What I like about the engraving toolpaths, is that it combines a z-axis move to draw a tapered cutter out of the pocket to clean up corner radii..cutting on the very point of a tapered engraving tool tip leaves a theoretical "zero radius" in a pocket corner...

Hmmm, sorry, don't know of any suppliers in Australia! If your looking for small pieces in a hurry there always is McMaster.. http://www.mcmaster.com/

That's one of the other reasons I was thinking about the spindle multipliers, to save use on the machine spindle...i.e. running full tilt on a turbine for a day or so, or running the machine spindle for a couple of days at max rpm. But it sounds like those turbine's are pretty trashy..

Hi Gene, We've got the engraving package running here, and I really like it. I do alot of text and company logo's, and the engraving really allows me to "crisp up" corners and fine detail.

We run down to .020's on our Haas, with only a 6000 rpm spindle...Just keep the ipm's down it will work, 3-5 ipm. What kind of spindle speed multipliers are people running? I've debated buying a cheepo turbine ($500+), just to see how they work...anyone else with experience with these or others?

A real "Sleeping Beauty"... hahaha

Welcome to "The Forum" Michael...Mastercam is absolutely terrific, and this forum has some of the most experienced, helpful, and professional machinist/programmers as an invaluable resource... How is your Taig? Rigidity? Accuracy? Quality?I've been wanting to pick up a little machine for a while now...

Hell yeah Rekd, say it like it is! I could'nt have complimented HD on their "American" farm equiptment better than you! Can't beat the Asian bike engineering.... "A Suzuki will last longer if it's bouncing off the rev limiter, than a Harley will at idle."

Here's what I do with non-center cutting tools. -Use regular pocket method. Create a point where you'd like the tool to plunge. Select that point first, then the rest of the geometry of your pocket. If using depth cuts, uncheck keep tool down.. -Another option is to use entry/ramp and helix the tool directly into the material. my2cents.

After a bit more screwing around, I figured out what I needed. Rick, you were real close, just missing one line... *g_wcs Thanks for the help! code: pwcs #G54+ coordinate setting at toolchange if mi1 > one, [ sav_frc_wcs = force_wcs if sub_level, force_wcs = zero if workofs <> prv_workofs | (force_wcs & toolchng), [ g_wcs = workofs *g_wcs Havn't tried it with transformations or parts with multiple faces and offsets yet...

Thanks Rick, That's exactly what I'm looking for...However I plunked it into my MPHAAS post and now it's not outputting any fixture offsets. I'm going to try it in a MPFAN post and see if it works there..

Why are fixture offsets numbered 1,2,3,4,5,etc...in Mcam, and then converted by the post to g54,g55,g56,g57,g58,etc. for the machine? I'm sure that there probably is a reason for this. Maybe if the programmer doesn't know the fixture offset order of a particular machine, he/she can just type 1,2,3,4,5 etc...without knowing the range of offsets are g54-g59, and then g110-g129. Maybe? However in my small shop I know the control, and I'd prefer to just call them by the actual number in Mcam, instead of 1,2,3,etc. I've monkeyed around with the post a bit, but havn't figured it out yet. Before I call my dealer and inquire about him tweaking my post, I thought I'd get more ideas regarding this issue. Thx y'all.

First go find some text. Highlight it>Right click>copy text.. Go back into Mcam. create>drafting>note right click in the white dialog box. >paste you can also go into properties and change font, etc.

Ok, now say your on a fresh job.... Right click in the white area > get tool from library. You select the tool from your library. However after opening the tool parameters, you decide to change it's feed...(or spindle speed, length offset, coolant, whatever.) After you make those changes, you would like to save those changes permanently. >Save to Library. Now you've got two copies of the tool. One with the original parameters, and one with your new parameters. All that you wanted to do was "update" the tool parameters in your library, but in doing so created another tool. Did someone figure this out already, and did I just miss it? Thad, it seems like you kind of solved the problem, but what if you wanted to save your changes to a library, and not just alter it temporarily for a operation? I think you would end up with two tools?

Thanks Peter, That is yet another good way to get the text in...BUT the formatting doesn't make it. It seems crazy that all the methods we can come up with import the text just fine, but strips the line spacing and layout. If it can get the letter spacing ok, why not the line spacing? After all, it's just a bunch of 1's and 0's. 10101011110000001110000111001010101010101111

Downloaded that program, ttf to dxf...had high hopes. It opened my .doc file just fine, but then when I saved and imported the .dxf to mcam, it lost all the formatting. It imported the text just fine, but ditched all the formatting (line spacing, centering, etc.). Appears to have imported the TTF (true type font), but not the TTF (true type formatting)! In a nutshell, it gave me the exact same thing as create>drafting>note>paste> modify>break>draft/line Imports the letters (font), but does not import the overall layout. For example, my text document is centered. However both the importing/converting and cutting and pasting right justifies everything. I'll keep trying, but I've resorted to creating a grid and laying the text out manually. Now if I could only find some lead type.......

Thanks for the ideas folks. -Copy>paste will just get the text in, but not the formatting and spacing of the original doc. -Raster to Vector could work, but will take a bunch of cleanup. -Rekd, that link "cannot find remote server"...but that sounds exactly what I'm looking for. I'll let y'all know what I get to work. This initially seemed like a clean-cut job, but is turning into an adventure. Mastercam is not the greatest text editor, not that I'd expect it to be either. But for example the letter spacing for New Times Roman is completly unacceptable. I'd have to manually go in and adjust all the letter spacing. It seems like engraving shops must have this down some way or another.... Well, I should get to working on it, instead of talking about working on it! Thx again

I know what your talking about Thad, so your not crazy...or maybe we both are. I've found it happen to me when I select a tool, and then decide to make some changes to the tool parameters. I want to of course "save" the changes for that particular tool, but doing so gives me a duplicate in my tool library... I just assumed that I was doing something incorrectly (not an uncommon occurence)...

Sorry, should also have mentioned that the ASCII converter isn't working..."illegal spline. too few points"..

Have to do a bunch of text engraving.. Letter spacing, line spacing, layout, etc. is very important. Customer sent me a word doc. I figured that I would get the cleanest letters if I created them with create>letters...but it is impossible to get the layout the same as the original word document. Anybody have any slick methods of importing a .doc file? I thought of taking a screen shot, and saving as a JPEG, then importing with raster to vector. Also going to try importing as an ASCII. Thanks.

Thanks Charles, Tried changing drafting settings that might be applicable, but to no avail...

I have an strange and annoying problem...when placing letters at "top of arc", the line of letters starts at 12 o'clock and wraps around the arc clockwise...However at school when performing the same operation, the line of letters centers at 12 o'clock, and wraps counterclockwise and clockwise, keeping the line of text symetrically at the "top of the arc". Any ideas? thx P.S. Same happens at "bottom of arc"...does not place symetrically about the 6 o'clock postion. Starts at 6 o'clock and wraps counter-clockwise. I just end up using modify>drag>rotate to get everything so it looks "reasonable". However certainly not accurate.

While we are talking about letters, I sometimes have an strange and annoying problem...when placing letters at "top of arc", the line of letters starts at 12 o'clock and wraps around the arc clockwise...However at school when performing the same opperation, the line of letters centers at 12 o'clock, and wraps counterclockwise and clockwise, keeping the line of text symetrically at the "top of the arc". Any ideas? thx

Holy Smokes! A color pallette which actually makes sense! Works great, thanks Allan!

Once again, Jack has hit it on the head... Hey, here's a little quiz I like to use in gauging job & life satisfaction. When you look at the clock during the day do you think: "dam, it's only 2 o'clock..the days too long..." or "dam, it's 2 o'clock already ... the days too short..." Currently being a partner in a small company, I am happy to say that I almost always answer "B"...working for a crummy bottom-line-driven corporation I've found people would invariably answer "A". Also let it be known that I make less $$, and work way harder being self employed, but the happiness of working with MY hands for MYSELF is invaluable. There is an immediate correlation as to how hard, smart, and creative you are as to how well your business does...Charles, I can personally attest to the validity of your points, and am carving out my niche in 1 & 3....