jmparis, As Steve said in his earlier reply, we'll be there in bldg #5, booth #5152. Mastercam used to be in the same spot in previous years at Eastec but they've moved their corporate booth to bldg #1. In the past I've been strictly in the Mastercam corp. booth demonstrating the software. Steve has usually bounced back and forth between the Mastercam booth and the booth we staffed which was sponsored by Cimco. I'm not sure exactly how we'll work things this Eastec but come on down and say hello. You'll be sure to find one of us in either booth this year. Looking forward to it.

dhaniel, Depending on the stepover distances and other parameters with the wireframe toolpaths, most times the opposite is true. Surface toolpaths provide much more control over the cut path as well as allowing for toolpath filtering. Filter settings can help replace the thousands of tiny "point-to-point" linear moves with far fewer arcs, provided your machine accepts G18 or G19 plane changes. Wireframe geometry takes up far less database memory than surface geometry in Mastercam. Wireframe toolpaths however can be many times greater than a comparable surface toolpath. There is a sample file in the Mcam9/Mill/MC9/Samples/Design folder called "Swept surface and flowline". There is already a surface toolpath on the surfaces saved in this file. I performed a Swept 3D wireframe toolpath on the wireframe geometry, essentially mimicking the surface toolpath. The Surface Flowline toolpath contains approx. 200Kb of toolpath data. The Swept 3D toolpath contains approx. 480Kb of toolpath data. That's even before applying any Filter settings to the surface toolpath. After filtering the surface toolpath, it contained approx. 88Kb of toolpath data, or approx. 1/5 of the size for the wireframe toolpath. Wireframe toolpaths cannot be filtered. After post processing each individual toolpath, the surface toolpath produced just 38Kb of code. The wireframe toolpath produced over 105Kb of code. Most likely however you'll need to "drip feed" the code to the machine. 3D toolpaths are typically very lengthy. The numbers I used were from only one toolpath for each example. If you have several toolpaths for each part, you'll be making some large code files. HTH

Phil, The key is to line up the startpoints of the circles so they are intersecting with the Along contour endpoints. HTH

mowens, It's possible that the default chaining options are breaking the chain up when you open that file after re-initializing. Mcam's configuration settings don't have any chain options selected but you can change that and see if it helps. Select Screen-Configure-Screen tab and look for the Chaining Options button towards the bottom of the page. If you activate the "Ignore depths" option here, it will save it to the configuration so it will always be on when you open Mcam or a new file. I'm curious why your partner picks chains using ignore depths. Even with 3D geometry, there may be easier ways to select geometry for 2D contours. HTH

Trent, Welcome to the forum. The 3D Cplane in Mcam allows for the construction and selection of geometry in 3D space. When constructing flat geometry, such as an arc, circle, or drafting, the 3D Cplane reverts to the 2D Top Cplane. When using the 3D Cplane, Mcam cannot interpret flat geometry that exists on a plane other than Top for "sweeping" that shape along a 2D path. To put it simply, the across shape to be swept appears as if you were looking at it from its edge rather than its true shape (circle looks like a line). This is probably why it won't work or produces an error message that states something like "across contour does not lie in a defined view". Just make sure that you select the Top Cplane before starting a swept 2D toolpath. As Henk suggested, this is probably not high on Mcam's priority list for making changes right now. They're concentrating heavily on getting Mcam X ready for production release. HTH

galloopee, Welcome to the forum. What level of Mastercam Mill are you using? Lee's answer may not be appropriate if you don't have surface toolpath capabilities. Here's a direct quote from Mcam's online help topic concerning Slot Mill circle toolpaths. "A slot mill toolpath (Main Menu, Toolpaths, Next menu, Circ tlpths, Slot mill) is designed for machining obround slots. These are slots that consist of 2 straight lines and two 180-degree arcs at the ends. (These can be created in Create, Rectangle, Options, Obround.) The toolpath is similar to the other circle toolpaths in its approach and motion." The Slot Mill geometry selection menu doesn't allow for picking Solids. You can however apply a Slot Mill toolpath to the "Double-D" rectangle shape as well as a full radius slot shape. The slot geometry must be closed and straight however. A more accomodating toolpath may simply be a regular Pocket using the High Speed roughing method. You can select a single solid face for regular pockets and contours. HTH

Leon-ZA, Perform a Search through past topics on this forum for the word "allocations". I'm sure you will find many topics with loads of valuable recommendations. Click on the link above between "directory" and "faq". HTH I know there was a topic recently about allocation settings.

Edson, I believe Bullines may be on to something with his reply. quote: Why in the world are you running Mastercam on Windows ServerMastercam may not run on this O/S. We haven't tested Win 2003 Server. The O/S of choice for Mastercam is now Win XP Pro. For Mcam X, when it is released, it will only run on Win XP Pro or Win 2K Pro. All other O/S's will not be supported for use with Mcam. AFAIK, the Win 2003 Server O/S is strictly designed for office networking, not stand-alone engineering applications. I would install Mcam on a different computer using a supported O/S like Win XP or Win 2K Pro. Move the HASP device to the computer you re-installed Mcam on and try it. HTH

BK, It seems like there might be a format statement in the post that is forcing the ouptut of angle values to the thousandth of a degree. Or it could be a "rounding issue". Either way, you should contact your reseller and ask them to give you an estimate on the amount of work necessary to modify your post so it will only output what you need. HTH

sr_7626@natl, Just another set of allocation values for you to look at. I also have 1 Gb of RAM. 8000 4000 500 128000 256000 You may note that using the same series of numbers that match actual RAM values (64k, 128k, 256k, etc...) for both the database and toolpath allocations seems to work best. Also, try to avoid allocating more than half of your total system's RAM. HTH

n_tydingco, quote: The "View #.." is checked Which view are you using for this mirror? It should be View #1, which is the Top view in Mcam. If it isn't #1, that may explain why it's giving you identical toolpath values, just at a different offset. Also, try switching from the "Tool Plane" method to "Coordinate", to test if the values change. HTH

n_tydingco, Are you attempting to mirror your toolpath using Tool Plane or Coordinate for the method? Are you planning on using a different Work Offset for the mirrored toolpath? Have you generated any other Trasnform toolpaths before Mirror? In short, how are your Mirror parameters set up? A little more information will go a long way to solving this issue. HTH

chris, I remember now about your call. This is one of those rare occasions where the problem isn't repeatable between systems. I have Win XP SP2 so at the time I was thinking you were possibly still using Win XP SP1. When it's a situation like this, there are too many possibilities and differences between systems to narrow it down. The best thing is to keep everything updated at the same time. O/S updates should be done regularly and then the video drivers, and finally applications should be updated. It's like Gatorade for the computer. Also doing regular cleanups and defrags of the hard drive can help with performance.

Jimmy, I'm using Win XP SP2 on my system here at work. I've just tested this out and had no problems after deleting the first Swept 2D. One thing you can ask them is if they had the virus scan active at the time they installed any updates. HTH

cadist, quote: I don't have lathe, so I am not sure but I think with no method lathe toolpath can be created in mill. In V9 you are correct with this statement for Mill. However, if you have both Mill and Lathe licensed on the same HASP (bundled), you can open Lathe and also produce whatever Mill toolpaths are licensed (Mill 1, 2, or 3) from the Toolpaths/Next menu/Mill selection. So in this situation, merge the geometry in the Lathe product and import the Mill operations from the Ops mgr. If Lathe and Mill are not bundled on the same HASP, only turning toolpaths will be supported in Lathe. HTH

Phil, I think Bruce is on to something here. It stands to reason that if you had a full thread, there would be more surface area for the gage to contact. More contact = more friction. The adverse effect would be by eliminating surface area (machining flats) you are also eliminating contact area and reducing friction. Maybe what's needed is to machine the flats first and adjust for the no-go gage after threading. This is good stuff. Let us know what the pres. of that gage company says, if he even gets back with you.

billh, J Coulston's advice is probably the best you'll get for now. Unfortunately the Verify function is limited when using different WCS planes from Mcam's 8 pre-defined views. My suggestion would be to simply use Backplot and show the tool as a solid and view it from multiple viewports at the same time. This doesn't show the stock actually "cutting" but it will show you if the tool is headed in the wrong direction or depth. To slow it down you can Step through the Backplot so you'll be able to see every move. HTH

dan m, With most Canned cycles in Lathe, the Add Line parameter in Lead In/Out will help define an entry point away from the stock. Any particular reason you are using a Canned Rough instead of a regular longhand Face cycle, at least for the first operation? The longhand Face cycle provides much more control over entry and exit moves and won't produce that many more lines of code from the Canned Rough cycle. Also, almost every turning program I've seen in Mcam uses the front face as Z-O. Not that you can't program it the way you are, just that there are default reference points and things for you to be aware of in the Job Setup which may actually be the cause behind some of the unexpected moves. You don't need 2-D profiles to machine a solid part in Lathe. Mcam will automatically generate a "slice" of the solid part to form a 2-D edge boundary you can select for turning toolpaths. When you select Toolpaths, choose Solids from the selection menu instead of Chain. The outline will appear as blue entities. I prefer Solids because then I don't waste any time generating extra geometry after converting the part. Just start machining it. HTH

Al, We don't run Dell's here in our office. We make our own systems from ordered components. Follow Bullines' advice here: quote: always use the latest non-beta Forceware drivers from nVIDIA, not Dell's drivers. Never use a Windows supplied driver either. I don't know if Dell has ever modified video cards installed on their systems but if they've done it with sound cards, it wouldn't surprise me if they tried it with other peripherals. Good luck in nailing this one down. HTH

Al, I'm using that video card (Quadro FX 500) on my system here at work and it's at full acceleration with Mcam allocations set to about 1/3 of my total RAM (128Mb database, 256Mb toolpath). My O/S is Win XP Pro, SP 2 and other than the initial firewall and virus protection stuff, I happen to like it better than Win 2K Pro. I am using Mcam V9.1 MR0105, the latest release for Maintenance users. I would ask IT if they can update the O/S and make sure it has all of the critical updates installed. You may have to disable the Windows firewall if your company already has one for access to the internet but that's not difficult after installing SP2 for Win XP Pro. HTH

JayMan, Don't give up on Mcam just yet. I believe your problem may be rooted in your topic starting post: quote: still no added memory to the computer You can't be expected to process complex toolpaths without having enough memory. Check the amount of RAM on your computer and compare that to the RAM on the system Pro-E is installed on. If there's a difference, this is the cause of the lost time in processing the toolpath. Also, last year's MR0304 release proved to significantly reduce processing time of all surfacing toolpaths, in some instances by around 75%. There is help available. Ask your reseller if they can demo these improvements to those who need convincing. And don't forget about the RAM. RAM is power for surface toolpaths. More RAM, less time. Good luck.

deeherk, Right-click anywhere in the middle of Mcam's work window. Left-click on "Autocursor" at the bottom of this menu if there's no check-mark to the left of the word. This will re-activate your autocursor (the little white snap square). HTH

chris m, quote: you don't want that box checked; could be wrong, though In this situation, you are correct. That switch would only set the clearance on the first and last holes of the operation. Then the retract height would be too low between holes. The clearance must be above the top of stock for all holes. It doesn't have to be a lot above, just a safe distance. John, I'm glad we could help you out. Try the "Update Post" function in NC Utils/Post Proc menu. This will allow you to update your V7 post to properly take advantage of all the new features from V9. Or you could continue to use the existing V9 Okuma post and see if that works for you. HTH

ellett88, You can technically "drip" feed the data to one machine at a time using Mcam's built-in communications. I prefer to use the Cimco Edit product that is licensed with your seat of Mcam V9. This editor is not only a great g-code editor, but can also be used as a DNC communications device. It is "stand-alone" too, which means you can drip feed the code to one machine and still work in Mastercam to program the next part. Select Cimco Edit by opening the File-Edit-Editor menu and clicking on the "down arrow" on the right end of the field. PFE32 is the default editor when you first install Mcam but I usually switch to Cimco right at the beginning of using Mcam. Be certain your connection to the machine is set-up correctly and the receive settings are matched at the control with the settings to send by selecting DNC setup in the editor. HTH

John Ries, MayDay is correct but be careful. You will need a Clearance value between every hole to make sure the drill will fully clear above the stock before rapiding to the next hole position. Top of stock can remain where it was for the first operation. Step through a Backplot of the drill operation from the Front view to see if it will clear the part from hole to hole. You may only have to step through the first few holes and then select Run. Use Verify if you want to see what the part should look like being drilled with those tools. Any "gouge" should show up in Verify as a red mark on the defined stock. HTH Welcome to the forum!