Roger: I moved the simple contour operation to the top of the list which made one of my pockets go to the bottom of the list but that didn't make any difference when I backplot. It is only the contour toolpath backplot that shows the X=10 Y=10 Z=10 at the completion of the backplot. The pocket operations still do correctly. Must be something else. Paul

Roger: Nope, that box is not checked. It may be that this only happens with the last operation in the list. I'll check that. In the meantime, any other ideas/suggestions? Thanks- paul

In Mill3, SP1, I have an arch with a couple of simple pockets. When I backplot the pocket operations, at the lower left of my screen, I have valid X Y Z values during the backplot and when the backplot is finished, they remain valid. However, when I backplot the simple contour that runs around the perimeter of my arch, the X Y Z values are valid during backplot, but when backplot finished, they display X=10 Y=10 Z=10, which is just not valid. Any ideas about this? Thanks- Paul

Actually, nobody wants to admit that they don't know what the heck is a GD&T!

I do arched moldings but I'm running Mill 3. What you are doing should work, I think, but I'm of limited help because I draw my section and rail in Rhino, create the surface there, and then bring the whole thing into MCam to create toolpaths to machine it. There are a lot of little quirks that you just have to work your way through. Paul

Thanks again, Thad. It's right there, bigger than heck. My wife always says I look for things with my eyes shut. Paul

Yes, Thad. It is a standard 2D pocket. I'm not at the office at the moment to verify it, but if there is a filter button on the pocket parameters page, I sure did overlook it!! Thanks- Paul

Having had some of the same printing problems that have been discussed elsewhere, and having installed the SP1 update, I've gotten a couple of the windows that let you send in the problem to the good folks at Mastercam. I hit the "Send" button but get no reaction except the window closes and I'm dumped out of Mastercam. Is this how it works? I'm just wondering if my default email program should pop up or not. I did fill in my email address along with my best guess at how to reproduce the problem. Anybody? Thanks - Paul

Well, I don't have the solids package so I don't think that's an option for me.

Doing a standard pocket toolpath in Mill 3, Constant Overlap Spiral, is there a way to filter the toolpath? For the first several inches of travel, I have lots and lots of very tiny line moves that I'd like to eliminate, sorta like you can do with a Surface Rough Pocket toolpath. Thanks- Paul

Thanks for the link, gcode. That's probably the best bet. - Paul

Thanks a ton. I'm gonna go this afternoon and see if Best Buy or someone like that has an old AGP Quadro FX500 or better, preferably collecting dust. Thanks again - Paul

In the interest of trying to do the same thing twice in a row, I just started a new Rhino Drawing using their "inch" template and it creates one layer called "Default" and several others named 01, 02, 03, and so forth. As long as I don't put anything into "Default", I can then open the Rhino Drawing in McamX and I'll have 01, 02, 03, etc. with all the geometry intact. The only thing strange was an error message when McamX was opening the Rhino Drawing for the first time, which said "Memory Table Item Not Found (4353). Even if a layer is switched Off, it still comes through with its geometry. If there is no geometry in a given layer, of course, that layer does not show up in McamX. Thanks- Paul

Thanks- I don't suppose that will plug into just any old PCI slot, will it? I mean, could I pull out an old AGP and use a PCI Express in a regular PCI slot instead? Thanks- Paul

GCode: AGP is already old crap? Man, I sure am getting old! What's replacing it? Thanks- Paul

Pete: I'm guessing this issue was addressed in SP1. I did the SP1 upgrade this morning and tried opening one of my old Rhino Drawings. Now the first "Dummy" layer that I created in Rhino shows up in McamX but the 2nd layer in Rhino is missing. It's contents, however, are in the Dummy layer. Third, fourth, and so on seem to be fine. I'm thinking I can work around this by letting the 2nd layer in Rhino be the dummy layer. If I'm missing something (which is certainly possible), please advise, but it seems like something still isn't quite right. Thanks- Paul

Thanks. In the meantime, I go into my original Rhino drawing and create a new dummy level that contains nothing and move it up to the top of the list. Then it doesn't matter that it gets combined with the second layer. It ain't purty, but it works for the time being. Paul

I had a problem where pre-selected geometry was turning white on a white a background, in effect making the geometry and crosshairs seem to "disappear" whenever the crosshairs passed over anything. I'd try changing your crosshair colors and/or background color and see if that helps.

Get X installed and running and don't look back. The more I mess with it, the more I like it. Paul

Pete: Thanks for looking into the level issue. No, I did not know that we could bring in a Rhino drawing to V9 that way! We've been doing the igs thing since day one. Anyway, now that we've moved on to X, I did notice that when creating toolpaths for something drawn in Rhino, I have better luck when the igs step is eliminated. Paul

Prior to X, to bring a Rhino drawing in to Mastercam, I would save it as an igs and then run Mastercam and "convert" it. This resulted in a mc9 drawing that had the same levels as the original Rhino drawing, numbered and in order, but none of the Rhino level names made it through. With X, a Rhino drawing can be opened directly. Now you get the original Rhino levels including names, which is great, but there is a hitch. Whatever was in the first level in Rhino gets combined with whatever was in the second level and the original first level gets dropped. In other words, if you had 7 levels in the Rhino drawing, you'll only have 6 after opening it in Mcam X. All your geometry is there, but whatever geometry was in your first Rhino layer will now be found along with whatever geometry was in your second Rhino layer. Hope someone at Mastercam will look into this. Paul

Back in ver 9, whenever I wanted particular page to open the way I wanted, I'd go to NC Utils, then Def Ops, then Defaults, then pick Defaults.df9, then find the various pages, get them like I liked them, and then save Defaults.df9 when I was done. Is this thread telling us how to accomplish the same thing in X?? Thanks- Paul

Exactly what I was looking for. Thanks, dwsz71.

Each time I run X, I have to select a Machine Definition. Since I only have one, I'd like to have it come up as the default so I wouldn't have to answer that question over an over. Is this possible? Thanks- Paul

Thanks, Leif. This tool looks like a band aid that has been twisted 90 degrees along the long axis. It makes no sense at all. I think the quickest and easiest solution for me will be to add and modify tools in the default library (that does work) and forget about importing for the time being. Paul