Karl, nice use of the old faithful superfastaccuratewireframetoolpaths. Karl, it must be difficult being in Stirling and Calgary at the same time. Ambassador [ 09-29-2001: Message edited by: Ambassador ]

Brett, nice Hermle. Thanks for the video. Ambassador

Savtav, check the third page under "Finish contour parameters" there is a check box to optimize cut order. This will cut down the machining time as it forces the tool to stay down and not jump around as much. Another setting on the same page would be Zig-Zag rather than one way. Ambassador [ 09-26-2001: Message edited by: Ambassador ]

I am looking for some cool AVI's of Mastercam, either showing some of it's powerful functionality, or a machine running on MC produced G-code. I have the High feed one already. Thanks Ambassador

Thanks for the input, now the conversion pain begins. Ambassador

I have a customer that is buying up some MC and is a Smartcam user. There is no direct way that I can think of to read these files in directly. The computer that they have is on it's last "DOS" legs. I guess I was looking for an external file converter that would convert the whole directory into something readable for MC. Ambassador

Does anyone have any "easyless painful" ways to convert Smartcam *.sh3 files into Mastercam. I have approx 800 files that I need to convert into MC. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Ambassador

If you built the Solid in Mastercam, you could suppress the rads on the top corners of the islands, and then use the corner of the solids. Use "incremental" for depth of cut and "Island Facing" Ambassador

Also you will want to Flatten the edges of the drill and leave a point in the center. This will stop the material from deforming as the twist drill goes through. If you leave the standard 118 degree angle, you may find the SS will either xxxx the drill as it breaks through or pull up and deform the piece. This also acomplishes center drilling. Ambassador [This message has been edited by Ambassador (edited 07-23-2001).]

IMHO the wages aren't as important as working in an enjoyable environment with fun work mates. All the $'s per hour and a boss that is on your a$$ all the time about that 1 thing you did wrong last year isn't worth it. Life is too short to put up with extended periods of grief. again, IMHO Ambassador

Gmenzies, I had a look at your file, nice blow mould cavity. There is one bad surface in it, to find the bad surface Analyze, Surfaces, Check Model. This will show you find the "bad surface". I have run a few programs (Scallop) and haven't had any problems. I will tighten up to your settings from the origional post and run it. Ambassador

Hawkeye, you will need to reselect the tool in each operation, after you change the offset number in the Job set up. You should notice that the Diameter or Length offset will change in that operation when you reselect the tool. Hope this helps. Ambassador

It just works! Words of wisdom to live by. Ambassador

How much available hard drive space do you have? Are you able to post out a small nc file, ie drilling or contouring? Any more information that you have on the problem might help to answer your question. Ambassador