salem, Get Cimco Edit V5. It has Backplot of the g-code and will also provide Toolpath Statistics, which will let you know how long each operation will run including rapid time and tool change time. Beyond that, I'm not sure of what you're asking. HTH

Jimic, Unfortunately this is one of the disadvantages of working with surfaces in Mastercam. There are ways around it. What's you ultimate goal with the surface extension? Is it to allow for tools to machine past the surface edges? If so, take a look at the Gap settings of a surface toolpath and put a value in the Tangential Line Length. This tangent value is similar to a Lead In/Out vector except it's tangent to the cut direction. If you're trying to do something else, maybe you could be a little more specfic or upload the file to the FTP site linked above and then we can be of more help to you. HTH BTW, Welcome to the forum.

McamNut, By transfer position are you referring to tool changes? If so, the Transform operation can be set to output all copies of the original source operation before changing the tool to perform the next operation on all copies. This is done by selecting Operation Type instead of Operation Order in the lower left of the Types and Methods page of the Transform operation. This is only available when you have more than one operation selected in the source ops list. See pic below. HTH

babolino, I don't believe High Feed works on Canned drill cycles. It's all about how the tool removes material. Drills are plunging tools, not actually feeding (linear) through material. The best solution would be to follow Chris's advice and contact your reseller to ask for a custom drill cycle modification for your post. HTH

CNCChad, Excellent "quickie" solution. Helluva first contribution. Keep 'em coming.

John, What about Automatic Updates for the O/S? We have essentailly shut off the Auto update for all of our pc's in our office. So what if we have to check for updates manually now. At least then we get a chance to pick and choose what gets installed as an update. Micro"suck" doesn't know $#!+ about Mastercam and probably wouldn't care if there was a conflict between something they automatically install for their software and the software that makes us all money. HTH

MCFELIX, You should see about investing in Cimco Edit V5. The Toolpath Statistics part of the NC Utilities really gives an accurate runtime with the total inches in feed and rapid travel. It works with any NC code file so you could use it with the code generated from V9. This would be an alternative if they weren't interested in updating your V9 to Mcam X. If the company is interested, they should do it soon as X2 is coming. The penalty fee for updating will increase after its release. HTH

MillingMan, Can you upload the file to the FTP? Do you have "Cut Body" or "Add Boss" selected in the Extrusion parameters? From the description, it sounds like what you want is to "Add Boss" but what you have is "Cut Body". Without seeing your file it's hard to tell. HTH

ak762, quote: I think what he is talking about is backplotting several different files into 1 backplot window. Is John correct? Is this what you want to do? If so I was mistaken. Cimco can Backplot more than one file at a time but not in the same Backplot window. Unless you wanted to copy/paste all the separate NC files together into one big NC file. That's the only way I can think of to Backplot every tool at the same time in one window. HTH

jack neelands, I checked out the original file and found that you don't have a "closed solid body". In Mastercam what you have is an "open sheet body" which is nearly the same as surfaces. The Parasolid kernel doesn't like to apply fillets on multiple faces at the same time unless it's on a closed solid. John got a fillet around the part by doing each edge separately. The best thing would be to have the body closed somehow. Maybe convert to surfaces and then re-convert back to a solid part. I'll try that. When the body is closed, this should not present such a problem. HTH

ak762, To answer your question in a word, yes. Cimco Edit 5 will allow you to Backplot more than one file at the same time. Contact your Cimco representative for your area. If you're not sure who that may be, go to the Cimco site and ask someone there. Anthony (Cimco), Whassup? How's it goin'?

Todd Tracey, I've tried that method and it seems to work but then I looked at the angle value produced and it's not perpendicular to the start angle at the endpoint of the arc. I could be missing something however. When you state "force tangent" point are you using the Autocursor icon or the Tangent button in the drop-down menu? This should be fixed however. It shouldn't be this complicated to generate a line tangent to the endpoint of an arc.

quote: Does it still take 57 mouse clicks to change the baud rate? Ouch! Now Glenn, you know you're supposed to give everyone else a fair shake. Cimco can't help that it's the easiest and best of all DNC packages. Don't take my opinion on it. Try it for a month and see if it works for you. HTH

bb, The construction line method seems to work for now. There is a way to do it without creating any construction geometry but it's just as long. If you want to do it without creating extra const. geometry, select Create-Line-Endpoint and lock in the line Length. Make sure the Tangent button is active on the line ribbon bar. Select the end of the arc as the start of the Tangent line. There must be an Angle input for this to work. The angle can be found using the Data Entry Shortcuts and using the Angle menu from them. Select the Center point as the first point and the Endpoint of the arc that you want to use as the Tangent point for the line. This will provide you with the perpendicular Angle for the Tangent line. Add or subtract 90 degrees from this found angle to give you the Tangent line you're looking to produce. HTH

Colin, Ingenious! Or as those dudes from the Guiness commercials say "Brilliant!" That's another great way to "skin a coon". Gonna use that one in class jack n.

cascadeclimbr, Bulletman, and 88matt, As an alternative to the Solid Trim or Project curve is Create-Curve-Slice. This will approximate a trim function with the solid without actually performing a trim and give you the "edge curves" from a selected intersecting plane. You can also create multiple slices to give you many profiles if the first slice is incomplete. It's also faster than the Project curve in that you don't have to create additional lines before starting the Curve-Slice function. Check it out. Planes for slices can be defined from existing Cplanes, lines or other flat entities. HTH

Threept82, quote: Pete. Do you need a hug? No. Just relaying info regarding what's been told to me. I will pass along your message to our office manager to call you directly and see if we can arrange some Mcam X training. Are you still driving to RI for diving season? Gas prices alone would make me think twice.

mman10, quote: Do you guys still have GenElMec in Bpt CT as customers? Yes we are still honored to call Gen El Mec our customer. Dean's been quiet lately but I know he's busy keeping things in order. I remember a training class I conducted in Milford with him in it. It was a couple of years ago in Jan. or Feb. The last day of class it was sunny then blizzard then rainy then sunny then blizzard...

Jay aka cadcam, quote: Well there went your support.. Our Office Manager has said she's given up leaving messages at his company asking if they want to send anyone to our Transition to X class. I guess there's just no convincing some people. More and more of our customers are making the switch and eventually 3.82 will find himself falling behind. We have our sucess stories, like John Paris, to show those who are reluctant to use the new stuff. Now if we could only get chris m to jump on board.

Matt, quote: Use Unified back/depth buffer That's the setting that was neglected on the system you saw when you were here for Tech Day. I typically run through the systems in our training room but I must've missed that one. I thought I had mentioned the Unified/Back buffer to you as part of the explanation of why Backplot was doing that. Or I could've just thought I had mentioned it. I'm glad everything's worked out for you now.

Ralph S, quote: with out any MR's installed because toolpath generation is a factor of 10 slower with mr0105.. I found when using the MR's in V9 that surface toolpath generation was just the opposite of what you describe. Without the MR's the toolpath regen would take 10 times or more longer than with them. Can you upload any of the files you're working with to the FTP site? Are you working with the files on a local drive or server location? I've found that working with files that are saved locally is noticeably faster than with those that are located on a network drive. HTH

To All, Have you checked the System Configuration to make sure the switch "Restore entire toolpath data in File Open" is active on the Files topic page? That was what happened to me when I first updated to MR1. I couldn't understand why a file I had just saved moments before would open with every op needing regeneration. Until I checked that switch and then it made sense to me. HTH

John King, I would listen to Thad on this one. He makes an excellent point. The default deviation value may be too large to give you the result you're looking for when matching with the part tolerances. All, Thad's statement here is also correct: quote: BTW, converting splines to arcs is not the same as Edit-Simplify. They're 2 different features. Edit-Simplify is equivalent to V9's Modify-Convert to Arcs. It will only work if the original spline is nearly identical to a circle shape and can be redefined as a single arc with one radius. The best way to produce multiple arcs from a single spline is to use Edit-Trim/Break-Break many pieces in Mcam X. Use the deviation value and the lines/arcs button to replace the spline with multiple arcs. HTH

chris m, In fact I have experience turning parts in the past. I worked for at least two different shops where I was setting up and running regular CNC turret lathes. I was also trained on how to run a new Okuma-Howa dual VTL at one place but didn't run it because I would've had to work on 3rd shift on the Mazak Powermaster turret lathe for a few years before getting a shot at the O-H. Besides the 2nd shift guy kept breaking the tool touchoff probe ($25K each side) on that machine. quote: I sent Peter a picture of a CNC lathe and he sent back 'That's a really small Horizontal!' When was this? I think I would've recognized a simple CNC Lathe.

Guy, quote: I thought the white hasp didn't work in 'X' White HASP's will still work with Mcam X if it's a HASP 4. However I think the issue is that he's trying to activate a NetHASP when it clearly is a regular HASP. NetHASP's were never white, only red. Open the NetHASP X utility and select the HASP button instead of NetHASP for Sim Type. This should help.