John – I know I can use my ctrl keys in the main level line field, but that’s a lot of clicking back and forth. Normally, I can fill out the level lines in speedy time using my keys. Now, if I forget not only does it not work but also I have to click my way out of the error message. Btw – the ctrl c (copy) and the ctrl x (cut) works, it’s the paste (ctrl v) that brings on the stupid irritating error dialog box that instructs me to ‘report this error to my dealer’. quote: Also if you go into your WCS manager and click "Update graphics view when WCS changes" that will allow your double click view change. What I meant was that I used to double-click to set between my WCS! I would change my view or not change it (depending on what I was doing at the time) by checking the ‘Update graphics view’. Now what would be really slick is to have my ‘named’ WCS show up on the fly up toolbar in the lower right! Yes, I know I can click ‘named’ and open the dialog box, but it’s all about the mouse clicks. Okay – enough today – I have school tonight… ~Kathy

previous thread I tried to replace the mcpost.dll with an earlier version and no dice. Got an error on startup. So I’m stuck with the update. I have to edit all of my code files; I get the first operation comment for every operation posted. I use extensive comments for each and every operation – that’s just the way it’s done here – and the files need to be 100% correct and complete when they go out on the floor. PITA I’ve probably lost about 4 hours just this week alone on Mcam X transition. I’m starting to keep a running list of questions, bugs and comments in a word document. I was doing it on a scratch pad, but this way I can forward specific issues to CNC quality, my reseller and this forum. I hear everyone’s pain and understand the learning curve and transition to a new software release, but this is ridiculous. The new release is supposed to make my life easier. At best, I’m on edge just because sometimes I think I’ve set a setting somewhere and I didn’t click twice or whatever and it didn’t ‘take’. I’m trying to keep an open mind and not get frustrated, but wait till I get way backlogged again. My ‘customers’ don’t care a rats a** about loyalty to Mcam – they want me to get good programs out so we can make parts. There are two things nice about Mcam X. The smart zoom, the pan and I do like the interface. Oh – and I can now edit a value to 4 places and make it stick (i.e. change .0001 to 0.0 or 3.9999 to 4.0). That is wonderful, and one of my frustration with V9. -BUT- Issues from way back to V7 (my earliest Mcam) have still not been corrected. The instability of groups when editing entities contained within. The copying of entities when the field has a number larger than 1 and the function is set to MOVE. The Catia V4 translator. The ridge hierarchy of level names which makes data integration from other packages VERY cumbersome. The inability to input and document setup information integrated within Mastercam and independent of it’s posting mechanism. Not having an angle / rotation field for defining a WCS. Not being able to work between multiple window sessions of like parts. And on and on. I’m trying to get a handle on the WCS in Mcam X. It was so much easier in V9, and I use it probably 99% of the time. Really miss being able to double click my named WSC and go directly to that view. Really miss being able to use the ctrl c & v keys to copy and paste in the level manager. And on and on. ~Kathy

Bump - Okay, I'll wait until MR1 to have the Machine Group name to default to the .mcx part name. This is also a critical issue for us. Our NC files are named the same as the Mastercam file without a revision suffix. Or I might add a setup suffix A,B,C... .But one letter is easier to type than changing the whole group name. PLUS - the setup sheet will follow the .mcx part number revision – the number I have to type in by hand to match the Mastercam file name. Yes I know, blah, blah. But I would like to see Mastercam improvements (new software release) to be easier for us, not make life so much harder. BTW – we control what NC file runs on what machine by the ASCII file extension. .fad for Fadal and .kmo for Komo. Virtually foolproof and simple. ~Kathy

I’m back ‘playing’ in X and I programming real parts!!! One big problem - I couldn’t get my drafting text to show up. So I did a search across this forum for my video card (nvidid Quadro FX 1000), updated the drivers per bullines’s recommendation and still nothing. Well, at least I have current drivers… Man! So I went back to the forum, found this posting and again looked at my configuration settings. I needed to be checked with ‘Display – any view’. Right next to the geeking box. That did the trick! Has anyone else had this issue? Thought I was going crazy! ~Kathy

Goodness! ~Kathy

Multiple spindles on a CNC router (think Komo, Thermwood) can be labeled as additional axis. ~Kathy

Thanks John! I just happened to find it too. Time to get out of here - I'll have tomorrow to play with this too... ~Kathy

Okay - I have a new I want to swap out .set files ‘on the fly’ for troubleshooting. I open system configuration, Mill Setup Sheet and specify the .set file I want to use, save and close. Right click my Machine Group, ‘Setup Sheet’ and away it goes processing with my previously selected file. So I try the routine closing Mcam, reopening, new file, checking my settings, and still it wants to use the previous file. Is there some other place tagged for the .set file?? ~Kathy

500 levels is probably enough for anyone - BUT Can we do away with the dedicated forced level number and just add each new level by alpha – numeric??? ~Kathy the merging in of multiple file data sets and having to presort the level names to unused numbers is killing me. Oh - and it would be nice if the column width stayed consistent when opening up new files both in X and V9

Bump to Top I would also like to set the default to 'Move'. CNC - listening? Also - it would be very nice to only move a group ONCE irreguardless of the quanity entered in the # field. ~Kathy

I must have been 'Greeked' this morning. I've got about 9 dims I created this morning that are in dim-limbo-land! I can't delete them, much less edit. I had to write the file to V9, delete them there and re-read to X. Good thing I have time to play around today... ~Kathy

Thanks John - Looks like I get to spend some time tomorrow reading the book. It’s been so long since I’ve fooled with my html.set file – it’s relearning all over again. I still haven’t gotten my head around the machine group and file naming conventions for McamX operations… ~Kathy

Also Dave - (as I haven't yet read all the MastercamX Post Parameter Ref.pdf)what does the '$' mean? I noted the changes (in blue) from my V9 html.set to the VX html.set file. Thanks, Kathy

Too bad you're not located in MS! Than - I would be talking to you! BTW - Is Bryan Johnson the only rep from MLC CAD posting here? Anyone from the McComb office????? ~Kathy

Thanks Dave - The mods you posted worked - although it causes my html.set to create a .doc file. We may want to do away with the .html file and save the doc as a .pdf (that's in the future) anyway. Now - My 'operation' list prints out each step of the tool motion as single lines, and does not list each operation (operation) like V9 html.set does. Any suggestions? ~Kathy

Okay - I converted over my html .set setup sheet file. It seems to post okay, but dosn't create the .html 'finished' file! ~Kathy (finally getting around to play with 'X')

This is almost a vertical surface. Dosn’t have any radii or corner interference. I guess I'm looking for a yes or no answer - does a negative stock value work with flowline surfaces or not? Otherwise, it will be another Mastercam thing that I will not even consider using ‘cause it’s unreliable. ~Kathy

I am using a 'Lollypop' cutter - Dia. 1.00 ball w/ a dia .500 shaft. I am also using V9.1. No X yet. The C'Plane and the T'Plane is TOP. Thanks, Kathy

I have single surfaces I maching to for simi-finishing. The surfaces were created in Catia, and are offset from the finished wall. The last surface is .060 offset (fat). I tried to use a negative stock value,to modify my offset amountbut it wouldn't 'work'. I'm using flowline surfaces. Is this a Mastercam guirk?? So I had to re-import updated Catia surfaces to machine to. ~Kathy

Thad - I'm sure you're right. Bullines - That did the trick! Thanks again ~Kathy

Okay Bullines - I will give installing X a try. BTW - I'm still running Windows 2K, Service Pack 4. (I was just going by the description in the window when I did my file search) And Mike - silly me - I don't know what I was thinking! It is V9.1. It's been a lovely first day back from vacation Thank you both ~Kathy

I started to install X by first installing DiretX 9.0c. Now, V9.2 will not run: "cannot load c:winntsystem32mclstctl.ocx" wich is a DirectX file. BTW, the file is in the directory. Now - I am in a world of hurt.... ~Kathy

paull Are the Catia files from an outside customer, or do you have in-house Catia capability? Ask your customer to save the 2D Draw space as .dxf or .dwg. That is the only way to access the 'drafting' data. This is true for V5 also. Remember - the data is very different from 3D Space and 2D Draw. The 2D draw entities are only a 'picture' projection of the model, and there isn't a real backwards association to the model. Catia V5 can write to .stp, .igs, or .stl. That is how we plan to access Caita V5 3D space models. Soon, we will be moving over to V5 - that will be nice! THAN - I can dump the (very flawed) CNC Catia translator!! YEA!!!!!!! ~Kathy

Catia V4 has two basic 'view modes' - the '3D Space' views and the '2D Draw' view. The concept is to model your solid / surface model in '3D Space', and create the drafting views from the model in '2D Draw'. Both view models should co-exist in the same .model file. This way you mantain the associativity between the two views. The Catia translators will convert the data active in the 3D Space view - including points, lines, arcs, curves, surfaces, (Catia) solids. In Catia, you can save the 2D Draw view as a .dwg / .dxf. That file should be usable as is. hth ~Kathy next lesson - Catia V4 environments...

The issues magnified over time… We came to a standoff about the end of last summer. In addition to him refusing to come to work on time, I got upset because he, once again, ignored the schedule I gave him and parts didn’t get programmed on time. His solution? To convince our boss that he would work much better if he could set his own schedule. Okay Fine! I gave the whole ball of wax over to him and became a full time designer. It was (Kathy speaking veeery nicely) ‘Sorry – I can’t take care of your job – you’ll have to talk to ---- He’s responsible now‘ ‘I’m sorry you can’t make your schedule – I don’t know what else to tell you’ ‘I’m sorry it’s wrong – you’ll have to wait till he gets in to fix it’ ad nausea… That lasted till the first of the year. Three more months for the change over back to become official. The real ugly part was that he wrote an email to which he stated: (words to the effect – I don’t have it in front of me) ‘the old girl needs to get out of my way so I can put the world on fire here’. Not very complimentary to say the least. You don’t suppose that he thought, after that, that I was going to bend over backwards for him did he? I’m not real comfortable airing this publicly – hope it doesn’t come around to bite me. And I did my best to act professional about the whole thing. But it did leave a bad taste in my mouth. He did mention that he had registered for this forum. He mentioned one day that he had been chatting with James M. and indicated that they had some kind of understanding; like he had found out some secrets about me. Maybe it was just a weird intuition on my part when he mentioned it to me. So if he did registered here, he is using a handle cause I haven’t found his real name here after doing a search. The really sad part of it was is that he had the talent if only he could have gotten his attitude under control. Because I’m convinced that he left still not understanding what went wrong. ~Kathy