The 'dia. offset' and 'lenght offset' entries are the register numbers on the control, where the diameter offset and lengt offset values are stored. Whether they are output in the NC program depends on the post processor. Unless you intend to actually cut the part, it does not matter what you enter in those fields. If you do intend to cut the part, then the values must be the correct register numbers, if they are used by the post processor and the control. I hope this answers your question.

quote: Received: from [253.6.235.154] by 164.20.126.138 with ESMTP id YQDYNN; Tue, 24 Dec 02 14:01:52 +0400 This gives the apparent origin of the spam e-mail as IP 253.6.235.154, but that IP is in an "IANA Special Use" group, so no e-mails should be coming from that IP (except perhaps if you work for IANA). Since this shows that the e-amil header is forged, I doubt anyone can track down the spammer who is using your e-mail address, but you could contact your ISP, and ask them for their advice. Most likely, their advice will be "change your e-mail address". I know that is not much help, but that is the best I can do. An easy and free way to effectively report spam to the appropriate parties can be found at www.spamcop.net, but you "undeliverable" reports are not actually spam, they are a byproduct of a spammer using your e-mail address. A spammer who is clearly violating a number of laws.

Mastercam v9 works fine on NT 4.0 SP4, but if you also want to install security software like an antivirus program (your system administrator might insist on that), then you will probably find that such programs require SP6.

GHowe, your problem could very well be your FIFO buffer settings, they must be set to 1 (i.e. lowest setting) or off if that is an option (I don't know XP very well). What happens is that when your computer receives a signal from the control to pause transmitting, it sends what is in the buffer before stopping, and the control cannot handle those extra characters. You will probably find the FIFO buffer settings under advanced settings (or something similar) for the specific COM port. Remember to set both the input and output buffers to 1 or off. I forgot to add, this is not a problem specific to Windows XP, it exists in all versions of Windows. [ 12-11-2002, 07:19 PM: Message edited by: Christian Raebild ]

The Siemens 8x0 series controls are very highly configurable by the machine tool manufacturer, so it would be necessary to know which machine type you have for anyone to come up with something better than what you have. I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but you will probably have to contact your dealer about the desired changes.

Mark, SP1 would be a very good idea. A new graphics card would be a good investment, too. Try a GeForce 4 card (not the MX series), decreased downtime should return the investment in 2-4 months. Since the new card will last at least 6-12 months, probably longer, you manager should be easy to persuade. And those cards are mid- to high-level gaming cards, so they are not horribly expensive.

The legend for the message icons can only be found in the 'Forum Guidelines' as far as I can see, there is no legend for the message icons on the 'Add New Topic' page, where you have to select a message icon, or on the 'Reply' page, where you might want to select a different message icon, for example if the topic is Mill, and you want to point out a related bug. I think a lot more forum users would use the correct message icons if there were legends to the message icons in those two places. I seem to be seeing the 'Default or Other' message icon far too often. On a similar topic, there is no message icon for suggestions/requests to the Administrators. I think this forum would be improved if those two suggestions were implemented, but that is just my opinion.

The tool vector is used in Lathe C axis, 4 axis Mill/Lathe and 5 axis Mill/Lathe toolpaths. In other toolpaths, it is the number of decimals in the NCI file that determines the accuracy, through the contruction plane / tool plane matrices. The number of decimals in the NCI file also affects the accuracy of the tool vectors, of course. I hope this answers your question.

No, I do not know of such a post processor. Might I suggest that you read the Forum FAQ? You will among other things find these pointers: 1. A post processor request as your first forum posting can give less than desirable results. 2. The first place to look for a post processor is your Mastercam dealer. 3. Even though your e-mail address and the company name you list both looks legitimate (unlike some posters who use yahoo or hotmail addresses and give no company name), that is no guarantee that you are using a legitimate Mastercam license. I hope my third point does not does not offend you, but there have been cases where posters have been using pirated licenses. Soon there should be a system up which will allow dealers to check the legitimacy of a sim number, that should help fight piracy

I have not seen such a post, but if you download the postlist.mpk from the Posts - Executables area of the Mastercam FTP site, you might find a lead there. Convering the CSS version to an Excel file will probably work best, though you will need to clean up the Excel file afterwards. Good luck hunting.

The text file will also be updated if you select NC Utils -> Post process -> Change, and then select the existing post processor.

Dave, what happens with the ntools variable if a given tool is used more than once in a program? I have not tried to use the ntools variable myself, as I know the method I use works. "If it isn't broken, don't fix it" is good advice to anyone.

Just as an additional comment, why don't you upgrade you CIMCO Edit on your Mastercam PC to CIMCO Edit Pro, and buy an additional CIMCO Edit Pro license for your relay PC? The additional functions in CIMCO Edit Pro and the second license will improve your productivity enough to pay back the investent in a few months. I know, the above looks like pure sales talk, but look below, I am not working in the sales department.

Jim Whipple is correct. In v9, we changed the security setup so the Mastercam sim is needed to run CIMCO Edit, for security reasons. In v8, you can install and run CIMCO Edit on a different computer from the Mastercam install CD. You are licenced to run it on one other PC for each Mastercam seat you have. And yes, James Meyette and Anthony Graves did make some comments on that subject a few days ago.

Open your Mill9.cfg file in a text editor (notepad, for example), and search for the 'Create-line-closest' string. You should then have the filename on the same line (third entry IIRC, it is a text string of max. 8 characters). This trick also works for making icons for custom C-Hooks.

The tool counting mechanism would have to be in the pwrtt postblock, and would look something like this: if t>0 | t <> prv_t, tool_count = tool_count+1 !t You will also need to make sure your tool number is forced in the psof postblock, i.e. it should read *t. Actually, it can be done simpler than the above, if you just need to know whether there is more than one tool, but if you also need to preselect first tool or an empty pocket at the last toolchange, then the above code is the way it should be done, to ensure correct output if the same tool is used more than once in a program.

Pretty pictures, you certainly live in a good place. I just wonder about one thing, beav700. How long would it take to download those pictures on a 56K modem? Not to speak of a slower modem? Providing a link to a website where the pictures could be seen would possibly have been a better idea, then only those who wanted to see them would have to download them.

I don't have a copy of Mastercam at home (which is where I am right now), but there should be a setting in the configuration, whether to change Cplane when changing Gview. I think it is on the CAD settings tab. One other thing. In forums and newsgroups, using all caps is considered the equivalent of shouting. Unless you intend to shout at others, don't use all caps.

[ 11-21-2002, 02:36 PM: Message edited by: Greg McKay ]

Yes, that program seems to could do the trick (I haven't tested that, though). At US$ 35,- for a commercial license, it is not very expensive, but AFAIR the program I saw used was freeware, so looking around a little more might be worth the time spent looking. If any of you find a Freeware program that will do the trick, a link would of course be appreciated.

I'm not sure whether a key can be disabled completely, but I know they can be remapped, and that should also solve your problem, without requiring as drastic methods as Andrew suggest. I have seen it done with the decimal seperator key on the numeric keypad (that is a comma on a Danish keyboard, and some users want it to be a point), but unfortunately I do not remember how it was done. A good choice for remapping the Insert key would probably be to make it act as the right shift key (the right shift key would still work as right shift too). That just leaves one problem, what if you do need the Insert key?

I suspect you will need a BTR box to set up communication with that control, but I am afraid I cannot help you with an address close to you where you can get a BTR box. Since installling and setting up a BTR box is no easy task, you will need a technician to come on-site.

Definitely the long way around, James, and he mentioned only having access to version 8.1.1 and version 9. Whichever way it is done, any toolpaths are lost, so if there are toolpaths, it might be a better idea to update the version 6.1.3 user's post processor to version 9, post the toolpaths, and send them to the version 6.1.3 user. Sending a suggestion to the version 6.1.3 user that it might be a good idea to update to version 9 might also be a good idea, there have been a lot of improvements in surface toolpaths since version 6.

If it is a Raster file, try this: If you have access to the raster to vector function in Mastercam (File -> Convert -> Next menu -> Ras2vec), then you might save the logo as a BMP file in A.I., and use that to import the image. The raster to vector import automatically traces the image. However, the raster to vector import utility is an add-on, which cost money. If it is just that one job, then it might be possible for you to persuade your dealer to make that conversion for you, it certainly would not hurt to ask.

As AMCHINEMASTERG says, the NC name defaults to the NCI name, so if your master file contains toolpaths, you will have to change the NCI name before you post (or better yet, just before you 'save as'). In version 8 and 9, it is possible to make the post processor decide the name of the NC file, but that is not easy to program, and I am not certain the name of the MC8 or MC9 file is available to the post processor. If you persuade your dealer to modify your post processor to do such tricks, remind your dealer to also include a check to see if the NC file is there already (the 'fexist' function), and a question whether it should be overwritten (with a question for another name if the answer to that is no).