff, based on logical time to change. That probably doesn't help you a darn bit, just my explanation.

Lee Do you have the "restore entire NCI file on file get" unchecked?

Thanks Bruce! I will work on that when I have time, should help with automating the process.

Hey Bruce, If you wouldn't mind, can I see that example also? My .xls is a little weak, but I get there eventually. It would save me some time to see how others are doing it.

Good point Anbu. Zone split did split the surfaces but also split the individual sides in to two surfs. I didn't try plane trim though.

Heck yeah, ain't nothin but a thang. Basically did what zeerapid was saying. I put curves-all edges, untrimmed the surf, trimmed it to your plane, then re-trimmed to original edges, then mirrored the new surf. It was symmetrical, wasn't it? Near as I could tell it was. And you are quite welcome.

Sandybar Look at 300 post split_dab in the mc9 folder on ftp and tell me if that is what you want.

Happy Anniversary and Many Thanks!!!!!!

It sounds like something isn't clean. Do Create-Surface-From Solid and it may be easier to find the problem area if it is something complex.

You can get the info on cd for free from your reseller.

Do you have all operations you want included "checked" in op mgr?

Create-Next Menu-Letters

I have done a lot of MD translation and if it was good in MD, assuming your MD is up to date, your best bet is the STEP. As said above also try DWG. Another thing may be your SAT translator as stated above. If all that fails, you may look at system tolerance as we had good luck by decreasing the MC tolerance as MD is like 16 places standard i think. HTH

MayDay I have had a few weird quirks with WCS but nothing that would repeat itself, so I'm not sure who is to blame yet. As for the WCS numbers, or numbered views, MC has always renumbered when a file is reopened, if it felt it neede to. I have never lost a named view as far as the name goes, but it will be a different number usually at least the next time I open it. Its like you may twist on way or another several times and then decide on which view you are going to start with, it will have a number and then you set it and close the file, reopen and it will have a different number. That is why I always use names, with something I can remember.

I may also have come across wrong in my response, but I don't buy anything uncoated so the key is where are you starting? If you are trying to use generic S&F info and ad to it for a coated end mill I don't think you will get the best results. However starting with the mfrs. recommendations is the place to start, as Chuck said. Again there is always a trade off. I use some awesome tools from OSG, but they are always job and task specific. Not because they wouldn't work for other things, but they are quite expensive and you can't afford to "under-use" them. There are many excellent tools available and that really makes the decision making more difficult. Everyone has a cost/benefit ratio to work within so sometimes there is no way around trial and error when you aren't machining in a production atmosphere. Of course usually without much arm twisting you can get a sales rep to float you tools to try on the premise that you'll buy from them if the tools work as expected.

I wouldn't assume you can increase SFM or feedrate because you are using a coated end mill. The purpose of the coating is to increase tool life and in some cases lubricity. You may gain a little if the tool is holding up better to heat when its coated, but that goes back to "depends".

Surface-Rough-Plunge will get you to the MC style of plunge roughing. If your slot is just simple slot you may be better off to use a pre-calculated drill prg.

James-Congratulations! Sounds like you are doing well on your own. Gary-What I can tell you is there are a lot of things that suck about "being your own boss", but everytime something comes up I still say "it beats the hell out of working for someone else". And I have had some great bosses and worked at great places, its just not the same. I have a partner (read another marraige, now have two at once) and we bought an existing shop in 2001, in the middle of the deal when 9-11 happened, and we jumped head first into the worst lag in the mold building industry in 20 yrs. We have made some mistakes and things aren't pretty on paper right now, but the corner has turned we believe and good things are on the horizon. Gone are the days when tool shop owners made big bucks on every job and customer loyalty is a thing of the past. But what I believe has kept us alive, and will help us grow in the future is basically niche marketing. You don't want to have all your eggs in one basket, but that is tough to avoid when you are small. We try to be innovative in all we do as we see this as the future of all US industry. The thing we have learned the most often is you got to have balls, big ones. He who hesitates is lost is not an outdated cliche. So with the caveat that you must do your homework and beat up EVERYONE on their prices,(because that is what will happen to you-nature of capitalism) I would recommend "going for it" to those who know they possess the drive and tenacity to make things happen, especially when things are tough. Looking forward to anticipate what your current and prospective customers will need in the future needs to be constantly on your mind. Tough to do when you are buried with work wondering how you will meet due dates. The only other thing I would add (for now) is that you MUST have support from your spouse! My wife is great, but this kind of stuff is definitely a strain on anyone. That's my Saturday speech.