I have always used MC4SW, never the stand alone version. There have been many suggestions on this informative forum where someone might say, " Oh, that is a perfect case for 2d Swept or Ruled". Since it might be something similar to what I am working on, I say " sweet, problem solved". I go to my MC4SW and breathe a big sigh as the version I am using doesn't support those tool paths. Oh well, back to the drawing board to figure another way of doing it. LeoC

Thanks for the hard work. I also use your tap DB and it works awesome. LeoC

Thanks for the replies. LeoC

When choosing a tool holder for checking for collision, there are a huge variety of tool holders listed but where do these numbers come from? Is there a catalog I can check so I know which ones I should be using? LeoC

If you absolutely have to figure it out on your own, perhaps take a look at this training guide: http://www.emastercam.com/board/store/product/891-mastercam-x9-multiaxis-essentials-training-tutorial/ . It might help to get you started in the right direction. Good luck. LeoC

My 2 cents would be to actually rotate the part and use a simple contour with a bull nose end mill and then do the one fillet with the appropriate sized corner rounding end mill. A contour cut would be much faster than using a ball end mill to hog that all out and then surface finish it with another ball end mill. Yes, you would have to rotate it again to do the simple pocket but should be much faster than surface machining everything. LeoC

I get that a lot when copying and pasting tool paths with MC4SW. It is extremely annoying. I haven't found a work around for it. Leo

Is this combination working yet? I am close to making a purchase of a new mouse. LeoC

Thanks for the feed back folks. It gives us something to investigate further.

We are a Haas shop and we have started prototyping some things that are for optical use. We all know that the Haas isn't the best machine for that kind of use so I looked around a little and see that Makino as a nice machine called the Iq300. Anyone have any idea of ball park price for one of these before I contact a sales rep? Is it like a $250k-350k machine? Thanks.

Does anyone know if the tool path editor is available for MC4SW? When I right click on the operation, I do not see that option anywhere.

Update: I was able to find some special drills called Plexipoint from this company: http://www.wlfuller.com/html/plexi-point.html . They were extremely helpful and would recommend them.

I am in need of a 1/16 diameter drill for drilling acrylic through a block that is 2.5 inches thick. And to make it even more interesting, the block has 96 of these holes. We do not have a coolant through the spindle either. Does anyone have any suggestions for a source of drills with the optimal 60 degree point? I checked Onsrud's website and they don't make anything smaller than 1/8 inch. Our local tool grinder can't sharpen anything smaller than 1/8 diameter. Thanks for any suggestions in advance.

I have this problem quite a few times. I am using Solidworks 2014 and have been using MC4SW with X6, 7 and now 8. It will also get a dirty operation at times if you add a sketch independent of what was used in a toolpath. Then you go back and hit regen on it, and most of the time, it will rechain correctly, other times have to go in and flip the arrows.

Thanks for doing that, that is really helpful.

Thanks! I'll check into those. They look like they would work very well.

Hi: We do a lot of product development work here, changes everyday. One of the last jobs I had involved drilling some .0035 diameter holes. The drill shank was 1mm so I used a ER16 collet holder. It worked really well for the job but upon releasing the drill from the holder, the shock of that nut opening broke the tip off right away. Perhaps I have overtightened the nut, wasn't Superman tight. It was a "balanced" Accupro Cat40 tool holder with the same brand of collet purchased from MSC. Can someone recommend a better system for very delicate small tools like this? Or maybe a better procedure for locking the nut? Thanks.

I have Mastercam for Solidworks and when I open it, there is nothing there. When opening the file, it gives me a warning about how this was created in the educational version. So sorry, I can't help either.

Awesome, thanks for doing this.

if you go to Harvey's website, they now have .dxf files available for most of their tools so you can create a custom tool fairly easy now.

This sounds like a nice tool to have access to, but it seems since I am using MCAM4SW, it doesn't have that option, or am I looking in the wrong place?

Will there be a beta for X8 for Solidworks version soon?