In my case, mechanical engineering students are often/ mostly working in groups. We did ask for "independent" drawings but got multiple copies of the same..... go figure. Now ask for each team member to design a piece of the assembly etc. Students have lets say a box like case for their assembly.... there are six parts to the box, top, bottom, left, right, front, back and of course the assembly/mechanism. By now you have guessed the result..... 3-D drawings of the six parts of the box. Students say we said that they each must do one of the components and that the box fulfills the requirement. Yep, they all look for the least input and expect a great result. They tend to visit the often spineless department heads or deans office to get their way... in the end they evaluate the instructor which has an effect on salary and promotion. So what do you do? Too often the goal of students to get a "check mark" in a box showing that they have completed a requirement. There is only the occasional student that wants to get the knowledge the check mark should represent. Trading education for experience is a poor trade. We have said a Phd is equal to years of experience.... and we were only fooling ourselves!

The problem is the VR software and the control.... good luck

I had a Denford mill and lathe. Software and control always a problem. Customer support was unreliable and the did not fix problems as promised. I finally gave up donated the machine that cost $$$$$$ and got something that worked. My experience with Denford was very disapointing, I often felt like I was talking to someone working part-time out of their garage that couldn't care less about customer service and future sales. The original idea/discussion was to purchase 12 mills/lathes. You would have thought they would do anything to insure that the 2 we purchased to test worked properly.....

I loolked at the mini-mill, traveled to Cali to visit the factory. In the end I bought 3 Milltronics with 4th axis. The milltronics had bigger travels, which overcame some of the limitations of the Haas. I bought 3 VM15's put on laser tool setters and spindle probes. Have not had any problems. For me the fact that the Milltronics factory was in the midwest was a factor. I'd give them a look.....

John has the correct answer. These are elevation contours not stepover.

I'd take a good look at Milltronics. Considered Haas, bought Milltronics. US company, good service. No problems in 2 years. Have 3 VM-15's Haas mini doesn't compare.

Thanks James, figured it might be. So go slow, go fast.....I'm thinking let it rip and flood, flood flood. BTW, poor me....sob, sob... you May 2000 - 8023 post, me Sep 2000 - 172 posts.

Holy smokes......I'm up to 171 posts. Wish I got credit for the number of post read. Let's see--171/5 years = 34.2 post/yr /12= 2.85 post per month. Maybe I couyld improve on that.

This is a student project, someone donated a chunk of aluminum and the students want to make an oil pan for their formula race car from this stuff. I suggested 6061,6063 but not to be they like free. I just wondered if I should expect it to be gummy or more free cutting if I blast with coolant.

Midwest, the file is from Rhino. They have a couple of other cool examples.

An experience or helpful hints for machining this stuff. Have not seen material but was told that it was pure - elemental aluminum. Will be making a deep pocket with islands.

UG and training issues here at the University are complicated by the fact that the UG folks only wanted 1 contact person for the entire University. That 1 person has the "sold to #" required to enter UG's cast system and setting up multiple accounts with a single "sold to #" does not seem possible at first glance. The IT person that is the contact person does not use the software and has little interest except to say that it is installed. Making all the associated modules function is another issue and missing licenses can take days or months to correct depending on the local IT and UG systems person's mood. We were trying to evaluate UG someime this semester because it's a "GIFT" and we should be using it if it's free (actually we pay several (many) thousand dollars/year in maintaince fees.. so it ain't free) Some folks in adminstration have considered dropping (not renewing)our Solidworks contract which is basically everything they have, unlimited seats, set fee (so cheap it would bring tears to your eye). Students revolted....well, they wroted letters to the editor for the campus paper and met with the Dean... so Solidworks may be safe for a while. At any rate we now introduce 2nd year students to Solidedge, again because its "Free" and any student that wants to learn Solidworks is left to their own means. We have the largest engineering "Job Fair" in the Nation I often ask others if they bother to attend and ask the potential employers what packages they use and what we could do to make our graduates better...I mostly get silence.

RandleXX shows his true colors, only here to frustrate people not share information and assist........maybe it's time for him to say goodby. UG. We recieved a gift from UG to the University. Lots of press and I presume many tax breaks. So far we in mechanical eng. have not been able to use UG for a number of reasons. Licenses not available even though they were supposed to be there, lack of training and some "hard copy" reference material to learn iin "off hours". Cause the software is on the server and also the documentaion. no way to set it up and learn at home. Seems like a complicated design and manufacturing package for entry level students to learn on their own..... we don't have instructional class for any of our design software but have Solidworks, Solidedge, ProE, Autocadd/Autodesk products, and UG for the shortlist. I think UG might shine in its declaired area "PLM - Product Lifetime Management" but not sure it is the best choice for day to day design and manufacturing that supports ever changing part families. Just my opinion, which could change with appropiate training and information....don't see that happening so I stand by my opinion.

Just put the ops manager on the mouse right button and get it out of the way except when you need to see it.

Download the trial version of Rhino load the file and let Rhino "repair" the file. Rhino does a great job with iges file repair.... that alone might be enough reason to purchase, but Rhino does other things too. I use Rhino a lot to help me repair and manulipate files. It is inexpensive and a tool that I will always have handy. here is the linky:http://www.rhino3d.com/[url/]

Better yet put the toolpath manager on the right click mouse menu and hide and unhide it as you need it.

The box may be small but the visual clues about where the curser is located become more friendly with use.... you'll quickly get the hang of the clues as they change when you move your curser from feature to feature.

Not sure exactly what you mean? Are you talking about the main screen with the ribbon bars above and the operations manager to the left? If that is the case, I have put the operations manager display on my right mouse button. Settings/customize/rightmouse/dropdown and change the right mouse button to include the operations manager. On the left side of the Right mouse/dropdown tab expand the right mouse button menu. On the right side under catigories scroll down to screen and bunch of icons display below. The icon to open and close the operations manager is in the second row 6th from the left on my screen. Just grab the little bugger and drag it with the mouse to the right mouse button menu on the left side of the screen. Mine is set up so the command is at the top of the list..... when I hit the right mouse button the operations manager toggle is at the top of the list and I can open and close it quickly.......

Oh yea...... I didn't get no darn T-shirt in my box!!

The watched pot never.......... Code-Breaker maybe Homeland Security thinks those codes a security risk -----after alll you are the "Code Breaker"

Under page setup is you choose shaded and color you get foreground color and background color. I would expect this. If you uncheck color but leave shaded checked you get a monochrome (gray)shaded object with a white background. All solids are output as gray no matter their screen color. If you want solids or other objects without the colored background but have them print in color, temporally set the background to white, print and change back you might be able to create a shortcut or a macro to do this. Oh yea I'm using the vaper ware........

I have the operations manager tied to the right mouse button. When I right click the operations manager is at the top of the list so I can access it quickly to turn it off or on giving me more room on the screen to do other things.

X was tested. X works. You'll love X after a few sessions to get used to the new SolidWorks like interface. I as a past Wordperfect user hated Word until I used it a few times. There will always be voices in the background saying why did they do it this way and not that way..... Geeez, use it, learn it, love it! I have a feeling that soon enough the biggest whiners will be the biggest fans.........

Check your manual, there are M codes that can be entered at the control to reorient the changer. M20 tool drum home, M23 arm in, M24 arm out, M21 tool drum CW, M22 tool drum CCW. If the tool drum is off by 1 position just use M21 or M22 to rotate it to the proper position.... no need to unload and reload tools. First do an M20 and check the home position and then go from there. What control do you have?

I am at Iowa State University, mechanical engineering dept. - might explain why we don't normally do outside jobs.