Another thing to try would be screen -> unblank entities -> ctrl+a (select all) enter. Then fit screen to all entities and see if that makes anything visible. In your level manager does it say that there are entites on any levels?

I think helix bore is great for roughing and finishing holes...a very reliable toolpath as it always does what I want it to. I can understand your frustrations about angle/pitch. I have got used to using the pitch now, and i'll roughly put in a pitch that I think would be appropriate, then look at the graphic and see how the helix looks, and if the spiral is too steep for the diameter, i'll decrease it and vice versa. This is for solid carbide tools, I usually will stay a bit below 3 degrees...more like 1.5.

That sounds great Webby! Thanks heaps for setting it up! I Sent you a PM too. I'll hopefully have get that first project finished tonight....hopefully!

I know its probably a bit late for X7, but wouldn't it be cool if you could associate a toolpath group/machine group with a viewsheet? So say operation 1 is Setup for a Lathe, and Operation 2 is set up for mill, When you clicked on the Operation 1 Viewsheet it would position your insert arrow at the bottom of your lathe machine group? I think it would be a great feature, so you just click on your viewsheet, and then you are ready to program/verify straight away?

Should mention that MS Security Essentials is running great and haven't had any problems with it either

Have only been using MS Security Essentials for a short time. Prior to that we were using AVG professional and had no troubles with it at all for years. There is a free version available too which I use at home and it works well. So AVG would be my vote

Are you talking about using the screenshot tool from verisurf? I'm not sure that I understand you correctly, but mastercam isn't designed to open .bmp's...try MS paint

Noticed there are a few more files on the ftp... is anyone working on these other models yet? or are we waiting for everyone to finish the bracket? (which I am still working on) Just curious as to what our next project is

Hi Neurosis, not sure if this is what you are asking or not, but I usually just calculate the rpm from the manufacturers data manually. So I mean I type the calc into the RPM field. 300*v/d where v is your m/min and d is your tool diameter eg. for a 12mm EM with a recommended smm (metric) of 250, i'd just type in 300*250/12, which yields the result 6250RPM. Likewise for Feed, I just multiply the chipload by the number of flutes by the rpm, so for a tool with a chipload of 0.05mm/tooth, with 4 flutes, I just eneter 0.05*4*6250 which gives you a feed of 1250mm/min. Hope this helps

Hi everyone, been away for the past week so will get on to the part tomorrow...think i may be the rotten egg for this one lol

I found a site called **** that had a download for 32bit x6 hle...can someone please tell me if it is allowed to share the link for this for others or not?

Looks like a nice part Kevin. I will hopefully get onto it in the next few days... Jay, Firstly, Thanks for posting that vice setup, dont have any vices/fixtures modelled at home so that will be handy! Is there still the option of using your ftp server to house these files? I think that would be the easiest route to follow if you are ok with it? There are a couple of other options that I have had brief thoughts about if we need to. Side note...my parts are gonna be metric. We quite often deal with imperial components but program in metric, its what I'm familiar with so I think I'll use that at least for now....Deal with it lol. Brendan

Hi Ninja This sounds like a great idea and I am very keen to be involved! I may not be able to do it every week but will definitely try to! I do a lot of simple 3 axis and a fair bit of 3+2...not much 5 axis in the last couple of years. Really keen to see how this all pans out!

try setting tol. to 0.0001 and see how you go

Wow what language is that!? Had to read it a couple of times to be able to follow. Arc settings should fix your problem. Set the tolerance to be finer. I usually get great results with 0.002 (metric) so 0.0001"(approx). Also using the edit->simplify geomtry on your chains you are using will really help.

Where I used to work was a very small business with high aims. We were AS9100 approved with 3 staff members, but that number dwindled to 1 over time. For a small company I feel that AS9100 had alot more paperwork than ISO, and it was too cumbersome with limited employees when trying to machine, program, find work, quote and fill out all the quality paperwork it was impossible to turn a profit! Just something to be aware of if you are a small business

Hi Bill, Not sure if It is normal or not, but I get this same thing happening. 4 axis and 3+2 I always get it. It gets it's Z depth Value based on the Original WCS, and does not change it to be relative to the new planes that you are using.

Good Stuff, maybe the best thing to do from here is to work your way through the activereport tutorial to familiarise yourself with how to use it? If you have downloaded my setup sheet, then it should be pretty much usable straight off the bat. Maybe just insert your company logo and at least thats a good starting point for you, and then you can customise it to best suit your needs as you learn more about activereports. To use my setup sheet, right click on the selected operations you wish to make a setup sheet for, and select "setup sheet". Down the bottom of the setup sheet dialoag it has the source file for your activereports. Double click this and browse to the directory where you have saved the report files, and select "Setup Sheet (MILL).rpx" Then you should be all good to go

Maybe your IT person can help you?

Yes! This would be a really handy feature! I LOVE the ability that you have in verify to trim your part and get a good look at Operations that are not External. Perhaps this would be even better if you could do it for milling before verify rather than just afterwards? Section views would be awesome! Mastercam is a CAM product tho not a CAD so i can see that this will not and should not be on the top of they're to do list!

What do you mean by this? maybe attach an image?

hmmm...it should be in there...maybe the structure is different in X4. Did you do a search of your computer for "ActiveReports_Designer"? What were the results? No problem, hopefully we can get you there eventually

ftp://mastercam-cadcam.com/Mastercam_forum/Setup_Sheets/ There is a link for the setup sheet directory on the ftp. FYI the ftp is simply a server maintained by a member on this forum, where people can share files more or less. ftp stands for file transfer protocol, and is basically just the set of rules that define how the information is exchanged between sites.

There is a little bit of computer knowledge and savvy-ness involved in setting up your active reports correctly. If this is proving to be too tricky it may be worth looking at other options. If you get my setup sheet off the ftp, it should be easy enough for you to change a couple of little things to make it useable for you. Let me know how you go!

Step 1: Go to my computer (image 1) Step 2: Navigate to your mastercam install directory (image 2) Step 3: Once inside mastercam directory, navigate to common folder, then reports folder inside that (image 3) Step 4: Double Click on Active reports designer to open in (image 4) Once you are in here, you can start editing your setup sheet.