Well that blows... The drawing was obviously done in SW or Inventor, so why wouldn't they change the model to directly update the print? Isn't that one of the huge benefits to using parametric modeling programs?

I want to get everyone's feedback on this issue. I was given a project, a one off, of a large aluminum ring (34" OD). This was delivered to me from another shop which had already done the turning work. My job is to mill out some notches that blend in with the OD. The other shop is a manual-only shop, so they work from prints. I requested a solid model, which I programmed from. I realize something isn't right, so I investigate. The prints show an OD 0.100" larger than the model. Everything else on the model is correct. Does this happen often? How do you handle errors between print/model? Does one supersede the other?

I will try it out. I've ran into some jobs recently where Gwizard was a bit high on it's SFM, even on the lowest setting. I got chatter and tool wear and had to slow it down as much as 80%. This could be due to my machine and tool not being rigid enough. I mean, I am running HS toolpaths on a dinosaur. I'll compare your program to Gwizard cut for cut and let you know what I think.

I've been using this for a couple years now. It's fantastic. I downloaded HSM advisor because of this thread and decided to give it a shot. It feels a little... clunky. Well, when it's compared to Gwizard anyways. So, I stopped playing with it. I'll give it another honest shot after I'm done with the run I'm on.

whenever i try to close mastercam it asks to confirm i want to close. i click cancel, save again, then close.

Our maintenance package expired. I'd like to use x8 and see the what's new files before we consider upgrading. This is a smaller company, and I can make x7 do everything we need. I'll have to pitch the upgrade if it's going to fly. (Just to give you an idea, we upgraded from x2 to x7 when I got here, and that was only because I convinced them to build a new machine that was 64bit)

You could always make a polyurethane mold for them out of aluminum. http://www.smooth-on.com/ sells smaller quantities of polyurethane rubber.

Corsair M80 mouse on the right, space pilot on the left.

looks decent to me. some may suggest more RAM, or the next step up on video card, but unless you're dealing with insanely large files, that should work nicely.

Thanks Thad and Cjep. That worked perfectly.

So, I've been having this issue with X7 and been too lazy to do anything about it. X7 keeps defaulting to a tool library that has no tools in it. So, anytime I want to start a new file, i have to go in and select a different tool library. I've tried changing the configuration file to point to a different library, but after I shut down X7 it resets. Any Ideas? In a related issue, I've tried changing my default file locations and it ALWAYS resets after I restart X7.

I've machined a housing for a large diesel turbo charger before that was ductile, but I can't be much help. I know I used an indexable carbide endmill and i hit it pretty low and slow... it seemed to machine just fine.

just ran across this little gem. design for casting mold of a handle. all drawn in mastercam. AND... I did this after only a few weeks experience with mastercam, so I think it does say something for how easy to use the CAD engine is. still, solidworks would have made it faster and more efficiently. Thank god I never had any revisions to make...

Complete 12 cavity mold design in Mastercam. This is 1 of 3 MUDD inserts, all producing similar parts of different size. Can I draw it in Mastercam? Obviously, yes. Does it take me 8 hours to revise the model and 2D prints if there is a change? Definitely, yes. I can draw anything in Mastercam. I might have to use surfaces, but it's quite capable. Using Solidworks would have cut my drawing time by about 70%, and my revision time by about 95%. However, we do not do enough design work to justify the extra expense as of yet. *crosses fingers*

don't do it. it's a trap. you'll be stuck here. you will bookmark at least, but might even set as your homepage...

at one point in time i heard about a retina mouse, which basically put the cursor anywhere your eyes were looking. i'd definitely use that.

it's not necessarily any specific gesture that causes the discomfort. it's gravity. hold your hands out in front of you for 10 seconds. no big deal. hold your hands out in front of you for 8 hours.... gorilla arms. extended touch screen use should be restricted to screens that have a horizontal orientation. maybe you could pull it off if you were leaning back in a chair, and your monitor was raised up, but tilted down toward you? this device looks amazing, and i think could be really useful, but they will have to deal with the ergonomics before it's practical to use in the professional world.

that is perfect! exactly what i needed thank you many times over.

solids have to be on separate layers, and you can shut those off in the middle of a selection. annoying, because all that geometry was being used for the same model, so i had it on the same layer. I moved all the tool bodies to another layer and it worked. definitely a workaround. this should be fixed.

nope. masking gets disabled as soon as it's time to select the tool body solids. really, mastercam should ignore the plate, as it's already selected as my target, and would never then be selected as my tool. this should be fixed. any other ideas?

Working on an injection mold design. I'm trying to boolean remove some cores to create a cavity in my A plate. The problem is the cores are inside the plate, and they share a flush face. I cannot select the solids on the inside. I've ran into this many times before, but surely there is a better way to fix it than redraw every core so it protrudes out of the target solid. Help?

Thank you! That's perfect!

Just wanted to mention that the post I am using was originally from version 8 or 9, i think. I found old disks laying around that had the post on it. I'm sure it needs updated. I also read that you can compensate for slower processors by programming in the unit of measure that the machine's ball screws are set to. The machine we use has metric ball screws, so if this programming tip is correct, I need to be sending metric G-code to the machine. I'm going to try some highspeed toolpaths in metric. (i understand the theory behind this one, but i doubt it's going to help. I'm betting that conversion of units is not something that gets handled by the main processor.)

Z2go I_GOT_A_FEVER_AND_THE_ONLY_PRESCRIPTION_IS_MORE_G03_MOVES.Z2G

hmm... that's not true. i don't even see a generic fanuc post. i'm going to have to investigate this...