Thanks guys!! I got way more posts than I expected.. I was guessing about one week to do simple tasks from start to finish. But I wanted a confirmation. The issue is we have been using Mastercam for about 5 years on various machines. We have one person who still doesn't get it. He has trouble with simple tasks. Like a rectangle with a hole grid and maybe a little pocket. He can read drawings, go to a mill and make the part, but the xfer to MC is difficult for him. We do mostly one off, or at most 10 parts. Some are complex and would be difficult to make by hand.. Mastercam has been great for this. At this stage it takes most of the guys less time to make the drawing, set up the machining and make the part on the cnc than by hand.. Again thank you for all the replies..

What do I tell the 'boss' who asks what the average learning time to do simple (drill a couple of holes and maybe a pocket) Mastercam projects. This would be for a skilled machinist with some computer skills.. no cad/cam however..

It worked just fine.. Thanks to all!!!

I am trying to put a groove in to a 8x4x1 inch piece of material. The groove is on the centerline of the 8 in axis. it's 9/16 and I am using a 1/2 end mill. Mastercam 8.1 stops the tool with the edge of the tool at the edge of the material. So the groove does not go from end to end. It' like this (------) I need it to go all the way off the material. I've tried a pocket, surface and everything else. It won't just make a pass and cut the groove. I'm new with Mcam so maybe I'm not using the right 'operation'.

I had that problem with w98, but not ME or w2k. I uninstalled and reloaded ver 8.1 and all was well. shutting off programs did not help me. It only died when I did a File operation.. Save or Get or anything in the FILE area. The error was a page-fault.

Is there a way to fill in the fonts for printing? I want to put notes on the drawing but don't like the 'empty' fonts. I make front panels(one off)for electronic equipment and use a mill to cut all the funny shaped holes for sockets, meters and such.