In your C:NETHASPSERVERLM_SETUP_WIN32 directory, you will have a program called LMSETUP.EXE (there is another version in the basic c:nethaspserver directory, but it appears to be an older version). If you run LMSETUP.EXE, you will have the option of installing the licence manager software as a service. Make sure the NHSRVW32.EXE isn't already running and have Administator privileges when you install. For future reference for anyone finding this page via a search, note that when I did this on Windows XP, I had to setup the service program (NHSERVICE.EXE) as an exception to Windows Firewall, otherwise I could not run Mastercam locally on the Server itself. Oh, and welcome to the forum Eric!

Jeff, No, I have to say that it's not possible, at least not without editing the code, or using the toolpath editor. The Roughing is something that can be done *in addition* to the "standard" circ mill pass, which is essentially a finish cut. It would be nice if if was more flexible, like the Pocket toolpath, and to that end........ to do what you require, I can only think of using the Pocket toolpath, with True Sprial roughing, and "machine finish passes only at final depth".

Vamvany, you are not able to change the layout of the functions down the left hand side menu I'm afraid. However, you can add functions into empty spaces in the menu (for example, there are empty spaces under "File" - "Next Menu"). But this is not straightfoward for a new user (it requires editing a text file - a very important text file!) If you really want to go that route, find some blank spaces, decide which functions you want in them, and someone here (or your reseller) should be able to help you out. p.s. Welcome to the forum, both to you and Tfesta

Mr. Deepak-R, If you have not got copies of the Mastercam Handbooks, Volume 1 and 2, I would suggest that they are a very practical introduction to using Mastercam in the real world. These Handbooks are not to be confused with the smaller "Tutorial" books that come with the Mastercam software. You should be able to purchase these books through you Mastercam dealer.

Welcome, both danielp and benellisbe2! So danielp... when you start Mastercam, and for example, press Create in the left hand menu, pressing the Escape key doesn't take you back to the "Main Menu". Is that correct? From the Main Menu, you can press "C", "A" and "2" as keyboard shortcuts to get to the function Create, Arc, Circ 2pts. Just confirm for us please, that pressing "2" doesn't get you into that specific feature. Are the numbers not working either above the keyboard or on the number pad on the right hand side? [ 06-29-2005, 10:21 AM: Message edited by: Rich Thomas ]

Hi, Layout was a f.o.c. c-hook available for V8, and can be downloaded here: http://www.mastercam.com/Support/Downloads...s/V8/layout.exe

DavidB, Just to clarify, STEP will work if you have purchased a licence for it in V9 at some point in the past, whether Maintenance is current or not. Sorry I can't be a help with the Wildfire problem.

Hi Brian, I'm first putting on my hard hat, and then my Reseller hat! I would say that the details about the Step translator is not "small print", but is the first item on the "What's New" document that appears once you finish installing MR0105. Either that, or the same doument can be read before/after downloading the update from the website. If you don't read this document, you are not going to know about new features supplied with the update that could help you become more productive in your use of our software over competitors that use Mastercam but haven't got Maintenance. Niether will you know about (I'll be brutally honest now) any conditions that apply to new features/abilites in these updates. Not just licencing limitations, but practical information that relates to the use of new toolpath options etc. I know it's pretty much standard practice not to read these things, but hopefully this one can be chalked up to experience.

Just wondering... have you checked the graphics acceleration setting on your computer? Maybe someone had slowed it right down at some point in the past. You can check this by going into the Control Panel, then Display, then the Settings page, press Advanced and finally look at the Troubleshoot page. Usually the slider would be on full, all the way to the right. I have a TI4200 at home, and V8 never had any big problems with shading.

I think you should send that file off to Tech Support at your local dealers, or to CNC themselves - nobody likes to have this sort of thing happening to them, so if you haven't done so already, please let CNC have a chance to investigate.

After a little bit of playing, I find that my TP allocation doesn't like being set to above 500,000 (it will do a toolpath at that value). It may be more specifically an issue with XP Home, but I shan't muddy the waters anymore because I don't actually know

I am running MR0304, with the October updates. I have just set my Database Allocation to 500,000 and Toolpath Allocation to 600,000, making a total of 1097 Mb. If I try to set the DB allocation to 600,000, then I get the allocation error message too. BUT, if I try to genereate a toolpath (at 500Mb DB and 600 TP), then I get a message saying that my TP Allocation is too low! I don't have a problem if they are both set to 400,000 however. I will have to check this again later, as I am about to hold a training course today.

I had a customer with this problem... as I understood it, he installed the driver from Microsoft and it stopped Mcam dead. He used System Restore to set the system back to yesterday (he sets a restore point every day, now that's paranoid lol) and he's up and running again.

The blank function does not work well with *trimmed* surfaces. You can analyze a surface to find out if it is trimmed (to fit a particular shape) or not. Most models you import from other people will include trimmed surfs. If you blank a trimmed surface it's hard to select it again when it comes to unblanking it. If you simply chose to unblank all surfaces at once, this would explain why some surfaces are longer/bigger than they used to be (you've also unblanked the larger base surfaces, that the trimmed ones rely on. These are blanked automatically). But if you are saying some surfaces that were fine before have some twist in them once you have unblanked them (and that they weren't trimmed to begin with) - then no I've not seen that before. To hide away the larger base surfaces, you should try Analyze, Surfaces, Base Surfs. Select all your surfaces and Mcam will tell you which ones are base surfaces, and give you the option of hiding them away again.

You can also hold down *both* mouse keys over the Step option in the menu. The plot won't be as fast as using Run, but the advantage is that you can stop it instantly by letting go of the keys.

Heeleh/GreggT I see what you mean about pick stock corners in Verify now... and it's nothing to do with your particular installation after all. That's certainly a problem. Although you are slightly outside of my dealership area I can pass it along to CNC if you like. Yes there are some here that do not like hearing unqualified critisism of Mastercam - sure sometimes I find it annoying to use, but by the same token I also have to depend on Micro$haft for my productivity: despite all of their billions, they can't even produce a word-processor I can rely on (but I choose not to qualify that statment here ) Verify.prm is a file I wouldn't usually recommend playing with unless you are the type of guy who isn't too fussed about playing with the system settings/registy. NowI say that from a point of view of my job - tech support. If everyone started playing with their internal files I could start losing my hair in short order. I am trying to get a hang of your latest issue Greg. For example, I go into the paramaters for Op 43, and change the WCS from Top, to the first WCS no.9 (WCS's share the same view number if the XYZ directions are the same). I choose to keep the current T/C Planes as they are, and not line them up against the new WCS. I regen the operation, and it works fine. None of the other ops in the same group seem to be affected. Perhaps you are doing it a different way.

CAMando, I apprectiate your faith dude GreggT, This may be sorted now by the sound of it, but if not, let's check a couple of things. 1) With the WCS set to Top or Off, is the rectangular shape you are trying to define actually in the Top view, so it looks like a 2D shape when you look at it from Top? (it should be, because Verify will not give you the right block size otherwise) 2) Go to Job Setup, and reselect the shape by using Pick Stock Corners (top left/bottom right). The red lines should match up with your shape obviously. (I'm getting you to try it this way, but it should work with the Pick Stock Corners option in Verify too) 3) Well... you should be able to go to Verify now, into the config, and press the large rectangular "Use Job Setup Values" button to get the right stock size. If it still isn't behaving, then I think something may be up with your install... I guess you haven't played around with a file called Verify.prm? If not, don't start to on my account! I was wondering if it had been accidentally set to Read Only, that's all.

I'll do the obvious thing here; it's caught me out in the past! Have you checked the Margins boxes, and made sure they aren't adding anything to your stock shape in Verify? If you are saying that your rectangular shape is not flat in (or parallel to) the Top view, then I suspect that is really the cause of your problems. In the Verify config box, any rectangular shape you try to define by entering values, or picking corners will become flat in the Top view.

szelag, You can indeed Step along in Verify... if you look one button to the right of the "stop" button in the VCR-type control bar, that button is the Step button. To change how many steps it takes at any one time, go into the config (press the left most button with the question mark on it) and you can change a field called Moves/step somewhere around the middle of the config screen. In Standard mode, one other thing you should be able to do is change the positioning of the light source once the verification is complete, but... ahem... this doesn't appear to be working in 9.1. I've informed CNC! In Backplot, stepping along is a handy feature. As you're pretty new to it I'll give you a couple of tips. 1) Where you see the word "Step" in the menu, the letter "S" is underlined. That means you can press S on the keyboard instead and save your left mouse button some serious abuse 2) If you place your cursor over the Step button in the menu, and press down *both* mouse buttons, Step rips along nearly as fast as Run mode, but with the advantage that you can let go of the buttons and stop at any time (instead of pressing the Enter key while it's running and hoping for the best lol)

We have a couple of customers using it in the UK to good effect - bear in mind that it is only intended to work with closed 2d boundries (contours & pockets essentially). It is free for you to use with V9 L3 (you don't need Maintenace, despite what it says in the file link below!) Here it is: http://www.mastercam.com/Support/Maintenan...astercamATP.zip

I've only just seen this message, sorry I'm late quote: James I did search the forum before asking the question but used keywords that didn't yield any useful information. Fastercam, I went to the Search page and typed in "CPU Usage". It found 20 results, I'm sure many of those would have answered your question. I don't think I can add much that is useful to this thread. Oh, hold on ... I work in Tech Support for Mcam in the UK, and I can honestly say that in the past year, we've never had the phone lines as quiet as this in the 6+ years I've been here. Back in the days of V6 we could easy have five to ten calls a day, every day, but that just doesn't happen any more. We are still consistently in the top ten internantional resellers lists, so it's not as if we've lost all of our customers!

Jeff, In a drill toolpath (using Version 9, not 8 btw), you have a little calculator button next to the Depth. If you press that, you can type in the diameter that you want the drill to form. It works out the depth for you. Then you can choose to "overwrite" the current value you may have already typed into the original depth box.

I'll put that forward for you . In the meantime (you may already be doing this though), you could go into the Operations Manager and press the "Geometry - (3) point(s)" section (3 points being an example). You could see which circle centres were picked, and press the Analyze button at the top of the screen to check the arcs.

Hi Huzway C, You will need rights to read/write to the MCAM9 directory when you are logged in under your normal user name. You also needed to be logged in with Admin rights when you installed the software. If you weren't, then obtain Admin rights and run a Repair from the Mastercam CD (go through the same procedure you used to install the software, and you'll see a Repair option). Once that has finished you can go back to your normal log in and shouldn't have any more problems.

Thanks for the replies everybody