Gentlemen Ill try that. Thank you

Hello all I cant seem to find a way to do a helical interpolation outside of a circle. say like cutting down a block to leave a cylinder or post in the middle of the block of stock i dont want to do depth cuts. just want it to H.I down as it cuts. i can do that with a manualy written sub program easy enough but how can i do it in mastercam X8? thank you

Oh, oh anybody know what this means exactly. I'd appreciate any help. Thanks

Well im liking x8 so far. fer sure was the easiest upgrade ive done since x3

I was having download trouble as well, so i started my download after 5pm, Bingo! lot less corp. traffic after 5pm

Thanks for the explanation Mr. Morris

Heres one we did for the massachusettes state police this year, this one is the test ball. does not have the high polish we put on the gift ball we give the customer

John that's pretty cool man, I had no idea that was possible. so the sphere is not even needed? or whats going on in the solids window? wow and just a simple contour? I had thought there would be a surface type dude, please explain this a little. you def know more that my local reseller, his attempt was nothing like this

I know thats pretty dang primitive, I need to learn more. But if i was using the A drive y-axis substitution i could use a longer than 2.9" graphic and get no distortion, that's what i need

Regular Guy, thank you for your offer to help here is how i am presently able to do "some" engraving on the ball. the artwork must be no more than about 2.9" or it will distort greatly, and it cant go to far in x, or same thing happens the shaft in the left side of the ball represents where the rotary a drive is. opposite from most machines because of the other special work this machine does it's never removed from the table So I rotate the ball 120 deg and then engrave something else, then one more rotation, one more engraving. that's about all i can do now EXAMPLE.zip

Hello all i have a vertical mill with an A drive and a solid 4" sphere mounted in it's centerline and i would like to use axis substitution of Y to engrave a few designs on it, all the way around it. Say like engraving it into a crude globe using a .062 ball mill to cut with how do i make that happen? im using x7 The machine is a VF3 haas vertical mill. does it matter if i use a solid or a surface for the sphere? if so why? i'm kinda new to mastercam and dont use it that often. not like the experienced members of this board any help would be appreciated Thank you

Roger 6 years ago i built a small machine shop to run for my new employers, an aircraft completion station. Haas did not recommend i bolt down anything. so i didn't we have all haas machines a vf2 vf3-yt a gr510 and one sl-30 and some manual machines and are needing to get another vf3. we cut 90% al with a little titanium and 316 and plastics as well. never had a moments trouble.

Thank you all for your replies

Hello all In my particular field i quite often need to leave a cosmetic pattern when i machine , oh say a large pocket laying down attractive tool marks for the customers is a good thing because they are often in plain view. so when i cut a pocket i have to manually go into the program and raise the tool to like z.1 when it travels across the pocket so the usually true spiral tool path is not cluttered with straight lines across it. is there anyway to have mastercam raise the tool before it travels across the pattern? i use retract between cuts on a solid , but cant find anything like that in the other tool paths Any help would be great Thank you

What would be a good one?