Well, now I have X installed at the office and the same thing happens although not quite as often. Clicking anywhwere brings the regular cursor back and by the 2nd or 3rd try, it goes ahead and works.... so it could be worse, Jimmy! Paul

I converted a V9 tool library called Ginger.TL9 and that seemed to work fine. Then I drew a simple object and tried to create a pocket toolpath. On the Toolpath Parameters Tab, I hit "Select Library Tool" and chose my converted library, which shows up there as Ginger.TOOLS. I pick an endmill and finish up with the Pocketing Parameters Tab and the Roughing/Finishing Parameters Tab. All is well to this point but when I tell it to backplot, I get "Invalid Tool Definition - Backplot will show an invalid Tool." It looks strange, like a flat object that has been twisted about a half a turn. If I pick a tool from the MILL_INCH.TOOLS, on the other hand, it backplots and posts fine. Any ideas out there? Thanks, Paul

Thanks, Mick. Paul

I'm set to print in color for sure. Cimco prints in color but I still cannot get mcamx editor to print in color. I did find a screen that lets me pick what colors I want for whatever and that works on the screen but all my printouts are B&W. Anyone else have this problem? Thanks- Paul

DavidB: Go to the "Setings" pull-down and select "System Configuration". Then under TOPICS on the lefts side, select COLORS and that will let you set just abount anything to just about any color you want. Right out of the box, my background was dark blue, for instance, and I made it white. HTH- Paul

Using mcamx editor to view an NC file. On my screen, X & Y moves are in one color, Z in another, feeds in another, and so forth. Pretty cool except, when I print, it all comes out black even though I am using a color inkjet printer. I thought it might be a printer setting but same NC file printed with Cimco works fine. Any ideas? Thanks- Paul

Man, I'm more antique than you! I have a Houston Instruments DMP60. I set it for HPGL mode and plot in Autocad. Never could get it to work in mcam 9 but it is a joy to watch it work, when it works. Paul

Thanks Jimmy. I set X up on my laptop (HP Zsomething, P4, XP) just to start learning at home. It has a built-in touchpad but I can hook up a track ball! Yep, we still love those track balls! Your post mod worked for stock thickness, of course, but I still have some .0001 moves in there that don't make sense. Will email you. Thanks again - Paul

Just starting to draw and post some simple contours and pockets with "X". When I move the cursor (an arrow) over the G1 icon for posting, about half the time, when I click, it instantly appears that the icon button is pressed and at the same time, my cursor changes to a crosshair. Problem is, the the post window does not open. Same thing happens off and on with backplot. Once the cursor changes to a crosshair, it seems I'm hung until I click (either left or right) anyplace in or out of the drawing area, to get my regular cursor back. After several tries, I can post or backplot or whatever. Anyone have this happen or anyone have any ideas? Thanks- Paul

Drew: We had that. Select the edge of your cavity as one of the boundaries and select a point (more or less at the middle of your cavity) as the second boundary. HTH- Paul

Adobe Photoshop will also open a pdf.

I confuse pretty easily, Ben.

Bullines: Here is the "Message Source" for the email I received. Hope this is the info you need. Return-path: Received: from ms-mta-01-eri0 (ms-mta-01-qfe1 [10.10.5.70]) by ms-mss-01.southeast.rr.com (iPlanet Messaging Server 5.2 HotFix 1.21 (built Sep 8 2003)) with ESMTP id <[email protected]> for [email protected]; Tue, 25 Jan 2005 16:33:50 -0500 (EST) Received: from clmboh-mx-02.mgw.rr.com (clmboh-mx-02.mgw.rr.com [65.24.7.11]) by ms-mta-01.southeast.rr.com (iPlanet Messaging Server 5.2 HotFix 1.21 (built Sep 8 2003)) with ESMTP id <[email protected]> for [email protected] (ORCPT [email protected]); Tue, 25 Jan 2005 16:33:50 -0500 (EST) Received: from internetdesigncompany.com (66.98.184.4) by clmboh-mx-02.mgw.rr.com with ESMTP; Tue, 25 Jan 2005 16:33:50 -0500 Received: from mail pickup service by internetdesigncompany.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC; Tue, 25 Jan 2005 16:33:49 -0500 Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2005 16:30:12 -0500 From: Mastercam To: Paul Beaty Message-id: <17c101c50325$0d4c1390$04b86242@RACKSHACVSYY4Y> MIME-version: 1.0 X-MIMEOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.3790.181 X-Mailer: Microsoft CDO for Windows 2000 Content-type: text/plain Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Content-class: urn:content-classes:message Importance: normal Priority: normal Thread-index: AcUDJQ1MwTnfXa+dSTKYNP6yV3VyIA== Original-recipient: rfc822;[email protected] X-OriginalArrivalTime: 25 Jan 2005 21:33:49.0951 (UTC) FILETIME=[8F1AF8F0:01C50325] --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you do not wish to receive e-mails from us in the future, visit http://www.mastercamzone.com/removeme.asp

Believe it or not, we signed on for a year of maintenance last December not just to receive X but also because we thought we'd be bugging the heck out of our dealer with questions related to X and it was just the right/fair thing to do. For whatever reason, X is not out and December is here again. Maybe the top dogs at Mastercam could consider extending maintenance. For a small shop, I agree that your's (and our's) is a tough pill to swallow. Paul

Thanks to the both of you. Paul

Thanks to you all for all the suggestions. I'm sorta stuck on the light gray background. We used to do a lot in Autocad and found that black objects on a white background disappeared when black crosshairs sat on top of the object. That got us to experimenting and we wound up with a light gray background and really dark gray, not quite black, for the crosshairs. A year or so ago, when we bought Rhino and Mastercam, we decided to keep that same plan going. Paul

I found it interesting that this thread seems to focus on injection molding. Does anyone out there do anything with lost-wax casting, like they do in dental and jewelry? Paul

Just in case anybody missed seeing this on the news, turn on your sound and check it out. http://www.jibjab.com/ PBPaul

There is so much good information in this forum. I read about something and then say "Hey, I'll print this and stick it in a notebook", which I do, but then those pages are just lost in the stacks of other notes and can't be found so easily. Any of you have a simple or maybe even not-so-simple system that you'd be willing to discuss, that you use to keep notes and articles and so forth organized? Do you try to cut and paste and keep it all on the computer or print it and file it or what? This place will be buzzin when X is released and I'm wanting to be ready! Thanks- PBPaul

Wow.....talk about outnumbered! Were a custom woodwork business, do just about anything except cabinets. Paul

I'm with Brandi....thanks for all the info. I have a HP1220C and rarely do I get anything printed the way I want it.

Motty: I think what James and Hardmill are saying is that if this ever happens to you again, kill your wife. Paul

I think you have to have 9.1SP1 or newer. Also, only works with Windows NT, 2000, and XP. HTH- Paul

Roy_23, we do a ton of IGES out from Rhino into MCam Mill 9. Out of the box, MCam would lose our Rhino layer names. Back in November of last year, ProductDevelopmentGuy uploaded a dll that fixed that for us. It was a huge help and I still appreciate it!!!! I don't know how to link you to that thread but if you do a search for something with "Rhino layer names missing" in it, it should pop up, if that is an issue with you. Paul

.....also, be sure all the Layers you need in MC are "On" in Rhino when the IGES is created or else that information won't show up in MC. Paul