its looping back in the picture, was emphasizing what i was trying to ask edit, i.e. in the picture it is conventional only, and does a helix move to the next slice

thanks for the honest reply i seem to be getting progressively worse at structuring questions, I guess what I am looking for is confirmation that the three hst waterline transition options were all that is available (without changing to another type of toolpath, or editing this one) I was hoping there was some way to make hst respect the leads values on transitions between cuts, (like how surf. finish contour does), although I note that the hst leads boxes are on the linking params page which should have answered my own question.

Currently Im using surface finish contour, "high speed transitions" get the shown transitions between z slices, which are lovely, and works well on big floppy routers doing a million meters per minute This is about the only situation I seem to have to use surface finish contour over hst waterline, which I would rather be using for a hundred reasons. any insight or hint for what to search for would be greatly appreciated

what i use on a flimsy 5 axis router contouring path with 'good' results (i.e. no burr, clean bottom finish, and long long tool life) 30k rpm 4mm single flute 2m/min 0.8 depth i also put a large slitting saw on a arbour on the other end of the spindle. http://www.tradetools.co.nz/dbsweb/TTLWDICL.pgm?VRID=p0BTTvmbae4TwA6MGz6XWvsNhE175725&MODE=*DISPLAY&ITEM=5123310 edit - and no lube.

Looking at the mention of atp on there, is x5's atp any diffirent/better/able to be used in planes other than top?

You had me repeating it over and over trying too see what i was doing wrong

^ agree with the rest, but what do you mean by the (full depth) finish pass will also be ramped?

2d contour ramp+angle multipasses - machine finish passes at final depth

Thanks!

I was thinking i should have explained that, Left hand tools, Changing side to no avail and based on the comment "Mastercam's 2D high speed peel mill toolpath allows for efficient constant climb milling" I would have thought if it was only for climb milling, the cutter direction would have changed the peel direction.. Cheers for your time man

On a single chain peelmill toolpath, I cant seem to change from climb to conventional/ viseversa, Am I blind? It doesnt seem to be covered by the help file or streamingteacher? Cheers in advance for any clues, - Dave.

Cheers, twas the book.

Somewhere about year ago, I read an article about a book which I'm pretty sure was written by someone from in-house or cnc software inc regarding the alignment/tramming of multi-axis machines. The article was either on here or in one of the mastercam manuals, Does anyone have an idea what book i am referring to? Cheers for your time - David J

surely manual entry m00 would be 1000% safer than relying on force tool change m01?

Thad, I read your post and had a question regarding where you/most people do there limits and fits on drawings? im pretty green when it comes to genuine technical drawing, as far as i can see, what mcam is doing is correct?, (although i can think of instances where it would be nice to have more clearance in the corners which is what you are talking about - i.e. Nominal shaft in interferance fit pocket?) Ive attatched a huuge drawing for you to laugh at

A ha! I knew there must of been a simpler way! Much appreciated

Hi, I was wondering if anyone knew of an easy way to clear the corners of 2d square pockets, (i.e. add 'mickymouse ears') i have allways just added a drilling operation and done it afterwards, which is not really right but works, some situations need the extra material (and it also looks better at anyrate) but it is a pita going through a dozen motions to acheive the correct way on hundreds of them. Thank you in advance for any insight, David Jackson.

Cheers! (can of worms?) - David J

This might be really obvious but i cant find anything in our books/the help documents about it, In X3 (or 4) (router) is there a a simple way with 5axis swarf using upper and lower rails to do a custom "retract" (abeit at the specified feedrate for cutting) i.e. have the upper and lower rails the same line? i.e a big letter "F" with the two top lines of the F the upper and lower rails and the vertical line as a "retract"? Apologies for the poor explaination and thanks in advance for any clues! David J, Jackson Electrical Industries Ltd.

Im running the programs from the machines ram, mastercam/post output say a thousand ~0.02 g01 steps to cut say a cicle in a plane that cant be cut with g02/3 this machine 99.99% of the time is trimming boxes with huge tolerances that could happily be done with a third this amount of points, and it would reach the right feed rate (and take less time to transfer to the machine at 9600baud) surely there is a simple way to change this somewhere, (ive stared at the help documents/books/google results for a while, but i think that im too close to the problem) cheers for your time, David Jackson. (one more edit- g64 deaccel at block change is off) (and another edit- ive played with the value in filter -> tolerance entering huge, small and everything in between with seemingly no change in code?) [ 07-04-2009, 06:01 PM: Message edited by: DavidJackson ]

In x3, my linearization tolerance value box is greyed out, im having data starvation problems with my machine with a such fine number (simple trimming machine), any ideas? Cheers for your time / any info - David Jackson.