Thanks Dave That worked GREAT!!!! Have a Merry Christmas

I am launching a .exe application in the last line of the peof postblock in a mill post. Is there anyway I can close the NC file before I launch the .exe application.

What is the function in a chook to recalculate the feed and speeds of the tools.

I was hoping that I would not have to use the group id number. I will try to make use of the group id number. I am also looking into the autodrill structure (operation.u.sdrill.ad.*****) Thanks for getting back to me.

Yes, I looked at M_ASSOC.H. Tried about every variable in the operation structure. Could not find one that refered to the group name.

If I load an OP8 file from the operations library. How can I export a particular group by referencing the group name. This is to be done in my chook. What I am trying to do is: Open the Operation Manager and Import a group of operations from a particular library file. I would like to be able to Import the group of operations by searching for the group name in the library file. This would allow me to get the particular group of operations that I need for the Operation Manager that I have opened. Some sample code would be helpful.

There are examples in the CHDEVTESTASSC.C file on setting views and planes.

point_manager (op_drill_idn, PTMGR_ADD, FALSE, &succf); How can I have the point_manager automatically select all the points on a certain level without having the user select the menu items? When the Point Manager:add points Menu Header comes up when you right click on geometry in the operations manager. I don't want the user to have to select Menu Item "Entities" then Menu Item "All" then Menu Item "Points" then Menu Item "Done" then last Menu Item "Done". The Chook takes care of switching the Level to Mask before it gets to point_manager add points.

P.D.G. Thanks for the file!!!!!!!!!! Butch

Did you just copy 'n' paste it into a new MSVC project? YES I Didn't forget that all C-Hook projects need the "M_INIT.OBJ" and "M_PTRS.OBJ" files from the SDK added to them. I didn't forget to add the "MSWINDOWS" and "_MSVC_" preprocessor definitions and I had delete the "_DEBUG" definition. Yes, C-Hooks are "Multithreaded DLLs" and use a 1-byte struct member alignment. Also: "matl" refers to material structure in m_avars.h Which does not have the variable "type". Do I add type in as an int? I thought these sample files were to make things easy. HA!!!!!

The following line in testassc.c file... if (matl_move->matl.type == 0) gives me an error: error C2039: 'type' : is not a member of 'material' structure material does not contain type. How do I fix this?

Thank you all for your insight. I am a beginning C++ programmer and a long time user of Mastercam. I will dig into the sample files in the CHDEV directory. Take one thing at a time. It sure would have been nice if Mastercam would of had a HELP file to write C++ programs like Cadkey does. Right now I have a C++ program that runs in Cadkey to output NC code. But I would like to use the Operations Manager in Mastercam to provide the user with more flexibility of defining the operations than he already has. Have to make things as automatic as possible to remain competitive. Thank You All.

Is there anywhere I can get more information on writing chooks. The CHDEV directory is limited on how to the use the C++ functions.