quote: ... Don't want to throw the baby out with the bath water.Well, that kinda depends on how much dirt is left on the baby after the bath.

quote: Please excuse my ignorance here... Exactly which window are we referring to here? When you select paramters in toolpath it open its own window. If that window was just a bit larger (cannot resize it), then it would alleviate having to scroll the page down to view / change parameters that are at the bottom of the tree. People are in and out of parameters often getting toolpaths dialed in, and between that at the delay (pause / freeze) accessing X4 toolpath parameters it was quite irritating to work with. One of several reason I went back to X3.

The biggest gripe I had on it was either do full implementation for all the new style params for ALL toolpaths, or wait until you can to implement. Having some new mixed with some old is a practice that slows rhythm and reduces concentration that could be used on more important things like making good and efficiant toolpath. Also, make the window large enough to eliminate scrolling to bottom, this is added effort and time wasted for NO reason. Also assuming things you believe will get better after revisions may drive you mad as there minimum of a full page of items including WCS, solid layout, spacemouse crashing, op manager jumping, ect that have gone on for many years and many revs with the same bugs.

#1 What is the closest tolerance on the part, and what special fixturing, tools or process is involved to hold it. If you dont put that first...everything else changes (or can).

quote: It dont work in X4 MU3..Sounds like your back to your X4 MU3 installation. There should be no difference from X3 to X4 in graphics slowdowns from what I saw when I ran X4 for a month. You can try the different card, but this sounds more like a corrupt X4 install at this point. Did you migrate settings or do a fresh stand alone install?

quote: V9 draft and Win7 are not playing well together on the shop floor..As I understand it, the win 7 is on the new machine in programming with X4, and the V9 draft is on the shop floor (appears with XP). I'm saying put the PDF converter on the floor and let them convert the old, while programming runs win 7 and X4 and puts out all new PDF's. Gets em rollin for now.

Silly question here. Right now you have to open MC V9 and print to printer to get your dwg. correct? Why would it be more work to print to .PDF file then to printer?? Put the PDF print driver on the shop floor and let them convert as they go, and all new dwgs. from programming are PDF from V X4.

What utility are you guys using to capture the PDF? Does it run from the print capture? Reason I ask is when I've tried to use PDF captures in the past, something in the utility would loose the aspect on the output...in other words a circle became an oblong (not alot but noticeable with calipers). Also, the line quality seemed to drop on the translation over a straight "hardcopy".

I would not change to the FX1700, the 580 is a considerably better card. I would uninstall the FX580 driver then reinstall it (there is new a driver came out recently). I had a similar issue with 1 new I7 920 machine and re installing the driver fixed it (something left over from the original win7 driver).

I hear you, there are many advantages to keeping a file for each op. My irritation toward the issues was aimed at CNC software reps that are making "advancements" and missing getting important key features working 100% correct first...It would be nice to get back to 1 page of work arounds.

For one thing V9 has the GD&T chook that imports dwg. tolerancing symbols that as far as I know never came out in Ver X... personally, I setup a layer with GD&T notes that I import for std box tolerancing if I need it then scale to fit part.

quote: Guys I complained about the random problem for 4 years and always said it was just me. I can't say I am glad to see more people have had the problemYa, its funny what you find out when you actually USE the software day in and day out under a variety of conditions...vs play around with it some and think its all good. I have a series of tests / files / translations / that I put new versions thru before deciding if I want to go thru the "same headache / different year syndrome". Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. quote: If anyone use Mastercam's solid layout they know that is does not support WCS. Very irritating to make tooling dwgs. out of top / top. I'm sure by X12.0 they get that straightened out, it's only been about 8 years that way.

V9 = Win XP. I setup my system to dual boot into XP or Win 7 (hard drives are cheap :-)) just to support some older customers that only run V9. Sucks but thats life when you want to make progress while others want to hold you back.

quote: There is a new option in MU3 for seeing your "As machined" STL files.Actually, import stl as a mesh has been there since X3. It's way more stable then Xform stl also.

#1 or #2 carbide centerdrill works awesome in hard metal or alum. Sharper and easier to read then using ball, and wont chip like many engraving tools will. [ 06-03-2010, 12:18 PM: Message edited by: Verndog ]

quote: By using Mastercam or any Cam program for that matter you then have a traceable, track able and audit able methods that will comply with any of the above systems or methods requirements.Although that makes life easier in some ways, it's not necessary depending on how you've written your quality manual. A cnc program should not be used or stated as "product acceptance". Instead tie the model file and revision, and cmm program or inspection report to product acceptance. That way you can develope nc code on and etch a sketch and be legit. All you have to be sure of is after the QC buyoff that the etch a sketch program (nc code) is labeled with correct rev and saved within your approved file system.

Is it possible your customer has updated his version of Pro-E??

quote: I have a new T5500 dell and the lag time is still there with X3. the quad core just sits there trying to get it done. processor goes up to 25-30% like when doing regen on surfacing. If you are seeing lag in X3 Im going to guess you have a network issue. I've run X3 on several different machines, and evironments and have never seen a lag unless I was having network issues. Things to look for, mapped drives that are no longer used, network permissions, mapped to server as default and network hangs...ect.

What graphics card are you running? Possible you may need to reduce your graphics acceleration down some.

No prob. Tim. To test this being the issue you can create the new line GEO (to be safer use different level), re-select the GEO in WCS manager, then regen then dump the old lines and see if the problem breaks free. My guess it will.

I think you answered your own question. In certain situaltions Mastercam will struggle with duplicate GEO. I've seen this in toolpath also once GEO is coppied. I would avoid doing a straight copy, even if you translate it 5.0 then move it back it likely will break the associativity link. Another thing that can cause this, picking a point for origin and then trying to move the point, delete it, or copy it. mastercam can loose track of which point, at which point all hell can break loose.

Try changing top of stock by .001 or a number that makes it come out in .001 increments. Also if the machine wont allow it, in the control definition manager, under arcs, select no helix allowed (under helix support)

I had V9 setup to reverse also a while back, but forgot how I got it to run...thanks for the tip Colin. Problem is, V9 wont run properly in win 7 either. I'll try that link. I saw an editor a few years ago that would backplot on screen step by step, then had save GEO option...possibly Preditor or Multi DNC??...not sure.

You used to be able to reverse post an NC program in V8 and prior to get GEO from and old NC program. Mastercam decided this wasn't useful and eliminated it. I cant load V8 into win 7 now and would like an editor that will backplot and save GEO via IGES or some importable type. Any suggestions on something you've seen or used??

quote: If you have dual slots and a little <%200 get on tigerdirect and look at the firegl V7700. that is a mean card, I have a V7200 that screams in comparison to my quadrofx 4500.Why do you say dual slots? Looks to me as though it is a single PCI Express slot. As far as ATI, long ago they were great then they sucked, and today...maybe good again?? Never say never. Are you running this card with Mcam on win 7 by chance? Any issues with curser, redraws, verify, ect...the usual non compatible issues? Also, can you see if graphics acceleration is greyed out in advanced properties in win 7 with the drivers you have...pretty please.