I agree with the above statement. Mastercam Lathe and MT products were intended for stock to be setup and without doing so I would guess it would be much more difficult to have successful results. If you really dislike seeing the animation as toolpaths process, simply go to the Toolpath parameters tab under lathe toolpaths and uncheck a box called "Tool Display". This allows the toolpath to generate without the animation process. Not something I personally use often other than Dynamic Lathe paths.

if you double click into the graphg double clicking in the graphics area will also end your selection, saving the right click.

On a side note make sure you have a customer name in the Customer field otherwise this setup sheet will not load. just something I noticed but its a very good setup sheet.

This is awesome Dave! Thanks a bunch for sharing it. I like the way you have it setup.

Tips and tricks: Shift select geometry = selects entire chain and any geometry connected to selected geometry. Alt Select points through geometry = holding alt and selecting points turns on Vector selection, which selects anything the vector crosses Alt + E = activates screen hide function, to use select what you want to keep on screen and hit alt E, anything not selected disappears and repeat function and geo will return Find overlap = a chook found under settings run user applications which is good for files with poor geometry and overlapping geometry Importing and exporting toolpaths = this saves time, you can import and export operations by right clicking in the toolpath manager window Edit common parameters = ever want to turn all coolant on for every operation or some other common setting change, to use this select all operations you want to be effected and right click in the toolpath manager window, go to edit selected operations --> common parameters Viewsheets = useful for any complex part using lots of operations (located under view --> viewsheets in X9, or settings viewsheets x8 and prior) Dynamic X-form = once you fully understand this xform function its difficult to live without, this tool can simplify the way you move and rotate geometry. temp center points = handy for finding centers, hover mouse over two locations when creating geometry or when using x form tools and Mastercam will display a center point between the two location's. quick masks = left click for a quick mask selection, right click for a select only function. these are just a few that I find helpful from time to time. those are the ones I use most!

I may not be completely understanding this question but ill try to help anyways. Perhaps you can go into backplot, and while backplotting hit the save toolpath motion button which will save all the motion of the toolpath to a specified level where you can then apply dimensions and / or then use the analyze contour function under analyze to have it spit out all endpoint and arc center locations. if I am understanding the question correctly this would be fast and easy.

The threadmill toolpath would be used, located under toolpaths, circle paths. if its a multi-start you can setup one toolpath, copy the operation and change the start angle. So lets say perhaps its a 4 start thread, you would have 4 toolpaths, 1 starting at 0° the next at 90°, and incrementing 90° from there to get the other starts. Hope this helps. also with all of thhe mastercam circle paths i personally find its easier to chain a point, not an arc, as it will open op the Dia field located under cut paramaters and allows easier manipulation of the size and doesnt lock you down to the arc size.

I was able to get almost all arc moves. Go into filter settings, set total tolerance to .0001, then check the line arc filter settings as well as create arcs in XY XZ and YZ check boxes, Then set cut tolerance percentage to 15. This produced almost all arc motion and looks much cleaner.

maybe if its a propriety part you can just re-create something simple and similar in a separate file and share that one. That way you can keep your non disclosure agreements yet still provide us some kind of similar example to review. I made a simple quick video recently for plunge milling here: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/94415403/Customer%20Support/Champion%20Company/PlungeMilling.mp4, not sure if that helps but the depths worked well in the video.

Lots of choices avalable, my absolute favorite mouse is a Madcats M.O.U.S.9, love this thing, I think it ran me about 100 buckers. http://store.madcatz.com/platforms/mac/Mad-Catz-MOUS-9.html ​

Grabcad.com​ 3dcontentcentral.com Search those locations, I would bet you will easily find many variations.

I cant speak much about inventor because i am not a user, but one thing Inventor does not have that solidworks does have, is Mastercam For solidworks! and its a FREE add in if you already have a mastercam license on maintenance so in my opinion go with Solidworks over inventor, you then get the best of both worlds all in one simple file! Powerful CAD from Solidworks and Powerful CAM from Mastercam. As a Solidworks and also a Mastercam user I absolutely love that I can do both in just one file, and the toolpath associativity is Killer, meaning you change the model, the toolpaths change as well. That's my 2 cents, hope it helps

I may have a solution to both questions. For the dynamic question, you are looking for a check box called "set as wcs", Check that box and it will become the active WCS, Tool and Construction Planes. For the second question if you go to settings --> Customize and look under options, you should find a check box to make the icons larger which may help some.

Yea bud, if you can give some details and we can give more help. Material being cut, tooling, machine limitations, process anything helps but we would be guessing so much with what you have told us. I can think of a handful of ways to cut a part like the one in the picture but I cant make any recommendations with just a picture.

I am also a big fan of wear, however i may have another solution. I cant recall if X5 has the option, but if you want to turn on comp above the hole, cut the hole then retract out prior to turning comp back off you can do so with a check box located on the lead in/out page. Look for 2 check boxes on the lead in/out page. The check boxes are called Plunge after first move and retract after last move. This allows comp to be turned on above the feature and off above the feature.

Hmm that is Odd, if what i reccomended previously did not work, you could try settings --> customize and if you look in the upper right there is a reset button you could try. If that still doesnt fix the problem contact your Mastercam Reseller and they should be able to help you through.

Good morning and welcome to the forums. Firstly, if your able to update to X9, do so immediately because it blows x5 out of the water. Unfortunately i can not remember where in x5 the chaining tolerance is located but when you are chaining there should be a button (in x9 its an exclamation (!) mark) and when you go into the chaining options you should see a chaining tolerance. This chaining tolerance controls the maximum distance permissible between endpoints. Simply loosen the tolerance and you may be able to chain the geo much more easily. If you can not find that chaining tolerance in that location then go into settings configuration and it will be somewhere in there called chaining tolerance. I hope this helps! EDIT: also what Myth mentioned above is also a good idea, to be more specific, hit alt+C on the keyboard and look for a find overlap, then hit ctrl+a and then enter. Then hit "cleanup"

I may not be understanding the question entirely but i will share how i handle Rast2Vec results, Set Rast2vec to fine lines and arcs and make sure accuracy is on fine when you producce the geo. When the geo has been produced i change the geo to a thin Line width and place it on a seperate level. I then re-draw most of the geo using a 3 point arc and lines (both snapping to the existing geo). Place as many 3 point arcs first using a bold line width which you can easily see on top of the rast2vec geo since that geo was thin width, after you get all the arcs in place you can start placing some lines on screen. Then just turn off the rast2vec level and start trimming the liens and arcs to one another and applying fillits elsewhere. The last step is to scale the drawing, I personally create a bounding box rectangle about my geometry and measure the longest distance, then I X-form Scale with the a simple math problem, the scale factor should be a/b=scale factor with a=size you want it to be b=current size. It may be more work than you were hoping for however i can get very smooth geometry and its actually very easy to accomplish. The 3 point arc does a great job with creating clean arcs and replacing the Choppy areas.

You can choose to print with that info, when you go to print, simply check the screen information check box and the gnomen will show up. If the large crosshairs show up you can turn them off with f9 as others have mentioned and simply do the altf9 as other have also mentioned. This sounds like what you need. \ I just tested what i have described above and its pretty simple to get just the small gnomen to print without seeing the large lines on screen, just make sure when in the print screen (x9) you check the screen information box and it will include the gnomen and scale.

Oh, I guess i overlooked the finishing options. Good call Colin i see your point. I'm a big fan of finishing my parts with different tools than what was used to rough but i guess if you are using the same tool that would be easier than using 2 toolpaths. and on a side note, using air regions we can get dynamic to plunge into a pre-drilled hole with ease, so C-bores are simple as well

wow people still use Circle Mill. I mean its there but you don't have to use it. Dynamic does it way better, get with the times people!

From my experience i find the Triangular Mesh path is one of my least favorite multi-axis paths. Its still a good path so i am not bashing it but I almost always lean toward the Morph between curve path. its applied very similarly to the triangular mesh you already have but you will just need to create a loop of edge curves on the top profile and a loop of edge curves on the bottom profile. The morph is a pretty Praised after toolpath though that has a lot of popularity for its ease of use and great results.

i think your on your own with these opinions because X9 has been thus far my favorite release to date. With each release I see improvements in some area so if you are seeing the problems you have described its probably time to contact your reseller to see if there is problems elsewhere, either with the computer or with the users. Best regards,

Just kidding but in all seriousness i have seen this problem before where when you hit file --> open to open up a different file, it will ask you to save your file if any changes were made, and if you try to open a new file thinking thats what its asking you will replace the file you are looking to open. Make sure you read if its file open or file save because even if you say file open if somethings changes mastercam will ask if you want to save the old file before opening the new. Hope this helps.

I once knew someone who had the same problem, it boiled down to liking the packers and they had to fire him...