We use Mastercam, but this discussion has been covered some before HERE Esprit made its name in WEDM programming and some say it can't be beat. I believe Esprit also has all the technology tables for Charmilles which are not available in MC. If your guy has already been using Esprit, I would definately get him involved in MC demo to make sure it does everything he wants it to. Also get a commitment from the MC dealer for Post Processors. If they say there is an existing post, ask to see sample code.

Use Toolpaths > Point > Goto XYZ Pick your entry point location at Z-.10 Then Pick A point At the contour and Z -.10 Then A point At the contour And Z-.112. Use Toolpaths > Contour Pick the contour chain. Be sure to turn off the clearance and set top of stock and retract to 0.0 incremental.

Any quality Carbide insert will do the job.

Sawdust, It works for me, I often enter data in excel and save as a deliminated text file. Then read the text file in using converters > Asci. The data looks like this ... code: 3.159 0 73.1421 -0.0002 3.1212 -0.0006 3.1004 -0.0012 3.0795 -0.0019 3.0587 -0.00027 3.0379 -0.0037 3.017 -0.0049 2.9962 -0.0063 2.9754 -0.0079 quote: sawdustThad is so observant

I am actually with Tim to some extent on this. For precision work, I prefer center drill (no chamfer tip only) then drill. I prep the hole with a separate c'sink as required. That said, we should be using spot drills more than we do.

Newbie, just a couple of comments. Depending on what machines you are using, your dealer may have access to proven posts that will be pretty close. As these guys indicated if you are going the custom route, you are not going to get it all done in one fell swoop. It will teke some interaction with your dealer. Although I understand your frustration, I also think your comments are a bit unreasonable. If you are generating code and editing it NOW, why can't you supply the edited code to the dealer ? If you have been editing code for 16 years is a few weeks of post tweaking really that unreasonable ?

Congrads and Thanks. I agree 100% on the uniqueness of this place. I participate in other CAD forums, political forums and I used to be very involved in a forum for Softaball coaching. The closest sense of community was probably the Softball forum, but it is a distant second. Dave, maybe you should consider opening a Bar ... we could all come for happy hour. Bet that would be an interesting place

I have used top and bottom cutting tools in a few cases. I generally create a second op for the underside and assign a different Tool Length or Diameter offset so it can be comped independantly. Just make sure it is clear on the setup sheet MSC stocks some tools for this purpose. They kind of look like thread mills but they have 90 degree included angles and a bit more face width to them. I don't know of a good way to use the chamfer feature though.

Welcome Salem

quote: so 'peck' in your post may be 'brew coffee' in mineDave I know it is discouraged, but .... Could I have a copy of that post

quote: Some of the stuff I make is made in case some of your stuff goes terribly wrong and needs to be destroyed before it hits the ground...Some of the stuff I make goes in an rescues people when both of you guys stuff doesn't work.

We run it with a 2030, had to make some minor edits. We had a 240 that we got rid of which had a Fanuc based control I forget what post I started with for that one, but it needed some minor edits also. We create the .cmd and .tec at the machine.

/Edit I was not paying attention. Do a search, this was covereed in detail about 2 or 3 weeks ago.

Did you re-click the "file" radio button under shape in verify config ? In otherwords is the field with the file name greyed out or white ?

Yeah I looked at your post again, that is pretty thin. There was an outfit in Cali we bought some special stuff from, if I find the name I will let you know.

http://www.franklinfibre.com/plastics.htm

http://www.emhart.com/products/catalog.html

quote: mill9.exe is 13,992 KB. The new executable is 3,332 KB.Will it be cheaper

Can't help here, my guee would be a parameter setting. We set the control to receive and then send from the computer on all of our machins (Fanuc, Yasnak and Hitachi Seike).

I go with jmparis for smaller bores and Tom for larger bores to minimize wasted feed moves. On larger bores when there are alot of them, I usually still chain a point at the center of the bore but don't check the "use entry point box". This way you post out a rapid move to the center of the bore which is helpful when corelating the program to the print and then a rapid move to the begining of the lead in move.

You can create a surface model and use converters> stl to output an stl file. You can also just read the .mc9 fie into verify and it will do the .stl conversion at that point. It is much easier to create a tube using solids, but it can be done using create / surfaces / primitives / cylinder, then trimming the end face surfaces to the ID circles and creating an ID surface. Dont waste your time though because you will still get a loaf of bread due to the "Not Watertight" bug. On the bright side, by next year you will hopefully be able to talk smack to your buddy when you are all "X'ed" out.

Paul, I was thinking of you when I saw this post this morning. Good Man there Phil

quote: Is the release of X imminent???Nahhhh ... but it is a "gathering threat

Also does your machine support rigid (solid) tapping or will you be using a tension/compression type tapping head ?

You will need to customize your post drilling cycles to support this. You may want do a search on the forum for "custom drill cycles" to get some background information.