I will freely admit that I stuck with V9 until I had a couple classes in X2. I never did much in X until I forced myself to work in X4. I really liked that and like X5 even better because you could then change colors on solid faces. Before that I would create an edge curve on the perimeter of the face and fill with a .003 crosshatch to create the color I wanted. After that I ended up in a shop that was using X3 because the company was transitioning to NX, They stopped the maintenance and thus ended the updates for Mastercam. The NX training was good until I heard the instructor say we could download posts from the Siemens website. The company had purchased 4 posts at 10K each from the reseller before telling us about the downloads. Since the posts they purchased were not setup correctly, I had to learn Post Builder to correct them

As little as I use M99, I just hand replace M30 with M99. If I wanted to do what you want, then I would make a copy of the post you are using, rename it, then edit peof$ #End of file for non-zero tool ptoolend$ comment$ n$, "M30", e$ mergesub$ clearsub$ mergeaux$ clearaux$ "%", e$ Change to this ; peof$ #End of file for non-zero tool ptoolend$ comment$ n$, "M99", e$ mergesub$ clearsub$ mergeaux$ clearaux$ "%", e$ Then to control usage, just use the M99 post with the same machine and control definition as the post you have been using

Can the Fanuc cycles simply be converted to OSP format?

Thank you. I have asked another programmer about this and his reply was " Why do you want the company to spend that kind of money? Why don't you hand code it?" He is somewhat anti Mastercam as he is a very talented macro variable programmer. I have had training from Renishaw on Mazak controls and that was essentially Fanuc structure. I find learning the OSP structure somewhat painful as I am working with an Okuma manual that has no structured tutorials that I can teach myself with effectively as there is hardly any open time in the Okuma as it is the busiest mill in the plant. I feel hands on is important learning machine related tasks.

I have found it works if you migrate them into X before kicking them to X4 or X5. As near as I can tell I had not problem migrating all my posts and other settings file to 2017. I also remember a V9 post did not work in X3 after migration so the work aroung was to copy most of the post and paste into a X level fanuc multi axis post. That worked very well on a 5 axis post. Remember pre X post were much bigger because with X, the files got smaller because component removed became the machine definition and the control definition in X versions

I am looking into getting the Productivity plus for Mastercam to eliminate the hand coding we do to use our Renishaw probe in our Okuma Millac horizontal with OSP-P200M control. As near as I can tell we call up pmod cycles for the probe and are not calling up subs like in Fanuc environment. Do we need anything to made the Mastercam package to work for us or is the scenario a nogo?

If you have a 32 bit computer, the max ram you can have in 32 bit world is 4gb max supported by Windows in 32 bit. Now if you have an integrated graphics adapter that draws from the system ram and that was a problem back in Windows XP. I got around it by getting a 2gb Nividia graphics adapter from pricewatch.com a few years ago. That gave more graphics power as well as giving the system back it's full RAM capability. If life was better in XP go back there . I have an old machine that I built about 10 years ago that has a 1gb Nidia in it but is maxed out with 2gb RAM . Running Windows 7 and bring my work sim to run a seat of X7 for emergencies. Not the fastest but no slouch either.

Is the actual centerline attribute not acceptable? I spent an entire afternoon trying to make this simple tool and I made more complicated tools than this one. My company is transitioning over to Siemans NX and so far it seems to have some great features along with all the complexities. I do not have the confidence to jump into programming in it yet just after basic mill and lathe training

Hello, I am currently working in X3 MU1 and am having hit or miss results creating custom profile endmills. I have looked at the files in Mill\Tools and have tried to create along the line of how these standard tools are drawn. I have tried to use custom file or custom layer when building tools in Tool Manager. When using Custom file, what geometry/criteria is needed to make it work? I have seen open profiles with no centerline, some with and without defining dimensions. Any help here is greatly appreciated

Thank you guys. I have a class lined up at my Mastercam reseller for Monday. 2D Mill to start.

Hi All, After happily using Mastercam 9.1 for over 6 years in my last 3 jobs (though not my choice)I will have to learn X4 to get employable again. For those of you who made the transition to the 1st X version you used, how difficult is the transition?

I purchased a Haas VF6 last year and got a Tsudakoma TRNC301 tilting rotary last year and we love it. We mostly do 5 axis drilling in Inconel sheet metal components. For milling ingots however, I would have pushed for Matsuura or Okuma. The Haas has been reliable for our application, but not at my previous position that had the Haas cutting inconel and shuddering the whole time. The owner brought in someone from our HFO and he asked what I thought of the machines. I said" I feel the machines are very friendly to operators and are a bang for the buck, but for cutting nickel steel, I would take that old Okuma 5VA over any Haas, any day of the week". His response was that most of their customers only cut brass or aluminum. Like someone else said, you get what you pay for, and I still feel Haas is worth what they cost

Is anyone familiar with the Trumpf TP 200 control to know if it will support parametric type programming? I am not finding anything in the programming manual.

Bostomatic(Charmilles) makes a nice sealed and vacuumed closed machining center I programmed a small one for 2 years and was very impressed. Very well made and inner workings well sealed from graphite contamination. Pricy, but thought to be worth it. I also looked at a Bridgeport VMC thatlooked nice and was about $150K with Fanuc control and vacuum

I have edited a post to work with a Trumpf 2d laser. I adapted from a post that was made for a Mazak laser that has a cool way of cutting circles. You select a point and the post supplies a machine based macro with the parametrics to cut the hole based on the dril size selected. Is there a way to put a macro into a post? Mastercam 9.1 SP2 MR304 Mill Level 3

To answer the question asked, I would say done right,3k - 9k.

I tried a demo version a few years ago while working on my degree. It was V7 and I was taking a course in ProE at the time. It is parametric which is powerful for revisions and significantly less intimidating than Unigraphics itself.It should still have UG import capabilty. I had worked through a couple of tutorials and thought it to be a strong tool. You do need to spend some time with it to give it a fair chance. Bear in mind it is in the same midrange class as Solidworks and Inventor.

Jeff, what software are you trying to convert for. I routinely draw in Mastercam 9 and export to Cadkey 19. The worst I see is font damage(minor) in Cadkey.

I had good service with SGS(?) Z -Carbs. They gave me the best tool life of several different we tried in the 2 Inconel 718 jobs I ran last year and this.

I found the MPOKUMA post off the CD was closest match for the OSP5000M-G controls we have, the MPOSP didn't come as close.

Mick, I believe that the issue with pre staging is the vintage of the control on that machine. I am sure that the same control on our 4VA(1989)does pre stage. I do not prog that one myself so I can only guess.

Most of the things you ask about like H0 to H01 I do in the editor( Cimco). I had modified the post to not pre stage tools as my 1985 Okuma 5VA would lock up. The post as supplied with Mastercam was very compatible for 3D and only pre staged in 2D. We have the OSP5000M on 2 machines and they are my favorites within a sea of Haas VFs.

The only place to set rapid feedrate I have seen in Ver. 9 is in the post questions in the post processor. I would imagine the same is true in X.

I personally feel that if you could just save your file, but not post any code, the Demo version would be more helpful for everyone. I had purchased a seat of Draft 9.0 when I was learning Mastercam and that was a big bite when unemployed. Because I could not save anything in Demo.

I had a college course with Inventor 7 last year. After having previous courses in MDT and Pro E I was impressed with it's slickness in modeling and detailing. Having to learn to model in Cadkey afterward was and still is a bummer after learning parametric.