thanks for all the suggestions so with some more testing i found that the negative stock of -0.5mm was causing the toolpath to ignore the entry point ! am sending into QC

Does the subject feature on the entry method page work for other users ? We cant get it to enter on a selected point at all , just enters where it wants to , usually near the centre of the pocket .

Thanks Oscar, worked a treat.

Does anyone know why my verisurf gnomen settings won't stick ? I prefer to have the gnomen turned off at startup but i can't get that setting to stick ?

You must have the paitence of a saint to work like that !! I am getting frustrated with the "quirkiness" at 300MB file size and have started to devide files up from that size. Currently up to 3 files for the cavity I'm programming.

Thanks for reply. I am struggling with a 300MB file at the moment. Think the stock models are choking it up. Unfortunate as I like the extra refinement it achieves with the rest mill toolpathes.

At what file size do people find that mastercam just becomes too un-stable and it is better to start dividing into seperate toolpathing files. i.e a file for roughing, semi finishing , finishing etc. Mostly talking mould files that end up with large numbers of toolpaths and stock files that quickly produce files in excess of 300mb.

Hopefully many. emastercam is by far the best resource for learning this tricky stuff and usually the first place we turn when we have an issue. Infact I think CNC software should be sponsering it, if they aren't already as I would send them alot more questions/queries without the helpfullness of the members of emastercam. Keep up the good work people

Sure is DMU 60 MonoBlock Have you left DMG-moriseki now that your DavidB@Sandvik ?

no more ugly vertical gouges

Thanks Gcode works a treat and cleaned up nicely. originally chose the curve 5 axis to be able to use the wear offset for some blending. Didn't realise that it might violate the surfaces. Learned alot though. Thanks again. Mark

Why am I getting these gouges / steps in the finish on the curved walls of this mould insert ? I was trying to save having to z level finish it and used a curve 5 axis toolpath to generate the 1deg walls. Please see file on ftp site in x6 files folder, titled "curve 5 axis gouging". The vectors/toolpath look good in mastercam and the graphics in vericut look good, even with the tolerances wound up nice and tight so i am thinking it might be a machine issue ? although it does run nice and smooth at the machine, no jerky motion or pausing - Machine is a DMG DMU 60 monoblock. Am I missing something in my toolpath settings ? Thanks

I want a z limiter added to the "chain feature" box so that you only get chains at a set z level selected when working with solid models, i.e. now you get both the top and bottom of the hole when selecting and I only want the top contour for chamfering .

Very nice, assume this is for aerospace work ?

Time for a new box of tricks. One issue I have always had with my current one is that the Quadro FX1700 graphics card driver crashes locking up the system quite regularly when running mastercam and soildworks together. Our I.T. guy is suggesting a Quadro VQC-2000 card this time with a i7 based machine. Does anyone have experience using mastercam and solidworks at the same time with this particular graphics card ? We also run mastercam and vericut together on this system as well. Thanks

Hey Mike Be interested if you could even download one of Rays files and see if it will regen ok, both of them error out on two systems here at work. Thanks

i don't know who Dan is either Something funny going on here, tried two different systems and still seeing a crash/error part way through processing your optirest op. Thanks for the help though Ray

Hi Dan Something odd going on here, I had tried the no boundary with no luck already, and even restmill wouldnt work. I just imported your file and tried to regen the op and the Multi Threading manager gets to about 30% in HMM: Calculating step-down passes before i get the following message every time, even the restmill op won,t regen on my system, any ideas ? [/img] If i try turning off the multi threading I get the same error but the op is not marked as dirty, just has no toolpath !

Can anyone get this file OPTICORE - INVALID MACHINING ZONE in the ftp x6 files folder to work with the "opticore" toolpath ? At this stage the best i have is the "surface rough pocket toolpath (old school winning again!) but i would like to be able to use the opticore path to define the shallow concave face a bit better with the step up settting and I would also use the "tool inspection" function if i got the toolpath to work. The "core roughing" tool path is nearly there as it has both the above features but it will only cut in one direction therefore creating alot of wasted air time with this HighFeed cutter. Thanks sorry about the yelling, copy and pasted

Try slowing your feed rates a bit too. There is alot of engagement going on with small threadmills in small hole diameters.

You cant run programs from a usb stick, not on our 2 year old machine anyway.

Thanks Gcode Is this a common work around or should it normally work ok ?

Looking for some comments/help on why we are getting a surface violation with this toolpath. http://i787.photobuc...zps78cd5979.gif I have uploaded file to ftp site under X6 folder - surface violation Thanks

+1 The latest version of vericut and mastercam work alot better together regarding tool import but still not perfect. Bring on X7

If you don't get vericut you had better store a few spare pairs of under pants at work !! Trust me I've been there.