Ok I'll tell you what we found fing hard and brittle

Has anyone got any experience cutting the subject material that they would mind sharing ?

Has anyone got any experience they would like to share with regards to machining the subject material ?

Could be your display driver. Ours randomly crashes and then reboots it's self every now and then, usually we get a message telling us this is what has happened though.

Does everyone else see the high feed toolpaths ignoring the entry feed rate selection on the transitions page, and always post out at the plunge rate ? I know this has been happening to us for a while just want to check it's not just our system before complaining to QC again.

Thanks Gcode. As the boundary was dictating that the tool never machined anywhere near the AL engaving i would not have expected this to have any affect on the toolpath processing. You have to be a bit of a psychic to program in mastercam sometimes

This could be possible as the model was originally created in Rhino cad (surfaces) then imported into solidworks to create mould split, then into mastercam X6 mu2 for programming.

Thanks heaps Gcode, saves me another job.

Thanks Gcode. Yes this is exactly what i get. Calling it a lock up was bad terminology on my part. I applied the exact same settings to an old school scollop toolpath and it crunched the numbers in about 10 mins and looks pretty good.

Hi Jeremy have uploaded a stripped down file to X6_Files on the ftp site - title "Lower Ring 1". Would be interested to see if your system crunches this op , as mine locks up every time on "linking passes" part of the processing. Just noiticed that I have uploaded it with my default finishing tolerance, you can losen this up a bit if need be, locked up for me either way. Thanks for any help

Doing some cavity work with some deep narrow slots and small fillets at the moment. Is it just me or are the new school toolpaths more hassle than they are worth, most of the time. Had 6 different attempts at getting what I want with new school area clear, scollop, rest rough etc and most either locked up on "linking pocket passes" at 11% each time, or took like hours to process and then seemed to have way too many leads and links. Same settings in old school pocket rough, scollop, contour rough etc = quick processing , nice easy to read toolpathes without a million lead and link moves etc. Have used the new school before on larger parts with sucess but do remember them taking a long time then too. Like everyone I like to use new shiny stuff, But it seems like a step backwards at the moment.

I also got an error when posting, thankfully only one and Mick (our local tech guy) managed to fix it for me overnight. Thanks Mike

Yes it is gcode, I should have been more specific. I would like to be able to use them with more of the 2d dynamic tool paths and all the surface tool paths. Some of the old school surface toolpaths are still the best for certain types of geometry.

Hi All Hoping to get some more people to lobby mastercam for a request to get the Tool Inspection / Change function that is available in the Core & Area roughing tool paths added to more tool path types. Especially the Dynamic tool paths and all surfacing tool paths. Would be awesome to have this functionality on long run surfaces to check tool wear especially when roughing with tip tools. The more people that request it the more likely we'll see it ! Thanks

My understanding is that the mastercam macro feature wont work with windows 7. Apparently is a microsoft protcol or something. Right pain as like you i used to use it to change common setup stuff on my imported models.

your right Jeff, good spotting, guess I would have just kept doing this for years after having to for the last 15

In your tool def you can't put 0, so just put a small value like 0.001" for the tip dia you will still want to put in a tip offset value though as you don't want to try and cut the chamfer with the very tip of the tool as it is effectively turning at zero rpm. if you are running a say a 1/4" dia 90 deg included angle chamfer mill and you are cutting a 0.010" chamfer you could potentialy use a tip offset of say 0.1" to get the tool to cut near the outside where your tool surface speed is at it's greatest. This tip offset box is very handy when trying to get chamfer mills into tight areas.

double post

Once you pick a chamfer mill in your tool settings the picture (in mastercam X versions) should be pretty self explainitory. The width of the chamfer you want (.010) goes in the "width" box, the tip offset is how much the cutter hangs past the bottom of the chamfer so there is an allowance to stop the cutter cutting right on the centre.

Noticed that your environment varaible is reading 7.1.4 - should be 7.1.6

Which dealer Mick

I'm running X6 mu1, on windows 7 X64.

I think this is a bug with the 7.1.6 .dll files. I had a similar error when I upgraded and could not get the mastercam interface to run. I ended up replacing the files with the .dll files that were installed with the previous version 7.1.5, this worked, I told my reseller but have not heard anything as yet.

you can only have the cutter compensation set to Computer for it to simulate in verify correctly. if it is on wear it will show an overcut. it will backplot and post out fine with wear comp though.

Cheers Thad, once I set the strings for sopen_prn & sclose_prn it worked a treat.