You guys honestly don't think thats a reasonable expectation? To be able to bring in a model, assign an origin, calculate speeds and feeds, and apply simple 2D contour, face and drill toolpaths? After a whole semester?

I started my MC class after about 15 years in manufacturing and there were others in my class who had no experience. So your audience is going to be pretty wide spread. That being said, My instructor spent waaayyy to much time on geometry creation and never once went over how to bring a pre existing model in assign it an orgin. I think that is what most of us do on a daily basis. I would at least start with existing models. At the end of the class I could apply a 2-D path to a part but for the others in the class they had no guidance on how to figure out speeds and feeds, lead in and out, or even order of operations. The instructor also never covered any clamping, fixturing or workholding of any sort. The instructor relied soley on study guides. That may be alright for introducing a feature but any one who can read can hunt and peck and input that info. My thinking is... expect your student to know nothing of manufacturing and by the end of the class you should be willing to turn over YOUR shop to them with no guidance.

We just got our invoice for our mastercam maintenance. There is a charge for "multi-axis annual maintenance". Is this refering to 3D machining or 4th and 5th axis stuff.

Thanks guys! The fast forward button that I have been looking at way back from 7 and have never used is exactly what I've been looking for.

Can I run a few ops in "turbo" and then run a few ops in "simulate tool" from one session of verify? Instead of selecting a few ops, running them in verify, saving the .stl, closing verify, selecting the other ops opening verify loading the .stl and then running in "simulate tool"?

Who is the manufacturer of the collector?

That aint no shop vac!

Beleive it or not, we use a shop vac as a dust collector when we cut graphite. They wear out about once a year but thats a pretty cheap alternative to a Torit system. We have a Torit but it needs a filter and they are crazy expensive. At least they were the last time I checked. The boss is tired of buying shop vacs though. I'd like to know what you guys are using.

We need a gear rack fast. Does anyone know where to find a 2M 20 degree gear rack at least 325mm long by 20 x 20. If its bigger, I can cut it down. I can find plenty SAE but hardly any metric. Nobody at least that has them in stock. Any ideas?

We use both, but I like the keyless better. The best ones are integrated. I have had a keyless chuck on a seperate base run out, but I have never had an integrated one run out.

Is it "Use group and Result color in Xform"?

I have been using Troy's method to get rid of the group. I tried using Colin's method and it didn't work for me. I would rather have it default and not have to delete groups. I tried Settings >> Configuration >> Colors, and where group colors is I tried entity and group and both come in red.

Just got my new 3D Connexion Space Navigator and I'm getting used to it. It seems to me though when using "pick rotational center",It does not use the selected point for "roll". Is there a setting I'm missing? In addition it would be nice to use this selected point to be a selected point for zoom. I went to the 3D Connexion and asked this on thier forum and the reply they gave was..."The support for 3D Mice in Mastercam was developed by the application editors, not 3Dconnexion. In these cases, we suggest customers to send the request to application editor Customer Editor." Who at CNC software would that be? Or does anyone have a solution?

Is it possible to use the analyze function to determine the angle of draft between two surfaces? Thanks!!

It's refering back to the parameters you have set up on that tool. Go back to the tool parameters and change your rough Z step there.

When I changed it to 5 it did change th model in the wireframe state. But when it displays as a solid it looks choppy.

Same, maybe its my graphics card. Made it in solidworks and it looked good, saved it as a .x_t brought it into mcx and it looked like crap. Wait, I think that would mean its a MC problem, Oh well, thanks for your help. I'll just worry about if it cuts the part that way.

It was set at 60. changed it to 1 and regened, no change.Changed it to 100, regened, no change?

I dont use solids much, but I made a chain, create-solids-revolved it. The model looks very choppy/more like a polygon than a cylinder. is there a setting somewhere to improve it. If I leave it this way just for speed of modeling purposes and apply a toopath to it will it cut the part with the same chop or will it be nice and smooth?

OK here's my fix. On my lead in/out I had the line set to zero I was just using the arc. I set the line to .01 and left my arc settings alone and it worked. Thanks to all.

contour the lead in/out starts from the center of the hole. the arc is set to .05 and the sweep is set to 180

the sweep is set at 180

do you mean the lead in lead out parameters?

version 2.15

I use basic on my older hurco and it doesn't have a problem with it.