Does anyone have an issue with using "Curve on all edges" with mcam 2024? "Curve one edge" works fine but when I use "Curve on all edges" I don't get any geometry. Ugh!

I most always use a 3/4" V7 end mill from YG-1 to rough out our molds. Using the parameters of 700 sfm, 10% step overs at 121 IPM. But with this same endmill, I ended up going to 250 sfm with 50% step overs at 26 IPM. This took a little longer but the end mill looked great after 3 hours of cutting.

Hi Ron, I talked to the casting house and their process seemed sound. They shot blasted the scale after tempering. We did send out the raw molds to get annealed again. Got the rockwel C down to 20, but we may have shot ourselves in the foot to do that as the scale wasn't blasted after this. I ended up using a 2" high feed face mill cutter from Kennametal to get rid of most of the skin with SFM of 450 and this got me some good tool life. I then used a 3/4" endmill to rest machine. But I had to decrease SFM on this endmill to 250 to get any good tool life. Thanks for your input Ron!

I programmed a huge mold made out of cast H13 and I'm finding no success with tool life. 20 minutes and tool is done. I programmed a similar mold a few years ago with the same parameters with no problem. Tooling lasted 2 hours minimum. Does anyone have any thoughts what I can do to improve my tool life? It just seems like I'm dealing with a very difficult scale. Cam

Got it now and works great. Thanks David!!

Just switched to Mastercam 2024. On previous versions, I found that the add-in "ShowChainGeometry.dll" was a very useful tool. After migration, it doesn't appear. Does any one know how to get this add-in to 2024?

Has anybody used the "Change Recognition" in the file menu? How does this actually work? Will it actually replace the original working model with the new deviated model and only dirty the deviated operations pertained to the changes on the model?

Thanks for all the input! Looks like I'm doing the same as you guys. I just didn't want to be left out of the loop and not be programming with the best methods. Ron, I watched all your "Ron week" videos. This is what actually sparked me to ask the question of what everyone else was doing. By the way, great job on those videos!

Hi all, Toolpath generation based on constructed wireframe from the model is what I've been doing for years. But obviously just using the the solid is a faster way of programming. My concern is if I would use the solid for the tool paths and then we have a deviation of the part and am given a new model, I would loose all the paths and redo it. By using my wireframe, I can just simply correct the deviation with a few geometry clicks. Am I wrong on thinking this? I just would like to see what everyone else is doing out there.

I now have changed and saved my defaults. Thanks guys! I can't believe I have never used this before.

Why is the "RAPID RETRACT" option disabled by default? I'm thinking this should be changed to an option of FEED RETRACT. I need to check this box on every tool path on every program. At the very least, please put it in the config settings for a default! Mastercam, please expand the holders menu to the right! There is sooo much room there and I'm tired of expanding the menu with custom labeled holders! The 3rd and last wish (for now) would be that the coolant commands would be an option in the config. Why do I need to change this every time if I use the same material and tools?

We almost exclusively machine aluminum (both castings and billet) the YG-1 Dream drills are our first choice. But for any holes with a positional tolerance tighter than .003", we go to the more expensive Walter Titex. The Dream drills tend to wander more than Titex, More so in billet because of the grain structure.

I got the same thing when I installed 2020. I updated my video driver that had open CL 1.2 and all was fine.

I just copy the 2019 Mastercam.Workspace file in CONFIG and move to the 2020 and overwrite.

Hi Gunther. What if we're not using a NetHasp? In my case, using two individual hasp seats. Will it be 400 euro per hasp?

Just curious. Why would you want to conventional mill a thread?

Lucas, Decrease your depth cuts by .001" incrementally from your current setting. If that doesn't do it, keep decreasing in .001" increments. If the tangencies in your toolpath are complex, Mastercam will output the best it can in its algorithm. I found by slightly adjusting the depth cuts can give you the desired path. There are a lot of tolerances that Mastercam toolpaths look at to construct the final path. For example, the settings in your config. So you might just have to over come those tolerances to get your desired path.

I make a lot of moulds and the below filter settings have given me good results. These are in inches. I use these settings for all my surface machining tool paths. If anyone else has a better method, I would love to hear it. Leaving .020 stock. Total tolerance at .005. Cut tol. at 49. Line/Arc at 51. No smoothing. (Don't really need it as it's at +.020 stock and takes more time to process) Leaving .007 stock. Total tolerance at .0035. Cut tol. at 20. Line/Arc at 40. Smoothing at 40. Enable "Shift Points Along Toolpath" Leaving 0 - .002 stock. Total tolerance at .0005. Cut tol. at 10. Line/Arc at 20. Smoothing at 70. Enable "Shift Points Along Toolpath"

Orvie, Thanks for the Link! I've watched the video now and see huge benefits. I also do a lot mould programming. Multi-axis software is definitely in my near future.

Wow! Sure sounds like I've been missing out. Looks like I'll dive in and make the upgrade. Thanks a lot for the answers guys!

Hello all. I program 3+2 machines regularly but I don't have the Multi-axis option with Mastercam. I don't need to have all 5 axis simultaneous motions. My question is, could I benefit with using the tool paths, only available with the multi-axis option, on 3+2 programming? Is it worth the upgrade?

Colin, You did an excellent job on describing in detail how to go about this. Very easy for me to follow. Thanks for your teachings sensei!! Very much appreciated!! I can't wait to try it out on 2019 version. Cam

Hi Colin. Now you hooked me into asking you what the "Transition" function does. It sounds like some kind of magical button. Maybe you have talked about it in an earlier post. If so, let me know and I will search. I don't want you taking more time than you need teaching us idiots. lol.

Thanks for this information Colin! Years ago I made "print screen" snap shots of all pages of all my CD's and each new version of MC I installed, had to compare and change. We have 30+ machines and had to do this for every one as they all have their own little differences. As you can imagine, this took some time. You will save me oodles of time for every next new release!! Thanks again!

I hope I'm not jinxing myself by stating this, but since I started this thread and complained about several crashes, I haven't had one crash since. Crossing my fingers.