yeah, I got an idea for you. Get another CAM pakage. All problems solved

Well my suggestion is to tell your set-up guys to suck it up and live with wear compensation. It's alot easier for everyone anyways to use wear.

I miss alot of things about my old CAM software. You won't exactly get to like not being able to do things the way you used to, but you do adapt......eventually..... after years of frustration.

Hi Mike, Yes I am using tool holders in X5. I always use them in fact. I have had similar tool changing problems when ever I change the holder after calculating a toolpath, but I had realized this already and would check things over accordingly. My big problem is that recently they are just changing at what I perceive to be as a random occurence.

Very useful. Thanks

Yeah its great and all putting little notes and stuff in, which is something I do all the time, but in order for that to work you would need to have an operator that either: A - Can read english B - Actually cares Most of the guys here are a 1 or the other, and in some cases both. Things go wrong, they just shrug their sholders and say.... " duh me dunno what happened, go ask programmer " Now I am not placing any blame here because at the end of the day it's my program and I take responsibility for it. I do the best I can but when random stuff like this happens, what am I supposed to do?

Perhaps I am not explaining myself properly. When I say that MC is changing the tool numbers, what I mean is that it is replacing the tool I had programmed the toolpath with, with another tool already in my tool list, but it is keeping the cutter path calculated with the original tool. ie. I programmed with T14 - 1/8 Endmill and it replaces it with T25 - 3/8 Ballnose

Thanks Rick, but my post already gives a tool list at the begining of the programs. Doesn't really help me much when there are 15 or 20 tools and 30 or 40 different toolpaths in a single program. You could call me lazy I guess, but I just don't have the time to sit down and go through every single posted program to make sure that everything is in order. Call me crazy, but thats the way it is.

Sorry, no we haven't upgraded to X6 yet. Managment is still a little leery about the whole thing. I am still using X5

Ok, I posted this in another topic to gripe mostly, but this really does irritate me because it has happened a few times now. Had something weird happen to me recently. I had to change something in a toolpath, and after I accepted it, a number of totally unrelated toolpaths went dirty. Ok says I, and just recalculated them. Well unknown to me, aside from recaclculating them, they also changed the tool number for those particular toolpaths. So when I posted the whole thing out they had the numbers all wrong, and I totally scrapped the part because it obviously used the wrong tool for those particular paths. When I went back into MC and rooted through them all I found the problem. Why the heck would MC do this ?? Anybody have a clue as to why this would happen, and better yet, how can I avoid this in the future?

Had something weird happen to me recently. I had to change something in a toolpath, and after I accepted it, a number of totally unrelated toolpaths went dirty. Ok says I, and just recalculated them. Well unknown to me, aside from recaclculating them, they also changed the tool number for those particular toolpaths. So when I posted the whole thing out they had the numbers all wrong, and I totally scrapped the part because it obviously used the wrong tool for those particular paths. When I went back into MC and rooted through them all I found the problem. Why the heck would MC do this ??

Drive?? Hell I walked there it was so close

Same thing happened to a few of us here awhile back. We never did figure out what happened, but it drove us crazy.

While it may only be a few vocal users that are posting their complaints, try to look at it from a broader perspective. Quite a few people read this forum without actually making comments of their own, and if they see nothing but complaints from long term users, what kind of message do you think they are coming away with? Probably not a good one I would imagine.

Sorry, but I am still stuck using XP

I would love to know how you can get anything to work with all those different programs running. Your taskbar looks like it's packed !

Then you need to get out more often.

If it wasn't developed in house, then they bought it outright, therefore they hold all the rights and responsibilites for it.

5 years ? Buddy I was a Powermill/Powershape user for over 12 years before I had to take a Mastercam job, and I can tell you that MC is at least 10 years behind, if not more. Stock model machining is a joke when compared to how PM does it, and the 3D paths are so clumsy it's not even funny. The only way MC out shines PM is in their 2D HSM paths. But to be honest, if you know what your doing in Powermill, then you can easily obtain very similar results for 2D work. And if anyone says that they prefer drilling in MC over PM, then I am willing to bet that they are lying.

Totally agree, for simple 2D stuff Mastercam rocks, but when it comes to anything approching 3D and even most 5 axis stuff, it can't hold a candle to most other other packages available.

Believe me buddy, it will save you alot more than 1 single hour a day once you get used to it.

Thats right, you tell em Neurosis. In time one of two things will happen.... they will either finally listen to you and fix the problems.... or you will die of old age , so you won't have to worry about it anymore, and they won't have to listen to it, and therefore continue on as normal. My bet is on old age.

I 2nd that motion. It would be nice to have something like that in MC. I won't bother saying else, as I am sure you all know what I would say anyways

Sorry but no, I can't reproduce. It's completely random. That's the most frustrating thing about it.