Sorry Trevor but I'm with James (aka CNC Apps Guy 1) on this one. Trying out the Swiss Expert module? We have Partmaker for all the swiss programs here. I hope someone can help you out.

Keith A-1, I don't do a lot of surfacing where I am now. The reason I mentioned it is so Matt (BadCompany) or someone else reading this posting doesn't get discouraged from using the filter the first time if they see something unusual in the resulting toolpath. Granted it doesn't happen very often now, and the filter settings are much more sophisticated then they were before X, but years ago I did have some discussion with other users who were disappointed in the filter results. Like anything else in life you need to be aware of what something does so you can decide when to use it or not. I certainly will send in something to my reseller/distributor if I feel it isn't working right. HTH

BadCompany, Great display name BTW. Solids are great for design purposes. Surfaces and Solids can both be used for 3D "surface" type toolpaths. Keith A-1 is correct in describing the filter function. When Mastercam produces toolpath data, it breaks down complex 3D curves into line segments. The filter function will replace these line segments with arcs, based on tolerances specified by the user. The tolerances should be a little "loose" for the resulting arcs to properly replace the line segments. It makes sense as an arc cannot be made to replace a line if it's limited to the same path. Occasionally Mastercam will generate an arc which curves the wrong way (i.e. G3 instead of G2). This is very rare and isn't a problem for most filtered toolpaths. Nothing is perfect but the filter can significantly reduce the toolpath size as well as smooth it out. HTH

Good to hear you got it working. DNC is generally simple and doesn't take rocket science to figure out. If it doesn't work but all the settings match between the pc and control than it's almost always the physical connection isn't right. Glad we could help Mike. Damn I miss the old "smileys".

MIKE B, Cimco transmits the file whether or not you're receiving at the machine control. That same message would show up even if you had no cables connected to the sending pc. Check to make sure you're using the correct output port on the sending pc with the DNC settings of Cimco. Besides that, compare all other settings as suggested in above replies. HTH Cheers

Don't skip over the "stickies" at the top. They are there for a reason. Welcome to the forum.

Justin Beebe, Our inspectors here use PC-DMIS but they import SolidWorks models. Why are the inspectors there trying to manipulate an IGES? Get the best possible data you can. Solid models allow you to pick points directly from the model. HTH

mikechvz, I enoxxxxer this issue a lot when changing tools in Contours. I'm still using X3 for now but what I ofund out is the switch to "Use tools step,peck & coolant" option in Tool Settings page is checked on. Often this will alllow Mastercam to plug in default values for stepover. If you have a really small pocket and there's only enough room for two passes @ 0.01" each but the tool values input 0.125" for stepover, this message will appear. It won't do the extra passes but should do whatever it can. Double check all Multi-Pass parameters and make sure you're not taking too large a stepover. HTH

dperron, No, but ask S4A nicely and I'm sure they can find you one. I even think JP would be able to think of someone who uses something similar if not identical to that machine.

All, I have installed the X+ application on my pc for Mcam X3. So far so good. The Setup sheet does provide more of the information I wanted, just maybe not in the exact format I was looking for but it is customizable to some degree. The X+ Snapshot feature has saved me some time by automatically generating an image file directly form the screen rather than me having to copy the screen image and open in Paint to then save it in the correct directory. I am fine tuning both the Setup Sheet and Tool List functions to see what is better for us right now. Until there are some definite answers for the setup sheet in X4, this will have to do. As far as the G10 goes, I never used it in the past so am not familiar with it. I will look into it to see if it can satisfy our needs. Another issue with using different D & H values for the same tool in more than one position comes down to control. We have fixture plates with multiple positions on a single plate. This fixture plate is treated as a single fixture. The positions may have worn down and be slightly different in height. Changing the value for that offset, call it G55, may end up doing more harm than good in some cases. Also being able to "idiot proof" the setup information saves programming time. That can mean the difference between us going over an estimated run time or not, depending on who is running the job. Some are more thorough than others. Keep the ideas coming though. All of this is a work in progress.

Mike, Sorry for the late reply on this. Let's see, where to begin. I personally would be doing this differently but I'm outnumbered here in the shop by about 12 to 1. This is what was decided how it was to be done. My question had nothing to do with the actual Mastercam technicalities for getting the output the way the machinists want it. It was to find out if there is a way to customize the HTML setup sheet to produce the information so when there ARE multiple H's & D's for the same tool they would show up in the setup sheet correctly. Dave Lelonek, Thanks for the suggestion on X+. When JP was here he used that as well. I didn't like the color scheme/font he used so I've basically let it go by the wayside. It is kind of a pain to update as well since I don't have admin rights on this pc, that's reserved for the IT dept here and I don't want to justify to them why I need something. I will look into it further. Mike, While I wasn't offended by your original post, placing a couple of "J/K"'s or smileys would go a long way to indicate that your "stupid" comment was tounge in cheek. I've been meaning to call you guys and find out if the X4 setup sheet will do just what I had asked here anyway. No one except Steve contacted me when I had asked last month about this. HMMM! Can it be done? This is becoming a real aggravation as the guys doing the setups want the sheets to include more information than is currently output. TIA

Hello All & IHS, We have been using the IHS' excellent HTML setup sheet here for the past few years. What we recently started to do is setup for 2 operations to be done on the same machine at one time with 2 work offsets. Many of the tools are shared between the two work offsets. For this reason we decided to use 2 separate length & diameter offsets for the same tool # that is shared between G54 & G55. For example, tool #1 is a face mill that is used in G54 & G55 so we want the setup sheet to show T1, H1, D1 in G54 but T1, H11, D11 in G55. How do you get the HTML setup sheet to output these secondary tool offsets in the sorted tool list properly? Is there a way to separate the tool list output for one work offset (G54) and then output the tool list for the other work offset (G55)? I don't want to generate two NCI files. That would create separate setup sheets. Is this possible with the current HTML Setup Sheet format? TIA

Hey All, I asked my IT pro to install X3 yesterday after confirming with my distributor (S4A) about the proper method for installing it. The IT Pro took it upon himself to download and install Microsoft updates at the same time. Included in these updates was .Net Framework 3.0. He hadn't done it for a while so he figured while he was updating Mcam and Cimco, he might as well do everything. I can't blame him 'cause I probably would've done the same thing. After all these were installed, I restarted the computer and logged in under my user domain. Then I got a shock when X3 failed to launch. Instead I recevied the good ol' "So Sorry" shut down error message after a few seconds of looking at the launch logo. After clicking the "exit" button on the "send message" I see "mastercam.exe - Fatal Application Exit" dialog box with the message "Unhandled Exception occurred - Mastercam execution halted." and an "OK" button at the bottom. Of course clicking the OK button simply closes the dialog and Mcam isn't launched. I called the IT Pro back and we tried several different things to no avail. Even tried re-installing X2 and had the same result. JParis was attempting to help us fix the issue but he felt the .Net Framework is somehow corrupted. Anyone have this issue before? If so, what fixed it? JParis has forwarded this issue to CNC Software already. Hopefully someone there can help. TIA

Mike, Definitely follow the IJK suggestion and check the feed. You should easily be able to hold the +-0.0008" you need on that machine as long as the feed is right. The IJK output will be more accurate as well. Both those things should allow you to make the boss round within that tolerance. HTH Ted, Typically the arc output is selected in the Control Def now. When Control Def is open, look in list on left for Arc topic. Arc Center type is a box about in the middle of this page. To produce IJK output, change the arc center type to something like "Delta start to center" for XY plane, XZ plane & YZ plane. The last two planes are not necessary if your machine doesn't support XZ & YZ arcs but it can't hurt anything to change them all. Do this first for the current program to test it out, then when it works you can change the Control Def from the Settings menu later to have it that way every time you use it. HTH

Crazy^Millman & others, I've worked it out. Thanks to Ron's suggestion and a little assistance from my reseller, S4A. Ron, your reply set me on the right path.

Crazy^Millman, Thanks for the suggestion. I should've thought of that. "D'Oh!!" I tracked it down to a postblock labeled "pindex". There's a variable in the Boolean statement named "indx_out". This is right after a string sel table command. If I move the "indx_out" to the next line, all I get for output is the "A xxx" index angle. If I place the "indx_out" in parentheses (sp?) it produces nothing for index code, not even the M21 or M22. If I put the variable in "" and (), so it looks like this: "(indx_out)", e$ , the output then has an M21 & M22 on every other line with the (indx_out) right after each M21 or M22. I know the "indx_out" variable is the key to what I want to happen, I just don't know the syntax to use or maybe it requires some extra logic in that postblock to get the desired output. Thanks anyway Ron for getting me moving in the right direction. Great read BTW on the fundamentals of good setups article.

Hey All, Any post gurus out there who can help me out? I have a post that I'm attempting to modify to output the M21 code when changing tool planes for a Hardinge Indexer head. The post is based from the MpMaster for a Mori-Seiki 3-axis machine. The Hardinge allows us to perform some simple 4th axis indexing on the 3-axis. The M21 code output works perfectly if I just alter a couple of rotary settings at the top of the Generic 4AX post. The problem I'm having is the MpMaster post will output the M21 and the "A" angle in the same line of code. This is not just redundant but won't work as the Hardinge is a operator programable indexer. It won't accept the "A" output. I can't shut off the "A" however because that's more easily set in the post of where to output the M21. Especially if the A-axis output in the MMD has been "locked down" to index only. Look at the samples of code below. The first is what I am getting now from the post that I want to modify. The second is produced from the Generic 4AX post and is what I want the code to look like. TIA bad code: G00 Z5. (180 DEGREES - SIDE 3) M21 A180 X3.0635 Y0. Z5. and later in same file: M01 (0 DEGREES - SIDE 1) M21 (INDEXER ROTATE) N3 T2 M6 (MAX - Z5.) (MIN - Z1.394) G54 M21 A0 G00 G90 good code: G0 Z5. ( 180 DEGREES - SIDE 3 ) M21 ( INDEXER ANGLE -180. ) X3.0635 Y0. Z1.75 If anyone can point me in the right direction, I would be very grateful. For now, I'm using the Misc Int to produce the "M21" where I want it but that requires turning it on it in the toolpath before the one where I actually want it. It doesn't work all the time either.

bobbobbob, quote: It does have x2 installed on the pc, but the user prefers to use 9.1. My suggestion would be to get some training for the user to help them get up to speed w/X2. The longer they wait to learn the "new stuff" the harder it will be. Since release of the X interface, memory allocation is a thing of the past. There is some user control over how much system resources Mastercam uses per session but nothing like in V9, which was limited anyway as bhuss suggested. I'm not sure if it was a software or system limitation but any way you look at it, X2 runs much better than V9. HTH

Thad, quote: Good seeing you around, Peter. Don't be a stranger. Thanks Thad. I won't. I'm still around it's just I actually program much more at my current position and unlike one of the programmers who worked here b4, (not mentioning names in case he's reading/moderating right now, ) I can't spend all day reading and replying to forum posts. I can’t reply as often as I’d like but I do have regular breaks now. B C’ing you.

Thad, What rdshear is referring to is the distance from the center of the cutter to the corner presuming a 90deg. corner (wall to wall) angle, not the angle from the floor to the wall. You could try the Trochoidal looping by clicking on the High Speed spiral & button in the Rgh/Fin parameters page. The only problem with that is it will probably add more time to the toolpath rather than decrease run time. The benefit of trochoidal loops is that the depth of cut can be much greater, usually as much as 2X or 3X cutter dia, depending on the material. With that tool however, increasing depth of cut may not be an option. HTH Wow, I guess I was way late in replying to this one. Sorry for repeating what you just said rdshear.

Mark Banaszak, I haven't installed X3. I was asking to find out if it's worth it to download and install it or would it be wise to wait a little until some issues are dealt with. Things are working well with X2 so I need to justify the downtime of installing X3 and getting familiar with the new stuff. Hope this clarifies what I'm looking for. NeilJ, Excel spreadsheet might be better but I don't know enough about the formulas to make a feed/speed change to a selected group of tools at one time. [ 08-15-2008, 08:05 AM: Message edited by: Peter Scott ]

-BUMP- gms1, I know what you're saying. I've been thinking the same thing now since V8. They've added some tools since then but not much. How long have thread mills been in use?

Hey All, For those who have installed X3 I'd like to know a couple of things. Are there any tool library improvements? Have they added thread mills? What about drill mills? I know the High Speed toolpath interface has a page for holder definition. This even allows the user to build a custom holder to be used with the project tools. Have they included that with any of the standard tool definition pages? What about including probes in standard tool definitions? How about making a mass change to speeds and feeds for all the tools in a single library at once? I know stock can be selected to help with speeds and feeds but if I just want to build a library of tools for a specific material, I don't want to waste time defining stock in the Machine Group Properties. What about simply taking an existing tool library and converting all the speeds and feeds instantly to be used for a certain material? It's very time consuming when you have to select ONE tool in the library, adjust the speed and feed for material and save that tool before going on to the next, which may be just a little bit larger than the previous one.

CEMENTHEAD, I used to work for a reseller who also sells Cimco DNC software. They are Services Four (4) Automation. First they demo the product, then install the system and at the end of the install, instruct those who need to know how to use it. The Cimco DNC software is so simple there's almost no need for a class to use it. It's what we currently use here and I would recommend it to anyone looking into DNC communications. If you know anything about Windows, you can use the Cimco DNC MAX software. HTH