It appears to be an issue with the 5x posts. When I switch the machine to a generic 4x then it posts out the feed move in one line. Maybe the Multiaxis toolpaths will post out differently but I don't have access to that addon. So my company is planning on doing 5 axis milling eventually but right now we are focusing on doing 3+2 positional work with the new rotary. Was it a mistake to use the generic 5x post if all we are doing is positional work?

I've attached the file I am talking about. The extra code isnt a problem that I know of. It just seems like something isn't right when it has 50 lines of code that can be done with one line. exa.mcx-9

When I setup a simple axis substitution toolpath that is just milling a circle using the C axis it outputs the C move like this. C90.739 C91.478 C92.218 C92.957 C93.696 C94.435 C95.175 C95.914 C96.653 C97.392 C98.131 C98.871 I'm using the 5 axis generic post. Not sure if its a programming issue or a post issue and I've looked at every setting I can think of that would fix it. Thanks for any help.

Unshading does allow me to select one of the lines. Thank you. Somewhat strange, if I turn on "select from bottom" in the menu at the top of the workspace then it allows me to select the bottom one. Still seems like I shouldn't have to unshade to select a line when in a certain view. Thanks for the help everyone.

In Mastercam 2017 I'm having problems selecting lines. Sometimes if I am in the top view looking at a solid and there is a line at the top of the part and a line at the bottom then It won't let me select either. But If I rotate the solid then it will allow me to pick the lines. Any ideas? I attached two pictures. The screen shot didn't capture my mouse location but it is hovering over the top line. When the view is rotated you can see it lets me select the line. top view.bmp rotated.bmp

If you have a lot of levels with a bunch of entities in each one. Is there any way to select an entity, solid, or surface and figure out what level it is on without manually turning off levels until you figure it out?

Ya your right, I looked in there but I didn't see anything that made sense. Didn't understand it until I read what was in the post about the MI's

I have a part to machine that I can't access on the rotary without rotating it 180 degrees (Im hitting the x axis limit). Is there any way using the generic 5 axis post and Mastercam to have the toolpath post out at C180 instead of C0 and of course change the x and y values with it. For right now I am going to hand edit it so it comes out right. I tried rotating the tool plane and construction plane 180 degrees about Z but it still posted out at C0. Also tried the rotatary options in the toolpath.

This is a really nice gesture Colin. I hope your goodwill spreads.

Ya, I fat fingered a 3 instead of a 2. Thanks for the help though. I'm programming for a 5 axis machine and I thought there was some way to setup up a safe boundary to retract tools to before positioning the rotary. I'm having trouble finding any option though that allows for that. I'm using the generic 5 axis post.

Nevermind....Just realized my format statement wasn't using the right format number should be fmt "XY STOCK" 3 xystockwdg *facepalm

I'm trying to get my post to show the stock to leave amount in xy and z is for each toolpath. Not having much luck though. I've used rpar before to get the tool radius before so I'm not sure what I am missing. Below is my defined variables xystockwdg : 0 zstockwdg : 0 fmt "XY STOCK" 4 xystockwdg fmt "Z STOCK" 4 zstockwdg My pparameter looks like this pparameter$ #Parameter Read if prmcode$ = 10010, xystockwdg = rpar(sparameter$, 1) #Capture stock to leave (XY) if prmcode$ = 10068, zstockwdg = rpar(sparameter$, 1) #Capture stock to leave (Z) Then i'm using *xystockwdg, e$ *zstockwdg, e$ To post out the variables. But the numbers don't match up with the stock to leave in Mastercam. Not sure what I'm missing. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Just wanted to make sure, but if my rotaxis/rodir look like this #Primary axis angle description (in machine base terms) #With nutating (mtype 3-5) the nutating axis must be the XY plane rotaxis1$ = vecx #Zero vecx rotdir1$ = vecy #Direction vecy #Secondary axis angle description (in machine base terms) #With nutating (mtype 3-5) the nutating axis and this plane normal #are aligned to calculate the secondary angle rotaxis2$ = vecz #Zero vecz rotdir2$ = vecx #Direction vecx Then my shift_90_s should be a -1 one correct? #Secondary shift (determines position and angle calculation) #plane correction 90 degree shift case (plus or minus) #used when secondary plane is defined perp to primary zero #EX. P - vecx, vecy S - vecz, vecy shift_90_s : -1 #Shift pos.=1, neg.=-1 Also was wondering if there was a way using the generic 5 axis post or mastercam to force my secondary axis to go to the negative side. i.e. instead of rotating to C0, A30. Rotate to C180, A-30. Not sure when I would ever use this. Was just curious if it was possible. Thanks!

I have the X6 version I think

OK, thanks. Although to get my first copy of the pdf I originally asked my reseller to get it for me and after two weeks of them "trying to find" what I was looking for I ended up contacting mastercam directly to get it.

I'm doing some post work this weekend and it appears my copy of the MP documentation pdf is out of date (is there a new one?). Was hoping someone could send me a copy or let me now where I can get a copy. I've already sent Mastercam an email for the new documentation but I'm guessing they won't get back to me until Monday and would like to get this project done before then. Thanks!

Put your x in the drill point x value in the drilling cycle

You could use remote desktop to remotely log into the computer you want to close mastercam on.

Bump. Is there any problem with forcing a zout move in the pncoutput? Is drilling/tapping cycles the only time the post looks at that section?

I was thinking about this and I a bit confused. 1st, I'm not sure how you would program it in mastercam. Lets say the X,Y, and Z zero is set to the corner of the part. Is that where your WCS is in Mastercam? Seems like your rotations would be off by alot that way. Then once at the machine do you have to turn TCP on and off or is it always on. I'm just not seeing exactly how TCP would work.

Good info thank you! I stumbled upon a article on Okuma's website that lists all(?) of the options somebody might want to have on a 5 axis machine from Okuma. http://www.okuma.com/essential-multi-axis-control-options

Mainly will be doing positional work. The salesman from hartwig did tell us that we would be able to do full 5 axis cuts if we wanted to. Don't have the machine here yet so I can't answer the question about macros so I might be asking about them when the machine comes. I like post editing And before I got to my current shop people were doing a lot of hand edits just like the last shop before I edited the posts. Machinists for whatever reason don't take the time to send out posts in my limited experience.

Maybe that is true for this case. Not sure how much of a challenge it will be. But the last time I got a quote for a post it was $3k (If i remember correctly). And it took me 10 hours to get the post where I wanted it (was for a twin turret lathe). And at a $75 shop rate thats $2200 saved. Also my limited experience with sending posts out to get fixed have not gone well and I've never seen a brand new post without things that need to be fixed. Which is why I learned to edit posts. Plus if I do it myself I can set it up however I want and can fix any issues on the spot. And I'm guessing if I buy a post its going to be encrypted and that sucks. Granted, the last post I was working with I could bypass most of the stuff that was encrypted but it was still a bummer.

Thanks for the info. Its usually cheaper for me to edit the post than to buy one so I'll give it a try. Never done any editing to a 5 axis post so not sure how it will go. I think I understand okuma's wcs shift and rotation commands to be able to do it. Wish me luck!

I did a search for "mpgen" in my shared mastercam folder and didn't find anything. Is that short for something? And doing this through a post seems like a bit of a pain, but maybe its the only way? Doing it this way I think I would have to set the machine x,y, and z zero at the center of the axis of rotation for the two axis on the rotary. Then I would have to put my 3d solid in mastercam at the distance above those axes where it physically rests on the machine. Then all of the positional moves would be correct. Am I missing something or is this the only way to avoid having multiple work offsets at the machine?