Still going back to 9.1 here. I keep trying to use X, but keep running into walls. Whether they are of my own making or not, they still happen and production is what keeps my job. Some more extensive transition training from the resellers would be helpfull possibly but for now I'm going back to 9.1 and staying there. by the by, I'm one of those old guys that are stuck in our ways and don't like to adapt. At least thats what will be said by some. My problem is if you have something that works well, why should you have to addapt to something that doesn't seem to work as well just because it's new? Bill Cronkhite

Has anyone had any experience connecting a Fanuc series K control for down load? It's early 1980 vintage. I've wired the rs 232 port at the machine and everything is connected to the IO board. It had a port for rs 232, just no connector to the outside of the machine. Thats all done, but I can't find any doccumentation as to how to access it. I used the same wiring as on our Cintamatic 850 since it's about the same age. Thanks for any help. Bill Cronkhite

I use MasterCam for about 90% of my design work. I have AutoCad and Solidworks but only use solidworks for simpler projects without contours and curves. Sometimes I'll use autocad for set up drawings but usually I generate them with MasterCam.

I need solids!!!!! That would work. I'll have to work on getting solid key. Thanks for both Iskander!

Is there any to mirror a drawing with dimensions and keep the dimension text in the right orientation? I don't really want to have to re-dimension this entire drawing, but I can't figure out a way to get the dimension text right after the mirror. All the notes work out, but not the dimension text. Bill

betts, Thank you. That gives me somewnere to start. When I copied to the new level, I used "all Entities" so that may be part of the problem. as far as the orientation, I used a numbered WCS to orient. You are saying i need to actually rotate the view before I copy? I did rotate each view after the change levels-copy. Sorry, but my company wouldn't even let me take my free training. I'm learning all of this on my own as I go. Thanks again for the help. Bill

I'm trying to do a conversion from my MasterCam file into DWG format to send to a vendor for a quote but when I do the conversion the acad file is flipped into all different orientations. Mu Mastercam file was built by taking the faces of my 3D model and copying them to another level then rotating them into Gview front. Works gret in Mastercam but will not convert to .dwg. An .igs conversion works better, but some of the features still rotate out of plane. HELP!

I need to generate a "ctrl D" character for end of file when drip feeding our cintamatic control. I'm using the MPCIN850 post, and have modified it to do everything else I need but when I put the "ctrl D" in the peof section, the post gives me an illegal character error and aborts the post. Any ideas? Next option is to call ShopWare, but I work 3rd shift, and it's hard to get with them.

Never mind Got it figured out. Any one interested let me know.

Oh yeah, Don't even ask what I'm doing here at 2:18 on a Saturday morning. Sigh.....

Help. Has anyone ever drip fed programs to an Acramatic 850 control. I've installed the continuous load option, but it just fills the buffer and my terminal programs keep on sending to the end of the file. Thanks, Bill

------------------------------------------------- I only have one question......why would one want to create a tangent line of 90 degrees in the first place besides just creating a vertical or horizontal line from the quadrant of the arc? ------------------------------------------------- Now, that is a good question

Thank you. Saves me from creating about 200 small surfaces! Bill

Is there any way to trim curves to a surface in v9.1? I've gor a wireframe shape, and I need to trim out a section of the curves/lines/arcs to create a surface for the top of a replacement die section. Thanks for any help Bill

Just joshin... I do agree. Just have to live with what we got. It sure wasn't my first choice.(as if they cared what I wanted anyway)

You guys need to be nicer! We finally got a 1000 with an 850SX controller 2 years ago. Took me almost 3 years to talk them into buying that. Everyone here thought the 2 axis acers with AcuRite controlls were good enough. Came here after 19 years in aerospace.(kind of a wake up call!)Just make sure the 850 has continuous load, otherwise you'll be spending 2/3 of your time breaking programs up into small enough bites for the memory. Oh well, it took almost a year to get them to buy Mastercamafter we got the machine. Still haven't gotten to take any training yet but getting by so far. I guess they figured the last place trained me on UG so I should just jump right in. BTW I like asteram much better so far.

Scrap? We call that "Parts waiting for engineering changes"

A set of odd shaped punches and buttons which used to have to be wire cut.. big savings. Also trying to get some replacement steels programmed for our bumper dies.

I didn't mean to stir up a can of worms! Sorry. As far as working around the problem I already said that you can break the project into several square blocks and rough that way. Just wondered if there was an eiser way. Guess I won't bother everyone any more. just read whats here. again...Sorry. Bill

Thank you. That's on of the things I've been trying to get, but it doesn't affect the way a rough path generates, at least I haven't been able to get it to. I've uploaded a sample of what I'm trying to do to the ftp site. it's Rough Stock.mc9. The cyan is the finished surface and the green is the rough stock. Bill

??How do I Go about sending a file with the post?? E-Mailing is no problem, but I'm not sure how to get one into the forum. Bill

Yes. Surface - Rough - Parallel. I spent 4 years in UniGraphics and I'm learning MC as I go. I'm creating a model to show you what I'm getting, but probably won't finish it till tomorow night. I love 3rd shift! Bill 5:42AM here!

James Thanks for the reply. I've tried creating my wire frames and generating surfaces to match the rough configuration, but it seems that for a rough path, MC always sees a square block. Like I said in the original post, I can break the project up into so many square blocks of different sizes and rough machine that way then combine for finish but it seems an awkward way of going about it. Just wondered if there was a way around it.

Can anyone tell me if it is possible to define rough stock dimensions in MC? An example of what I'm looking for would be machining a cast part. Some shape has been defined, but still need to run rough passes. Everyone here seems to think they are saving me a ton of time by roughing shapes on the manual mills, then the operators wonder why I have so much air time in my rough tool paths. I've tried some different approaches like breaking up a part into several blocks, but that becomes annoying very quickly If there isn't any way to do it let me know and I'll stop looking. Thanks Bill

I used to complain that I had to do all my own modeling including digitizing existing surfaces on our mill, but from this post I guess I don't have it so bad! Bill