I'm mildly embarassed to say that I did have the minimum arc feed box checked in "job setup". Thanks MillMan, I unchecked it and all is well (time went from 6 hrs to 40 seconds). I really appreciate everyone's speedy responses, I can't believe I got hung up on that. -Francis

Plunge feed is 6ipm as I'd programmed, but x/y feed is .01ipm.

Does this sound familiar to anyone? Everytime I try to bore a hole useing circ mill, or program a thrd mill, mastercam outputs a plunge feed, and a machining feed value of zero, no matter what I enter into my tool parameters, or the operation parameters. Can anyone offer any insight into this? I'm using V9. Thanks, Francis

I was curious as to what types of tools you guys have the best luck with plunge roughing solids before machining the surfaces. I use a 2 flute high helix endmill, but as every machinist does things differently I was wondering what some of you favor for the task. This is just in aluminum. I appreciate your insights.

I appreciate the heads up Finecut. -Francis

Thanks Paul!! Putting a star in front of x and y on the pcirm line ironed everything out. I appreciate everyone else's insight as well. You guys are always sharp. -Francis

The generic hurco post works great on Ultimax 2 and newer machines. I tried to use it on an old dinosaur bx controlled machine to find it worked fine there too, with only one exception. Whenever the tool made a symetrical arc move in which x was the same value at the beginning and end of the move with only y changing, it would throw up an error, as the new block would omit the x coordinate. The newer machines of course take for granted an uncalled out variable is simply unchanged from the block prior. My question is, how can I adjust my post so that all x and y coordinates are specified from block to block?

I am having trouble converting a solid model (dwg. autocad 2000) into Mastercam. A few construction lines are showing up, but I am not seeing any of the solid. Any suggestions? Thanks, -Francis

I am trying to create a very simple rotary 4th axis tool path to put text on an O.D. -I created text, and then rolled it to the diameter I wish to machine upon using xform , roll. I call up the 4th axis tool path and the rolled text isn't recognized when I attempt to select it. Any thoughts? -Francis

I see, so it's sort of like when I write a an Autolisp code to add features for autocad. That make sense. -Francis

CadCam, Plastav, You guys are great. Thank you for taking the time to spell everything out so clearly. I'm using ver. 8, and have one more question within the thread; What is the purpose of a C-hook? -Francis

I have a solid that I would like to project the silhouette of directly above it so I can generate a 2d contour around the part. Can anyone lend some insight on some methods of doing this? As always it's appreciated. -Francis

Thanks for getting me pointed in the right direction guys. I may not have been selecting solids when trying to execute the operation, but I had my mask set as I'd been drawing some additional construction lines. I put everything back to the original level and everything works great. Take Care Fellas, -Francis

What I'm dealing with is the fact that It's like the solid is unrecognizable. I can't select it, or do anything to it or with it. I want to generate a plunge rough operation, and I can't highlight any of it. I can still snap on individual entities to create lines, etc... Is it because I translated the location of it? I didn't have any trouble prior to that. Thanks, -Francis

I am trying to plunge rough a solid model. It worked fine this afternoon, now I'm trying it (didn't save my prior tool path) and it doesn't seem to recognize my drawing is on the screen, I can't highlight any etities. Is there a parmeter I might have turned off?

Matthew, You were referring to the minimum radius feed in the job set up box. It was checked, and it was at .01!!!! You're a Superstar!!! I adjusted this value, and everything fell in line. Thank you so much, I scratched my head over this all afternoon. Francis

Just so you know, I went through all the feeds and speeds (everything seemed Kosher), and I didn't find anything in the contour set-up box to mitigate radius feed.

What I did was draw this part as a solid model in Autocad, then import it into mastercam. Could the method I used to draw the model have any bearing on how it is chained, and then posted? The machine doesn't run as long as I'm saying, the length of run time comes from the fact that on this particular contour in the g-code about every ten or so lines it is throwing out a zero feed value. When I go to load the program into my machine it throws up errors, and wont run until I change the zero feed values in the code. Nothing I have ever drawn using mastercam has given me this trouble. Should I just redraw in Mastercam? Thanks for your responses thus far. -Francis

When your speeds and feeds all seem to be in line, and you are using a particular tool to cut one contour, and the times are great; what do you look for when the same tool cutting a circular tool path (counterbore, no finish or roughing passes) takes a year (5 hrs.). All of my speeds and feeds are the same. Is it something in my tool def.? What sorts of things do you guys look at? Thanks alot, -Francis

Thanks for the tidbit Jim, It worked like a charm. Take Care. -Francis

Hi fellas, I have an easy one for you. I usually have done just simple 2d drawings up to this point, but I am making a set of rearset brackets for my sportster, so I created a solid model of the part on autocad, and imported it to mastercam. The part is .500 thick, so when ever I program a 2d contour, or anything, it shows the work heigth as being .5, because thats the way it was drawn. How can I make the zero plane the top of the part and no the bottom?

I read you loud and clear.

Thank you sir. I will do that before I go any further. Happy New Year. -Francis

I have the proper post processor loaded, as it is a Hurco Machine, and a Hurco p.p. I just couldn't understand why those values (the diameter offset and len. offset) changed by default for each different tool I taught into the system (with seemingly little bearing to the specified diameter of the tool), I wanted to have some sort of Idea of what there values correlated to. I am very new (I so far have written, posted and cut only the very simple contour and drill program in chapter 4), and in chapter 7 we are moving on into all of this business of loading tools into the program. As all of the tools are assigned an offset length and a diameter on the tool set-up page of my machines' controller, can I just leave the length and dia offset values on the tool parameter page in Mastercam at Zero, considering on the same page in the third column the tools' diameter is assigned.

Christian, If my processor is loaded correctly for the correct machine, can I just disregard these values? Will they be correct by default? Please excuse my ignorance. -Francis