You might take a look in the misc button in the toolpath. The post we use has a selection to force the a axis positive, negative, or let the post decide.

Not sure in Win7, but in XP, open up windows explorer, then under tools select folder options. Go to file types and scroll down to the extention file type you want x5 to open. You will have to delete this and create a new file type and assiqn it to open with X5.

Anyone know what program might open file with the extension .draw? These are vector files that PC Dmis uses for model of out CMM.

Try running ram saver. I find this clears up a lot of anomilies like this.

I have noticed sometimes functions that would stop working as well. Running ram saver usually clears these up for me.

We have a post for our Makino horizontals with 5 axis tables that output the same code as what you are using. No problems here.

I have this in all of my posts just before each tool change. Simple post edit. Since it is optional, there is no harm in it being there.

I'm in.

You may need to go into windows explorer, chose tools, folder options, file types and add or delete the file associations.

Our 2 makinos are set up as G43 H1 D1

Dell Precision T7400 Intel Xeon X5260 @ 3.33GHz 4 Gb Ram Nvidia Quadro FX 4600 712 meg video card Windows XP Pro Mcam X4 MU3 Vericut 7.0.3 Dual 22" Dell flat screens Benchmark file regened in 2 min 20 sec. Verify in about 5 minutes if I bumped the Moves/refresh up to 15. I have had this system for about 2 1/2 years. Is there any thing I can look at that might speed things up?

You can also set this in your toolpath defaults.

Just had 5 big jobs here. 7075 hand forged blocks, some weighing as much as 1100 lbs. Parts weigh about 12 lbs finished. 1st 4 went pretty well, not too much trouble with part movement. The last one has turned out to be a nightmare. It has turned as James calls it, a potato chip. Sometimes things just don't go the way managers want them to.

We just got caught between a rock and a hard place and didn't get started soon enough on 5 pretty good size helicopter parts, 3 of which started out as 1000+ pound hand forged 7075 blocks and wind up at less than 12 pounds. Lots of deep pockets, small corner radii and open and closed angle surfaces.

Done for today. Damn I'm tired.

In today working on an 80 hour week. Anyone else working today?

We have the same setup here on a couple of makino's. We had a post modified to prompt us when posting for which pallet we were using. It then looks at the axis limits set for each pallet to make sure we don't over travel the pallet with the 5th axis, and also adds the appropriate M code that checks to make sure the correct pallet is in the machine.

You can also set your filter settings to output arcs in xy, this seems to help me the most. A lot less code for the machine to read, and speeds up vericut as well. Also makes a much smaller stl file size.

Actually got in touch with our local dealer, MLC-Cad systems, here in the DFW area. Jeff fixed me up and seems to be working fine. Can't say enough good things about the guy, he can make these posts do whatever I need them to do. Thanks for all of your responces.

When I program a drilling operation with say a half second of dwell, my post will output this as P.5 when what I really need is P500 with no decimal points. This is for a couple of Makino horizontals, an A82 and A51, both with 5 axis tables on 1 pallet with Pro5 controls. Can someone tell me what I would need to change in my post to get this output, as the P.5 will alarm the machine? Using X4mu3.

Haven't done it yet. Got swamped with some rather large projects that have to be finished up first. Kinda tuff to get loose for training when you're the only 5 axis guy in a small shop.

Check you filter settings. If you check the boxes for outputting arcs in XY, it will verify much faster. Then depending on what kind of code you machine processes better, you can turn them back off. If these are unchecked you get a lot of point to point moves which verify a lot slower than arc moves.

I have this happen to me sometimes as well. Running ramsaver usually clears it up.

I have seen this a lot as well. Sometimes verify shows a crash when at the machine there is no crash, sometimes no crash in verify and a crash at the machine. It seems to me that verify doesn't show the true kenitics of the machine. We use Vericut here to verify what realy happens at the machine. When I see this happen in verify, I will just run my ops separately and save as an stl file to verify the next op to work around this.

Just got the word yesterday that we will be receiving new workstations soon and will start implementing Catia V5 manufacturing to start the transition to programming in Catia V5. We are not a large shop but are part of a much larger corp. The majority of our work is aluminum aerospace structural components. Lots of 5 axis work that is run on Makino horizontals equipped with 5 axis rotary tables along with a Haas VF6SS with a TR210 5 axis trunnion table. Our parts will be getting larger and more complex in the future. Up till now, all of my programming experience has been with Mcam starting with V7 up to X4sp3. We use the Moldplus catia translator to import catia files into Mcam. Just wondering if any of you out there have experience with Catia V5 and have any words of wisdom, advise, or caution about what we are about to embark on here in the near future.