I have my SL-40 setup with a program switch MI-5. The program defaults to leaving the machine in high gear. If I get into a situation where the program really needs to use low gear like for drilling then I set my 0 to a 1. Low gear is engaged and I can push a big drill through the part. Then kick it up into high gear and do the rest of the turning. I do the same thing with our mills as well. It is really annoying to spiral down to the bottom of a hole. Then you adjust rpm to start tearing through the material. And then watch the gears change up before you start tearing through the material with dynamic roughing. Or watching it change gears to do a quick countersink.

That way looks like it will work really well. Thanks for the help.

I am trying to draw up some drafting dimensions for a part on a manual rotary. I have a hard time with the drafting then I get past the 180-degree side. Is there any tips and trick to getting the numbers I am looking for and placing them in an order that makes sense?

I have a problem with the post for my Haas Lathe. The c-axis drilling on Mastercam shows the tool retracting to X-1.1001 in between drilling cycles. The problem is that Haas lathes don't have a traditional G98 clearance plane. G98 in lathe is for feed per minute. So the tool only retracts out of the hole to the R plane. How can I make it cancel the canned cycle retract to the clearance plane and then recall up the canned cycle again? N2 T0828 N3 M154 N4 M8 N5 G97 P2139 M133 N6 G98 N7 G00 G54 X-1.1001 C0. N8 Z-.2107 N9 G241 X-.345 R-.585 F4.28 G80 X-1.1001 N10 C-180. G241 X-.345 R-.585 F4.28 N11 G00 G80 X-1.1001 N12 M9 N13 M155 N14 M135 N15 G53 Z0. N16 M30 % How do I add the lines in red to my post?

We are a Federal Customer.

Colin, I didn't know you work for Phillips Federal now. We use you guys all the time. The guy Dave (I think that's his) from the machine activation phone number is awesome. He's gotten me up and running in no time.

Yeah, the center of rotating axes. For true 5x motion you would only use examples 2 and 3. Example 1 is only good for indexing, it doesn't lend itself to 5x. For example 2 in 5 axis motion, you are letting your cam system do all the work. This method is totally fine but very labor-intensive when jumping from machine to machine. Every single program will only work on that machine. So if I have to go from a Haas UMC750 to a 5x Okuma, then the file will have to be modified. Because each machine's center of rotating axis is different. For example 3 I could take the same program from a Haas VMC 750 put it in an articulating head machine like a Haas VR-8. This is all because the controller is handling its own machine dynamics. It knows where all the axis pivot around. So the math is done in real-time by the machine. That's how you can take apart and put it where ever you want. Because the control is interpreting the program to whatever pivot distances it individually has. That is why TCPC is so awesome.

The other thing it does is simplify programming. Especially if you are doing any of it by hand. Because it keeps track of that one point in space you can read back the numbers much easier. Say you are working on a part on a horizontal. You work on the front of the part and then you need to rotate the part 90 degrees and put in some holes. You can do that operation in 3 ways. You can set a new work coordinate say g55. This method will let your numbers look the way they do on the print. So if you need to move to X1. Y1. to a hole depth of Z-1. Then you can read the numbers before you put in the hole. In this method, you have to set up a new offset in your control and make sure you are calling that offset in your program. In the 2nd method, you let your cam do the work. In this method, you have to find the center of rotation, then find out where your parts sit relative to that center of rotation. Put those numbers into your cam and then run your parts. If you need to use any offsets it's going to get weird. Also, the numbers with all have those offsets added to all the numbers. So if you are drilling from a top of stock of 14. inches to a depth of 13 inches. That is the same as drilling from 0 to a depth of -1. This one only requires g54 one work offset but if any parts shift in the location you have to reprogram the whole thing. The last method with TCP is a good combo of the two. You can use probing to set your parts if you want. You only have to touch one side of the part. The numbers in the program are very readable. Part shifting can be done on a case-by-case basis. The same program can go from machine to machine and doesn't need to be modified to the center of rotation of that new machine.

I have the Haas generic post. I just started using tool inspection point and it stopped turning back on CSS. How do I put it back in? N2 G00 T0101 N3 M88 M42 N4 G97 S77 M3 N5 G00 G54 Z.5795 N6 X10.5607 N7 G50 S750 N8 G96 S213 N9 Z.2 N10 X6.0056 N11 G99 G01 Z.1 F.01 N12 Z-24.1324 N13 X6.147 Z-24.0617 N14 G00 X10.5607 N15 Z.5795 N16 X10. Z10. (TOOL INSPECTION POINT - POST CUSTOMIZATION MAY BE REQUIRED) N17 M00 N18 G00 T0101 M42 N19 G97 S77 M3 N20 G00 G54 X10.5607 Z.5795 N21 Z.2 N21 (need to insert G50 S750) N21 (need to insert g96 S213) N22 X5.9112 N23 G01 Z.1 F.01 N24 Z-24.1324 N25 X6.0526 Z-24.0617 N26 G00 X10.5607 N27 Z.5795 N28 X10. Z10.

I would love to see some more seamless integration of carbide manufacturer tool libraries into Mastercam. Like what machining cloud claims to be but sucks at fulfilling.

That is why we went to a license server. They were telling us that they were moving away from the HASPs when we were buying more seats of mill. I talked to my boss about it and we decided to swap over to the server. We started with a seat of mill and lathe. Then we added 5x to that seat. Then a 2nd seat of mill and 2 seats of wire. It got kinda stressful to keep track of where the 4 usbs were currently at. As we bring more guys from Surfcam over to Mastercam it just made sense.

I got a post from my dealer that I want to move forward with. We added an MI5 variable so I can control gear changes. The post looks fine. So I load it in the machine def manager change the max rpms, and coolant on and off commands. Then I hit save_as and rename it as "Haas VF-6 3x". I load that machine definition and start to program it... MI5 is blank. What am I doing wrong when I am creating a new machine def off an old one. When I check the file paths they are all correct.

The version selector doesn't launch for me.

I did that, it still launches with the old Mastercam.

At my friend's shop they have Mastercam X9 and 2017 installed. The default program is X9 for opening files like .step and .sldprt. I went in and selected the exe for Mastercam 2017 but it keeps launching them in X9. How do I clear that out and select the new program as the "open with".

Yeah, I think i came that conclusion as well. I justrecalibrated the Haas macros and it seems to be withing .0003 of each other now.

Hey Guys, I have a question. We just got producivity plus for inside Mastercam. I have been messing around with it today but I am getting an error I cannot figure out. I use Haas's probing cycles and end up with an X position of X-4.5651. When I go with the Productivity Plus probing I get X-4.5778. I checked the tool and it only has about .0003 of runout. I don't get how I am getting such a big difference between the 2.

I have been pulling out my hair but I think I have figured this thing out. I am using the Heidenhain 510 post and it was giving me some problems with the drilling cycles. I got the program to successfully drill to a depth of z-.750 from a top of stock of 0.0 Cycle Def 203 Universal Drilling Q201=-.750 (drill depth) Q203=0.0 (Surface coordinate) Where I into issues is when I am trying to drill from a bottom up system. So my datum is at the bottom of my part and it is 3" tall. I want to drill to a depth of +.5. But Heidenhain wants to see the drill depth as a negative value only. It would be easy for a Haas to do this because you just say the final depth you want to drill to. Heidenhain wants an incremental Z- depth. Cycle Def 203 Universal Drilling Q201=-.5 (drill depth) This is wrong and doesn't work Q203=3.0 (Surface coordinate) I need it to output Cycle Def 203 Universal Drilling Q201=-2.5 (drill depth) (this is right but that means I have to take the drill depth value and do some math on it) Q203=3.0 (Surface coordinate) How do I make the post take the difference between a the surface coordinate and the final drill depth. I looked at format statements for delta but it didn't change the value accordingly.

your reseller can handle this change. I personally don't like the TL posts. I don't like having one machine programmed different from all the other machines. I just use the Generic Haas ST post instead. Works great.

I got the Heidenhain conversational post from the Mastercam library. Everything seem to work fine except for one line of Code TOOL DEF 5 L0.0 R0.188 this line keeps throwing an error of incorrect syntax. I don't know why it is wrong. It looks exactly like the books that we got with the machine. Anyone have any ideas.

I have 2 guys who are jumping over to Mastercam from Surfcam Traditional. I want to try to get better about using all the features of the software that I normally don't touch. Like making a custom library. I was wondering if anyone would be willing to share a materials library. How many of you guys use a materials library as a good starting point to get speeds and feeds from? If you have a materials library and a tool library from a company like Niagra, what would the workflow look like?

Use No-core toolpath.

We really like MSC around here. Being a government shop we get a pretty hefty discount. Also we have this system setup where all the guys on the shop floor have an account, they can add anything to the cart and send it to the purchaser. If the purchasing guy approved the order then the person who ordered it gets an email saying the item has been ordered and you get a tracking number. It just shows us the next day and everything is gravy. Some of these local companies its like pulling teeth some times. They take days to send you a quote. They send the quote directly to the purchasing guy, so if you are just shopping for prices then you never even see any numbers. Then shipping it to a different building on site is always a fun one. It's just nice most times and take the human element out of it. A well put together website is just so much nicer.

It makes me curious about how they are going to handle stuff like posts. Do you have to buy the post outright still or are you renting that as well?