Ivan, What's the video card on the system you're using? Sounds like it could be a video card or driver issue. When was the last time you updated the drivers? While you're at it, tell us what the specs of the system are and we should be able to narrow it down. HTH

haas_guy, The updates are supposed to fix issues in Mcam X, not break the system. If your system crashes when you run Mcam X, it typically is due to the hardware not meeting specs for running the application. Review the minimum requirements for the system to run Mcam X and if you need to, print them out and show your supervisors or someone in purchasing to get those requirements met. If they still balk remind them of where the money is really made and if the CNC equipment isn't running they won't have jobs very long. You can't do your job using the software they've invested in if the software won't work on a poor hardware setup. Good luck. HTH

heeler, You are legally allowed to run earlier versions of Mastercam as long as you have licensed Mcam X. They are installed in different directories. The issue then is whether you have a HASP 4 sim or HASP 3. Mcam X will not run on a HASP 3. To test the sim, go to Mcam Sim Swap form page and there will be a link to a Hasp Info program. This info program is very small but will tell you almost instantly if the sim on the computer is H3 or H4. If it's an H3, you will need to complete the Sim Swap form and input the sim # and ID code that was given to you from the info program. HTH

wham58, Is a function currently active in Mcam X? When was the last time you updated the drivers for the wireless keyboard? Are the batteries running low? Just a few other questions that haven't been asked yet. HTH BTW. Welcome to the forum.

elraiis, Welcome to the forum. Mcam X is the culmination of years of development. The interface is dramatically different because it is a true Windows application. V9 and earlier it was just a Legacy application in a Windows environment. Certain items, like shortcut keys, were not easily "ported" from the Legacy interface to the Windows interface. That doesn't mean you can't develop your own shortcuts. In Mcam X, click on the Settings-Key Mapping menu. This is how you can make your own shotcuts. Some of the more common shortcuts are still available from V9 however. Also the toolbars cna be shut off or more can be made and they can be located anywhere you want. Mcam X is so customizable you can literally make it work any way you want it to. Look in the Documentation folder for more info to help with the transition. HTH

Jay, aka Cadcam, quote: I would say that he is right that is the order. Who is the "he"? That is the question. StudentMC and jmparis, "Break it up!" "I want a good, clean fight". Seriously though you're both right. Just that you're not talking about the same thing. This is just a "...failure to communicate." John is right to say the icons in the toolbar for C-planes are blue. StudentMC is right in saying the C-plane origin info color is green while the T-plane origin is blue. HTH BTW StudentMC. Welcome to the forum.

beej, quote: I didn't know the let bronco's fans take solid modeling classes??!? We do. It just costs a little extra. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . J/K John

MillingMan, quote: Unfortunatly Peter, I don't think I will be attending a class that far south. LOL Too bad. There's also a way to learn online with Mastercam tutorials from Streaming Teacher. There's a link for it on our website S4A website from the Services-Training-Day classes page. The training class comment I had written was actually for jmparis. He has "threatened" to come in for our Solids class in the near future.

MillingMan, It is possible to model a true thread shape using Mastercm Solids. Others above have described the method pretty well but it does take lots of computer power and practice. jmparis, quote: Seems like there must be a way to this I can show you how when you come for Solids class.

Marty A, Kannon and jmparis are on the right track. Let us know what video card you have and we'll be able to give you more specific support. If it isn't an ATI card, the video driver may just need to be updated. You could also attempt to turn down the acceleration but this doesn't always work. HTH

brice, quote: We traveled 4 and a half hours there and we spent 3 hours in class because the teacher was sick and wanted to go home. Didn't get much out of it so I want to make sure that when I invest my time again it will be worth it. I'd be hung out to dry if I ever did that. I've been instructing Mastercam since early 2000 and I have yet to leave a class early for being sick. There have been a few times when I've asked if the class wanted to start earlier than normal time so we could finish sooner if there was an appointment I had to keep. If I'm out sick, there's always someone to cover for a class but I make every effort to get to the office if there's a class scheduled. I realize that there are often attendees who travel a great distance and can't afford to waste time. There are several hotels in the area. Many have taken advantage of it and stay overnight for a 3 day or 2 day class. HTH

jmparis, quote: I'll take that solids class too as soon as it's available. Then maybe you can learn something Peter. LOL John. There's a Solids class scheduled for the end of this month. Call us and get yourself signed up.

brice, There are lots of ways to learn Mastercam. We have a link to Streaming Teacher on our web page. S4A web site The standard subscription is 90 days I believe and that allows you access to download and view tutorials about Mastercam online as much as you like. Or you could view our training schedule on our website under Services-Training. We do cover your area. We have several clients in Vermont, at least one I know of who is close to Lake Champlain. Or if you prefer, I would be happy to speak with you directly. jmparis is also one of our clients and he has attended a couple of our training classes in the past. That's my shameless plug for the day.

brice, You're projected toolpath is a helical cut direction? If this is true, the Verify you see and the cut on the machine will be very similar. Mastercam cannot ouptut NURBS spline data for code. When the toolpath is calculated, it is automatically broken down into the simplest form of data or "point to point" data. Surface toolpath is generated in this way. The "jittery" motion you see in Verify is coincidentally mimiced in the machine because of the speed you run the Verify at. If you had the Verify turned up to the fastest speed, you wouldn't see the "jittery" motion. What's happening is the machine is stopping, even if it's only a very minute amount of time, at the endpoints for each line of code. Is there a setting to have the machine "look ahead" by a given amount of entities? This may help to smooth out the cutter path if this number is increased. Another way to help smooth the program is to apply filter settings to the toolpath within Mastercam. You're already using a Filter ratio within the operation however it's set to 1:1. That means the space allowed for Mcam to try to calculate for an arc to replace the lines is no bigger than the actual space to fit the lines in. An arc cannot be generated using the same endpoints of a line without having a little "give" to allow for more space for the arc to fit. Use a filter ratio of 2:1 (Filter tolerance is double the Cut tolerance) to replace more lines with arcs, making a smoother toolpath as a result. HTH

spade117, Do you create new tools or select them from an existing library? There's a setting in the Default Machine Group Properties which is set to calculate Feed Rates from the tool. If you create a tool and forget to give it a feed rate, it will default to 0.0. That was what happened to some of our customers who had a habit of creating tools in older versions of Mastercam and not providing a feed rate for the newly created tools. Usually you will see a warning message before the operation will generate however stating that there are values that may not be good and will be in Italics. HTH Merry Christmas!

WM Kelly, Try adjusting the "Speed/Quality" slider in the display control box near the top of the Verify dialog. Slide it all the way to the right for best quality image. HTH

haroldm, Select Create-Polygon and fill out the necessary parameters. Click or enter the coordinates for the center before clicking on the green OK button until the polygon shows up on screen. If you click on the Apply button first, you will then have the opportunity to make a second hex of the same size, just rotated 30 degrees from the original. This should give you what you're looking for. See pic below. HTH Then use Trim to get it to a finished shape without the overlapping geometry. Divide works great in this instance.

victor nguyen, I agree with robk on this one. Check your chain to make sure it's complete and closed, no overlaps or gaps. If you only chained a single entity or partial (open) chain, you would receive this error message. Can you upload the file to the FTP site linked above? Or e-mail the file to someone here to look at it for you. HTH

mig, Right-click on the color button in the Status Bar at the bottom of the screen first, then follow Yogesh's suggestion. Right-clicking on any of the CAD attributes in the Status Bar of Mcam X replaces the old Screen-Chg (?) functions. HTH

J.Keilman, What are your system specs? Is the O/S and other software up to date? My first thought was related to the video card. Mcam X is not supposed to be plagued with video card problems from certain card makers like ATI and such but it's better to be covering all the bases than skip something thinking it's not an issue anymore. We can help you better if we have a little more info. Does this consistently occur when you use Verify or is it a random event. HTH

haroldm, Slepydremr and others have given you some good advice. Something else to consider when programming for a Horizontal is don't be afraid of the "Incremental" setting in Mcam for Depth. This won't produce incremental code because the post processor is designed to always output absolute coordinate values. I would rather have the "Incremental" word changed to "From Geometry" or "From Model" in reference to Mcam's toolpath parameters. That's essentially what it does. Uses the value of the geometry to set the depth. This is very useful when you have multiple contours that are all at differing depths but you still want to machine them all with the same tool at the same time. HTH Good luck and let us know how you do. ckarner, Welcome to the forum. Good advice about the retract position. Also look into using the Safety Zone in the Machine Group Properties. This helps alert Mastercam to the additional clearance necessary and it can automatically set a safe retract height before the rotary move.

DavidB, The Planes button in the Status Bar will change both C and T planes simultaneously. There is a separate toolbar however if you wish to activate it. Right-click in any empty area to the right of the toolbars. Look for the C-Planes toolbar in this new menu. Left-click on it to display that toolbar on the screen. It could be anywhere so look until you see the new toolbar. It may only have one icon with a "drop down" menu but that will give you the ability to change only the C-plane when you want to. HTH

Tommy Dorgan, The best way to smooth out the toolpath from lines to arcs is to change the geometry into arcs. One way this can be done is to follow Marc Lindsey's suggestion. If the geometry cannot be modified into arcs, the next best thing is to apply the Filter to the toolpath. Perform a Search on this forum for Filter topics and I'm sure you will find loads of great information. This has been discussed many times in the past. HTH

J.Keilman, Crazy^Millman is right. You would have to Transform-Translate the original ops and then Transform-Rotate the Translate operation. You can Transform a Transform toolpath operation in Mcam so there's a way to do it. My guess would be that you may have to do a Translate and Rotate for each new plane. If you can upload the file to cadcam's FTP site (link above), we'd have a better understanding of what you want to accomplish and then could provide more precise support. HTH

YPitou, quote: How enter a X5 relative value to add 5mm to the length of a rectangle ? When Stretch is activated using Xform-Translate and selecting the geometry by an In+ window, simply type in the value you'd like to stretch in the proper field. If you want to type in a Relative distance, right-click within the field to use DES (Data Entry Shortcuts) to help find the distance and then just add (+) the value you want to the end of the value found. HTH