Thanks everybody for your input. I have checked the filter settings and it is set for 100" so thats probably not the issue. As I have further investigate it seems as though this may be a visual issue only with the BackPlot feature. We resurected our old NC Polaris software and duplicated the wirepath. The posted file is identical, with identical values for the IJ codes and other stuff. So now I'm not sure there is a problem at all except for the way the Backplot feature depicts this. Strange though, because changing the radius segment size from 23.281" to 18" or 12" and Backplot looks perfect. If we use Cimco Edit for the verify function rather than MC Backplot is ther a way to keep the "geometry to be cut" on the screen while the verify runs its course, similar to Backplot? Sory so long winded Tom..

MasterCam ver 9.1 Fanuc WEDM Machines (Fanuc a1iA / 18i-W machines) Is there a setting in MasterCam Wire that tells it to ignore a large rad and cut a straight line instead? I have a shape with an arc segment radius of 23.281" and when posted it generates a wirepath straight across from point to point. But when I cut a similar shape with a smaller 10.00" Rad segment it works fine. Can this be an error in our custom post? Thanks Tom..

That would be my Son Tom jr. How do you know Tom??

Can somebody please tell me how to uninstall MCU. Somehow the MCU evaluation version of the program has attached itself to the operations manager, and also adds stuff to my nc file. Although the MCU may have some very helpful and timesaving functions. I do not want it at this time. I noticed it also added a toolbar icon. If anybody can please help me uninstall all of it and return MC back to its original state I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks in advance, Tom...

I had this problem in ver9.0Sp1 and now in 9.1 for mill. After saving a new group of drilling operations to my Op library I have found that some (not all) of the previously saved groups have had their operations order changed. I have carefully examined and adjusted the operations order in all my groups. Then at some point a few days later after creating and saving some new ones I noticed the order had changed in one that was previously correct. So I re-examined all of them again and found several that were changed. Normally we can just sort prior to posting but not always. We prefer to “get ops from library” and run! I was hoping other users have seen this and have a solution they can share. Tom...

Well I just installed V9.1 for Mill and so far so good. I updated my post with the utility, opened up a series of test files, posted them all, did file compares, No change! I’ve been waiting for the opportunity to see what I can do with VB Script. There are a couple of utilities I would like to create having to do with filtering. We import complex Autocad drawings into Mastercam where hundreds of circles have been “hole charted” and are identified with letters A1,A2,B1,B2 etc… Many are the same color and diameter but have different machining requirements as specified in the hole-chart. I need to create a utility that will locate specific holes based on the letter identifier nearest the hole and add them to a selection set to apply saved operations to. We did this very nicely with our old NC software utilizing Auto-lisp. I have a VB programmer on staff and he’s ready to jump right in, but I want to be prepared before I spin his wheels. Can anybody suggest any appropriate books or ref materials that will give our VB guy a heads up when writing Mastercam VB scripts? Thanks for your help, Sorry this is so long-winded! Tom…….

Thanks, good idea

Thanks Surface, but we are using those values. They control how deep for each peck cut, but not the retract distance for clearing the chips.

Greg, we have a Fadal VMC. I don't think it will do what yours does

Thanks, I've tried that, but then is it never retracts within the G83 cycle to clear the chips out of the deep hole!!

Being relatively new to Mastercam I’m stumped with what may be a pretty basic task. I have a milling and drilling repair job that already has a boat-load of 3” dp counter-bored holes in a large steel plate. I need to c-bore all of the holes ½ deeper. I’m using a G83 cycle My “Retract” height is set to .1 above the stock to clear chips out of the hole as it pecks My “Depth” is set to –3.5” for the new c-bore depth My “Top of stock” height is –2.9 This is how I thought it should work! Cutter rapids down inside of hole to top of stock value then cuts using the peck value Cutter rapids up out of hole to retract value to clear chips Cutter rapids back to previous cut depth minus peck clearance and cuts again Repeats this until done!! The problem I’m having is the tool doesn’t rapid down in between cuts. It starts it peck cycle at top of stock 0,0. This results in cutting air for 75% of the hole depth. Could this possibly be a post issue? Or am I doing something wrong in Mastercam? By the way, when I mill pockets the top of stock value works properly. It’s just drilling that’s broke! Thanks for your help Tom…

Thanks Byron, I'll try the link. I guess it was Mastercam's intent for most users to move the geometry to 0,0 prior to toolpathing, therefore the checkbox is unchecked by default. Although it would be nice if they added this to Mastercam’s cfg. File. Thanks for the help, Tom…

In Mastercam Mill V9.0 When “getting operations from library” a dialog box pops up for me to select the operations, there is also a check box to “Assign current system tool and construction planes” I always check this to make sure my Tplane origin remains where I set it because most of the time my Tplane origin is not the WCS 0,0 Does anybody know how to make this check box to be always checked by default ? Thanks again for your help Tom……

Typically I have many details (tooling components) geometry on the screen at the same time, an exploded assembly drawing for example! I hide all details but a few that I need for reference while I work. When its time to do a hardcopy I can “Hide” everything I don’t want to print, then “fit to screen” zoom, then “Hardcopy” print to fit on letter or 11x17, but then I have to un-hide everything and then re-hide my original hidden stuff to be back where I was prior to printing… Is there a way to simply change the scale to “fit” when plotting? This way I can just use a window selection. When I go thru the Plot menu’s “Chg Params” it brings up the “Plotting (Windows) Parameters” dialog box. I can input a scale but I don’t know what scale it should be to “fit” so I select the “setup” button and go into my printers “properties” and select the “Scale to Fit” option there. When I hit “Do it” the plot is still 1:1 scale. Am I doing something wrong? If I get this to work is there a way to save the “fit” option as default? I never need a scale plot, but I do need it to fit the paper. Thanks, Tom…

Thank you for your response Pete, In response to your advise, we have been using our own custom tool library and Post for a while now and they are set as default in the cfg file. It was while we were building our tool library that we came across this issue. If I understand you correctly, the cycles available in the tool library are generic, while the cycles available in MC are Post specific. This makes sense and certainly supports my findings, but I would think this should be an “out of the box” installed configuration and that if a user creates his own tool library while a custom post is current, the library’s tool parameters would reflect any cycles that are specific to that post! In my case here is a simple scenario. I get a tool from any library, make edits to the params (select cycle # 10), I save the MC9 file and all is fine. Then I go to “Job Setup” and hit the “Tools” button. It shows me all the tools in use for that job! Then I highlight a tool and RB “Save to library”. At this point I fully expect the cycle chosen for the job to be saved with the tool in our custom library. Isn’t that what a custom library is for? Mastercam does not warn me that it will assign its own cycle, or that the one I think is being saved is actually lost. Don’t misunderstand me, I think by and large Mastercam is a great product it certainly runs circles around our old nc software, but back to my original issue, How can I fix this? Once our library is complete there will be little if any editing of tools from that point foreword. Are there not placeholders in the tool library database for the cycle name and parameter values? Is it possible to manually edit our custom tool library by saving it as text and then plugging cycle 9 or 10 into it with its params values? Then I would re-create the library from text. Thanks, Tom…….