Guitar, I was scanning through the posts looking for yours to reply to, I stopped when I saw all the CAPS With regards to the one second delay when creating temporary midpoints, this sentence below is from the What's New X9 file. "You can also hover and press [N] to avoid the one second delay." I suspect this won't help you, but it might!

Thanks guys, I'll try that and report back.

Hey Mick, thanks once again for this utility, I appreciate the work you've put in. Hopefully you were able to stay away from the computer screen over the weekend! Now I am encountering one issue, the customer who I am working with for this little project has been trying to run the Net-hook at his site but is getting an error message when he tries it: "Invalid user application" He has both files in the correct folder (so he assures me). The Net-Hook doesn't care whether the dongle is Dealer or Industrial does it? Or is it more likely a missing MS component, such as .Net 4.5? or a C++ Redistributable?

Wow, that's great Mick thanks. I have sent a link to a file anyway should you want to test it (which I'm about to do now and will report back).

Hi everybody, I have an MCX-8 file that consists of over 900 Levels! Each level has a separate 2D shape on it, and every level has a unique name. Has anyone seen a C-hook or VB Script that will parse the MCX and export each level as a separate file? Ideally each file could inherit the name of the original Level. To give a bit more info, I want to use either geometry or toolpath nesting on this project, and I think that importing the parts (or toolpaths) using the "from files" method is the way to go. Thanks in advance!

Try using Analyze Dynamic. That can at least give you some info on surface radius (and angle, relative to your construction plane)

As a matter of interest I saw a customer recently using a laptop with a 15" 3K screen. With the resolution set to 3200x1800, you almost couldn't see the Mastercam icons Using Large Icons does help to a degree.

You could set up a new WCS that was 1.5in higher in Z and then apply that to all of the operations (while keeping the T/C Planes as they are).... I think that might work

The behaviour has been changed to be similar to most other Windows programs - if you exit MS Word for example, you don't get a prompt to save unless you have actually modified the document during that session.

Can you confirm that this is the folder you first tried adding your own machine folder to? C:\Users\Public\Documents\shared mcamx7\MachineSimulation\MachSim

With Peel Mill the chains should be parallel and should not touch (the chains should be side-by-side). Now even though I say this, I have got the toolpath working by changing the chains so that they are the same length and touch in the middle (but this is still not the way the toolpath is designed to work). CONFUSE_4D.MCX-7

When you say blanked - do you mean that if you press Screen/Un-blank Entity, then the stock model appears in the temporary display? If you don't mean that, I do not understand what you mean by blanked, sorry. But you could check into the Operations manager, Stock Setup and check to see if the stock shape option is set to File. Or you could try pressing the "stick of dynamite" button in the ops manager to see if that gets rid of it.

Not sure how many here know of this, but if you have accidentally set off a regen of a Multithreaded operation (like Stock Model, and 2D/3D High Speed toolpaths), you can go to the View menu at the top of the screen and press "Toggle Multi Threading Manager". In there you will see the progress of the m/thread ops that are processing. After an initial period of where you can't do anything to a process, you can then select it and press the Stop button at the top. How long that takes depends on how complicated the process is.

There probably is an option in the XML file somewhere, but this is how I suggested a customer set it up recently: " First, open up a part in Verify, go to the Options/Graphics and set the colour loop to Tool Change. Now, go back to the "home" page in Verify and press the "save to defaults" button with is at the top of the screen, towards the right hand side. You select the XML defaults file (there is only one) and then you'll find the next time you start Verify it will be using your colour loop option."

Finally have a newer laptop The new Benchmark file (four ops and Stock Model) took 9:30 in X6 MU2. Hp Envy 17-j130ea Intel Core I7 4700MQ 2.4Ghz 12GB DDR3 1600Mhz ram 1TB 7200rpm HDD Windows 8.1 64bit Nvidia GeForce GT740M 2GB ram.

I used the Partial mode in the Chaining dialog, this may be where you are going wrong. I've attached another file that has some text to show you the order I picked the chains. I used Partial chaining for both shapes (and sync mode was set to "none"). By the way I selected the red chain first (that's the Across Contour). I'm glad that your verify looked good, I think maybe I was thrown by the precision setting in my Verify which was in the middle. Looks better now I bumped the quality up T_3D_SWEPT_CHAINING.MCX-7

I can only manage it with 3D swept (which I don't think is allowed in L1 or L2?). Also when I compare it to a quick Stock Model in Verify it looks like it removes a bit too much material in the undercut - tread carefully! T_3D_SWEPT.MCX-7

If you have to turn the solid into surfaces anyway, then the Verisurf tool will do the trick for you after all wouldn't it?

***fast forward two months*** OH YES THERE IS!! I do now have the option of changing the default Verify mode. It's probably important to note that I am running X7 MU1. I've only just discovered it.... I hope it's not only on my machine (I work for the Mastercam reseller in the UK but I don't think I've added anything special to my X7 install. EDIT: I will add that I tried updating to MU2 yesterday but as far as I could tell it never actually downloaded. If you can't find the option below in the XML file, perhaps my install has partially been updated to MU2.....). You'll need to navigate to: C:\Users\<Username>\Documents\my mcamx7\ Find the file "MastercamSimulatorDefaults.xml" right click the file and choose Edit. Find the entry: <Force5Axis>False</Force5Axis> and change it to read: <Force5Axis>True</Force5Axis> This works on my machine to change the default Verify engine to 5-axis, even after a restart. Be aware that any mistakes editing this file may break your Verify, potentially (worse case) forcing a re-install of X7. Good luck

If you are using the more recent multiaxis paths like Parallel to Multiple Curves or Morph Between Surfaces, you can set the retract move to be based on a imaginary cylinder that is (for example) 1" bigger than your part, then Verify would be happy and you shouldn't need to change it again for the machine. In X7 MU1 (it's different in vanilla X7), you go to the Linking page, then hit the + sign to get to the Retracts section. You can change the Clearance Area type from Plane to Cylinder. Set the cylinders' radius, centre point and direction. In the older toolpaths like Flow 5X, you can also expand the Linking page, go to Safety Zone and activate it. You can do something similar with a cylinder in there too.

Thanks guys for the feedback, I inherited this laptop from higher up the chain of command With luck I can use this to squeeze a new machine out of The Management

Thanks goooose and jeff, well I've since ran the file with the task manager showing and whether it's using one (logical) core or all four they are always pegged, so I suppose it's the CPU that's the limiting factor. Not sure if the GPU would have a effect on calculation time though... possibly as it hasn't got much onboard ram to play with. Food for thought

I've not deleted my config... if you can connect a 2nd screen I think there is a good chance you can save it,

This is what I got when i dragged the Mastercam window as far right as I could. I got a "resize" icon when I got the mouse close to the side of the ops manager and I was able to resize it again. But also it does seem a bit less repeatable than I first thought... a couple of attempts didn;t work and I had to restart Mastercam and try again. I'm not on the bike today I'm afraid.. far too wet out there!

Ahh, sorry well I've been playing some more and it looks like I was only able to drag the Mastercam screen right as far as I did because I have two monitors connected (ie the laptop screen and one other screen). Secondly this is what I meant by initially dragging the Mastercam screen so the left hand edge is out of sight..