You can put the file here ftp://ftp.emastercam.com/incoming/ I'll place it in an area for the group to access it and place a link under this thread.

What are you doing when you get the error? What Version of Mastercam? What O.S. Win95 or 98? What does your local Mastercam dealer say? Allan

LOOSE THE CAP LOCK! You are trying to load the geometry on the controller? You need to load the .nc file, the one that is created when you post (I'd just rename it to .icn to see if it works). You could set mastercam to create the program with a .icn extension if it works.

Here is a macro that will mill the pipe thread with a single flute cutter. You still need a tapered hole! In the main program use. G65 P9026 U0. W0. A.375 R5. E10. Z-.5 V18. F10. This is the sub/macro O9026 (PIPE THREADS) (U IS X LOCATION) (W IS Y LOCATION) (A = STARTING RADIUS) (R = NUMBER OF MOVES PER CIRCLE) (Z = DEPTH) (E = NUMBER OF PASSES [thickness / pitch]) (V = THREADS PER INCH) (F = FEED) #3= 0.0 #10= 360 / #18 #109= #10 #110= 1 / #22 #111= 0.0625 / #22 #3= #18 G00 X#21 Y#23 G01 Z#26 F#9 #19= #1 + #21 G01 X#19 Y#23 F#9 N2 #26= #26 + #110 / #109 #24= COS[ #3 ] * #1 #25= SIN[ #3 ] * #1 #24= #24 + #21 #25= #25 + #23 G01 X#24 Y#25 Z#26 F#9 #3= #3 + #18 #1= #1 + #111 / #109 IF [ #3 LE 360.00000 * #8 ] GOTO2 G01 X#21 Y#23 F10. G00 Z1. M09 M99

Using MPFAN.pst with V8.1 New Page 1

Chain the bottom of the outside boundry, chain the tops of the bosses. Set the depth to inc. 0.0. Turn on island facing and set depth cuts.

PDG said -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Go to the MILLOPS subdirectory. Do SIRIUS.PRM and/or VERIFY.PRM exist there? If so, delete them. It sounds like it's trying to use the values from a previous session. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I'd start there. Try changing true solid to off.

The discriptor value gets filled in by you when you save the file. There is a box to prompt for a discriptor turn that on and save the file... you'll see

Extract v7colors.dll to the mcam8chooks directory when in mastercam type Alt-C select the file and open. After doing that your colors will be V7 format.

Thread milling of an NPT would normally be done with a form tool. If you are trying to do it with a single flute cutter then you need to construct the helix. Try using the thelix.dll c-hook. (Good Luck) Your best bet is to get a correct multi tooth form cutter. Allan

The spaceball works well, their are no specific issues with V8 however I would use the drivers found here: ftp://ftp.inhousesolutions.com/pub/Utilit...ball/Mastercam/ These are Spaceware V8.1 Drivers their are issues with the current drivers that make the spaceball not respond after a short time of use. Spacepucks from logitech also work well and are a fraction of the cost of a spaceball. Allan

Are you sure it's the final of V8.1 This topic is covered here: http://www.emastercam.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000593.html

We have submitted it to CNC Software last week. If you change the feed the RPM changes. You could set-up your post to calculate the feed based on the pitch of the tap and the speed, I prefer this method because when you are using a floating tapping head you can multiply the feedrate by .97 so the head floats.

g 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 g 81: Drill Cycle (gcode) 1 Drill cycle type (drillcyc) 0: Simple drilling 1: Peck drilling 2: Chip break 3: Tap 4: Bore #1 5: Bore #2 6: Misc. #1 7: Misc. #2 8-19: Custom cycles 2 X position (xnci)(x) 3 Y position (ynci)(y) 4 Z position (znci)(depth) (XYZ is a 3d point that represents the drill point at the bottom of the hole) 5 Dwell time (dwell) 6 Feedrate (frplunge) 7 First peck amount (peck1) 8 Additional peck amounts (peck2) 9 Peck clearance (peckclr) 10 Chip break retract (retr) 11 Drill cycle initial height (initht) (the distance from the selected drill position (zdrl) to the initial height, sign positive for above zdrl) 12 Drill cycle reference height (refht) (the distance from the selected drill position (zdrl) to the reference height, sign positive for above zdrl) 13 Drill depth (zdrl) (the distance from the selected drill position (zdrl) to the top of stock, sign positive for above zdrl) 14 Boring bar clearance shift amount (shftdrl) 15 U position (u) 16 V position (v) 17 W position (w) (UVW is a 3d point that represents the initial height point) 18 Control flags 19 Drill depth (rev_drl5) (indicates a reversal of the drill direction from the UVW point to the XYZ point when 1) NOTE: The following data is calculated if ‘vers_no’ is 8 or greater. The parameters passed in the NCI are overwritten by the calculations: depth from (z) zdrl(calculated) from w - initht refht from zdrl(calculated) + refht tosz(top of stock) from zdrl(calculated) + zdrl(original) initht from (w) This snipit is from the posthelp chook in V8 the variable names are listed except for the top of stock. 11 May 00 - MP, MPL, MPWIRE V8.00 The variable 'tosz' is calculated from the new drill cycle format for the "top of stock" value entered in Mastercam. Hope this helps, if you dont have the posthelp c-hook download the In House addons from here http://www.emastercam.com/info/patches/v8/v8addons_full.exe

The post knows to convert small rads to linear based on some settings in the post. arccheck : 1 #Check for small arcs, convert to linear ltol : .002 #Length tolerance for arccheck = 1 With arccheck set to 1 if the circumfrence of the arc is less than .002" it would linearize it.

Try setting the arc radius to .001" then set your sweep angle the post will convert the small arc into a linear move. Should do what you want. Allan

I'm not sure what you want here, If you don't turn on the clearance you'll get G99 if you do you'll get G98. Try editing the geometry in the op. manager to edit a jump ect. If it's variables your looking for, there is a c-hook in V8 called posthelp. It's the post manual on line. Hope that helps Allan

The EMCO posts can be found here http://www.mastercamedu.com/posts.htm or from your dealer.

The string select function will not support a pound sign. You need to use the string in a post block with logic to detrimine it's output. spaces = 0 n, " D", 35, "8", e spaces = 1

Yes this is one of those graphic card problems! Try the old tricks delete opengl.dll glu32.dll on Win9X. Turn down the video aceleration. Try different video drivers etc.. Good luck [This message has been edited by Webmaster (edited 02-05-2001).]

Actually the lead in and outs do apply even though they are greyed out.. Set them with the comp set in some direction then switch the comp off this will work for overlap and helical entries.

Warning - ndow corner not found press enter to continue. Are you selecting inside the graphics area? I'm assuming the error occurs during the contour toolpath selection. On another work station I test drove vs8.1 and I noticed when you want to pick any color for rotation, deletion, moving, etc the diologue box does not show and therefore confirm the color like it used to. It just stays black. It does, however, do the right thing to whatever color you picked. The colour selection box does not appear? How do you pick the colour?

How about the sortiges c-hook. The diffrent geometry types can be put on to seperate levels and the colour changed as well. If you then use the inport .csv in the levels manager you can quickly manage you drawing

In screen configure the data path for the icons is incorect. Quick fix delete the mill.cfg or millm.cfg if using metric config, then restart MC all is well.

The little black squares are null characters ascii 000, caused by the old MC editor.