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

If the contractor had a tape measure long enough to measure the height of the intersection of the ladders, he will have enough to measure between the walls. Ambassador

Try setting your "Shading Cord Height" to a tighter tolerance. If the surface looks round unshaded but not round when it is shaded this may be the problem. How large or small is the revolved surface? If the surface is very small it will look very chunky with a large Cord Height, compared to a large surface with the same cord height. Ambassador

Kathy, try under Gap Settings "Optimize Cut Order". That should do what you want. Ambassador

+ or - 1/2 a tenth? What machine is that accurate? In my backplot it was the same depth on arc or linear move. The post, mpmaster, output a rounded move of -.3172, on the arc and the line. Did you check to see that the geometry is flat? And that the end points line up? Ambassador [This message has been edited by Ambassador (edited 05-05-2001).]

You may want to try 2D Swept. Wire frame toolpaths work well for this sort of thing. Ambassador

Gmenzies, it looks like you need to look for "pstock" in the post. I tried what you did using the mpmaster post and it worked fine, outputing the rough stock amount and the finish stock amount. Try setting your Fastmode switch to no, this will output the line# in the post or the part of the post that output the comments etc. What post are you using? Ambassador [This message has been edited by Ambassador (edited 04-14-2001).]

Tony you asked "Is there a better way like a cut extension?I am cutting with surf parallel." Try in your Gap Setting's setting the Motion to Smooth, on the same page try adding a Tangential Arc Radius to "extend" the toolpath. If you use finish contour, depending on the electrode, you could setup some depth limits and the tool will contour past your last surfaces vertically to a set depth. Hope this helps. Ambassador [This message has been edited by Ambassador (edited 04-14-2001).]

Try turning off Clearance and Retract Planes, then set your Feed Plane to Incremental 0. In depth cuts, keep tool down. If you are ramping or helixing in set your Z clearance to 0 (I wouldn't do this as the machine will rapid your tool right to the 0 of the first cut) it will keep you tool down in the pocket. I would try this with and without a finish boundary cut to see what the difference is. Ambassador

Check out this patch called Fixhatch. http://www.emastercam.com/info/patches/v8/index.html

lynnz; The reason that it is only seen in 90 or 0 is because there are only 3 settings for arcs G17 G18 and G19. 1 degree to 89, there are no arcs. Make a small parallel file at 0 or 90 then copy it and change it to 1 or 89 then post them out with different file names. You will see the difference in the G-Code right away. The file at 0 or 90 will have a G18 or G19 and IJK's or R's while the one at 1 or 89 won't have either. Of course, the surfaces that you are cutting cannot be flat.... Ambassador [This message has been edited by Ambassador (edited 03-29-2001).]

Beav700 wrote "Sometimes I have a problem that would take two pages of typing to explain" At least now you have a place to ask those question's, 24 hours a day, 7 day's a week and 365 1/4 day's a year. Where else can you get support like this from? Beav700 wrote "This forum needs some work...other things don't work. The Massage Icons are way too small and there is no explanation of what they stand for." I think that in the future, we all should "ask" for other functionality that we would like to see on this forum, rather than "tell" the webmaster what he should do with the site. I understand that the webmaster has worked really hard to make this site usable for all and I, as a user, would not like to see it discontinued. If the webmaster has time, maybe we could have a "Message Icon Legend", just like the "Smilies Legend". For those of us who can't make out the Icon's or are not sure of what they stand for. My humble opinion... Ambassador