After all the bitching, moaning, and venting by various members, I was hoping that Metacut and/or Mastercam would reply. The gentleman from Metacut responded with what seems to be an honest accounting of the chronology of how his product came to be introduced in the manner it was. He also freely acknowledged the problems that arose, outlined how they would hopefully be avoided in the future, and gave a sincere apology for any inconvenience. CNC software did the same. I find this attitude toward business refreshing, (and all too rare!) and in my dealings with CNC software, I believe it reflects the same path Mastercam has taken to try to keep it's customers happy, it's software superior to the competition, and strive to offer an even better product for the future. That said, lets give these guys a break. Try to keep things in perspective, after all, the software didn't melt your computer, ruin a priceless heirloom, or reach out of your monitor, tear off your arm and beat you over the head with it. Done with my own BMV'n! Romer

Brent, Just out of curiousity, what is wrong with the Mastercam backplot and time estimation? For the parts we run, I have found the times to be reasonably accurate and you can tweak the parameters a little in your post to suit your liking. romer

Your welcome, Glad I could help. Romer

I believe bit5 of parameter 1201 controls what you are describing. Turning it on will change the display immediately, off it won't until the next block reading is performed. I run a Kitamura with a 16I (Man what a SWEET machine) and personally I leave it off. I just switch to MDI, punch in the work offset, hit run and have it update the coordinates. The new work offset is modal until you hit reset and then it defaults to G54. I believe that can be changed but I don't know which parameter is responsible. I can check at work tomorrow and see if I can find out. Romer

Jim, I've always been a little confused by this function. It has never seemed to work the way my dealer explained it. I've found that it uses the last created operation (as evidenced by it being highlighted in the ops manager) as the default parameters and any other selected operations which have common parameters are those that will be modified. For example, if you pick an operation that was NOT the last one created, along with any others, and then modify the parameters, the tool, etc. will change to the last created operation - even though it was not chosen to be modified. If I am missing something or doing something wrong, please anybody enlighten me. Otherwise, I hope this helps. Romer

That is just the info I was looking for. Thank you Dave. Romer

That is already done, what I am refering to is the comments in the operation parameters for sub programs. There doesn't seem to be a parameter for any given line of the .NCI file for the output. I should have been more specific. Thanks anyway, Romer

Is there a way to output the comments that are entered in the Transform Operations Parameters to the post processor? Thanks, Romer

Is there a way to modify the post to allow one to pick the numbering of the sub programs that are output? Thanks, Romer

I too, would like to see this function added to Mastercam. The previous cam package I used not only has this ability but a nice little graphical interface to show you what it will look like as you change it instead of have to backplot, modify, backplot, etc.. V10 perhaps, PDG? romer

Thanks for the leads, guys. Cadcam, [How small a tool are you looking for over there] Various sizes, .250 to .750 [at Simon Bros?] Who? I think you have me confused with someone else. [And does it need to be a lollipop sir?] I need the shank smaller than the cutter dia. to try to pocket a reverse conic section (smaller dia. on top) from top side if possible. I am trying to do this with 3 axis only. Cadcam, everytime I see "sir", I look check to make sure I'm not reading my father's e-mail! No need to be so formal. Thanks, romer [ 01-25-2002: Message edited by: romer ]

Does anyone have a source for "lollipop" end mills similar to what is defined in the Big TL tool library? Also, for any custom shaped end mills that a user defines, can someone suggest a good source. Thanks, Romer

I thought I might be trying to find the meaning of something that wasn't there. Thanks for all the help. Romer Some people can read WAR and PEACE and think it a simple adventure story while others can read a Bazooka Joe bubble gum wrapper and unlock the secrets of the universe. - Lex Luther

Dave, Thank you, everything makes sense except for "Run on sentence. A short one to compensate." I'm a little lost on those comments. Or am I trying to read too much into it? Romer

Simtech, Thank you for your response, that explanation does help. Dave, Why would resetting the value to -9999 be preferable to forcing the update using !or*. romer

Thank you for your help guys. The use of the ~ is something I've read about in the post book but it didn't dawn on me to try. It told me what I was looking for. I will use that more often in the future. Thanks for pointing that out James. As to my second question, I have not found anything that references the sav_var that I see used in posts. Can anyone shed some light? Thanks, Romer

Since numeric variables are modal and the post won't output unless prv_var and var are different, if an update is not forced, how can you determine exactly when it is updated using the debugging tools? (I hope that makes sense). Also, when a post line uses the statement: sav_var=var such as in the line sav_coolant=coolant what exactly is the post writer trying to accomplish? Thank you for any help, Romer

James, I didn't think leaving it on all the time would be the best thing at this point since we are still playing with the accell-decell parameters and there may be other cycles where it would be better to have it turned off, but you bring up a good point about the booleans. I think the integers is the way to go. Thanks for your input. romer

I am modifying my post to allow for toggling on and off of the high speed look ahead funtion in the controller. I have found that I can get the results I want by using misc. integers or canned text functions. Is there any reason to use one instead of the other or is it just a matter of personal preference? Thanks for any input, romer

I would like to have the work offsets output in my Mill8.1 setup sheets. I can get the text output in the .set file easy enough, but I can't seem to come up with the proper structure to output the offsets from the nci file. Any hints, clues or outright step by step answers would be greatly appreciated. romer

I am using 8.1.1 and after doing a search I came up with a couple of posts that asked this, with no solution. http://www.emastercam.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000968.html The only way I can get the "Create additional finish operation" checkbox on the pocketing parameters tab to work properly is to create the toolpath by picking Main menu> Toolpaths> Pocket. If I create the toolpath by right clicking in the Ops manager, the checkbox is always greyed out regardless of whether or not it is a new toolpath. Also, depending on whether it was used in a previous toolpath on the part, the greyed out box may be checked, which will create another toolpath that you may or may not want. A bit of bug to address? Or am I missing something? Thanks, romer

When using the Tool Plane window to select the origin or work offset for a different tool on the same workpiece, an annoying warning window pops up reminding me it has already been assigned. Is there a way to supress this? I am using V8.1. I did a search, but couldn't find anything in past threads. romer

Is there a way to add your own custom symbols to the drafting/note/symbols chart? Thanks, romer

That did the trick. Thank you. However, now I am curious as to how I can change the default from "-1" to "0". Would there be any reason not to? Changing in the defaults.df8 using operations manager did not make a difference. I also had a chance to try V7 mpfan from dealer that worked fine but no sub-progam support. Comparing the "pwcs" parts of the post processor, they are written differently but I can't figure the specific logic statement that would cause one to work fine with "-1" and the other not to. Any additional help would be appreciated.

James, I assume you are refering to the tool plane/construction plane dialog box that is accessed from the tool parameters window. That is what I'm doing. Is there some other way to change work offsets in V8?