Wes, I can't find your email, so I couldn't send an attachment. I put it on the FTP under MC9 files as "B - 3802 - FINISH COUNTERBORED FACE". It's operation #3. If you need me to, send me an email and I will attach and send to you if that is easier. Henk, There is the crash, the program is wrong. I don't know why it put that in there. Like I said, if I do exact rotations of 360 degrees, it doesn't do that. Thanks both of you for the help!

Mayday, it's all hard coded programming, no cycles or labels. Here's a snipet of the program. 209 CC X+3.4913 Y+3.4913 210 CP IPA+180 Z-3.375 DR+ RL 211 CC X+3.4913 Y+3.4913 212 CP IPA+180 Z-3.4219 DR+ RL 213 CC X+3.4913 Y+3.4913 214 CP IPA+180 Z-3.4688 DR+ RL 215 CC X+3.4913 Y+3.4913 216 CP IPA+119.999 Z-3.5 DR+ RL 217 L X+3.0538 Y+4.2491 Z-3.5 RL 218 CC X+3.4913 Y+3.4913 219 C X+4.3663 Y+3.4913 DR+ RL 220 CC X+3.4913 Y+3.4913 221 C X+3.0538 Y+4.2491 DR+ RL 222 L X+3.4913 Y+3.4913 R0 223 L Z+5 R0 F MAX The 15 times max revolutions or 5400 degrees doesn't come into play at this point. I also do not see anyway to make the program retract before the last pass. This was a contour with the ramp functioned turned on. Henk, quote: IMO its no mastercam bug because the program runs ok on an 426 The program is definitely wrong. The 426 and 415 catch the problem and don't run where as the 430 flags an error in test run, but went ahead and tried to run in full sequence. I will look into the parameters of the control and see if I can't find something. I'm still trying to come up with a good reason for this, to me there should be no reason why this did what it did. If I make it even 360 degree revolutions it works correct, if I don't, the tool decides to flop out of the spindle. I'll keep looking into it and see if I can't come up with something better, but as of right now the machine will not run, because there is no way to hod a tool and the control will not allow it to run Thanks

Hi all, I had a little issue at work today and was wondering if anyone else has run into this. I programmed a a simple 1-3/4" diameter counterbore using a 1-1/2" XOMX style cutter that was 3-1/2" deep. I used cutter compensation in the control using a contour toolpath with the ramping function turned on. This was programmed to go on a machine with a Heidenhain Tnc 430 control. When it got to the point where it was to make final pass at depth, the cutter comp lost it's mind and it tried to take a cut at where it was comping wrong. At 48 IPM @ 3.50" deep, lets' just say stuff moved a bunch and other stuff broke a bunch. Well it looked great in verify, looked great in backplot, but it didn't look good in real time. I test ran it at the control after the fact and it came up with a "tool radius too large" error. That is totally understandable and I could see it in the program after the fact. The control in full sequence didn't put up a flag and stop, it tried to run and had catastrophic results. I tried the exact program on a Tnc 426 & Tnc 415 and the machines stopped like they were supposed to . Why the Tnc 430 didn't, I have no clue I programmed it to go .09375" per pass until it was 3-1/2" deep which was 37-1/3 revolutions. If I program it to go at .125" depth per revolution it comes out to 28 passes. I try running that on the control and it is fine. Basically an exact number of revolutions works fine, but revolutions that don't equal an equal 360 degrees I have a crash. What is causing this, a bug with mastercam? A post issue? Anyone have any ideas? Thanks

quote: You do makes some good points on all the other things that are needed to be able to run Mastercam or any other CAD/CAM software in your shop. One would have to have all these things set up before you could start training totally green CAD/CAM personel. Murlin, Not to argue your points, but what was I to do? I got a great opportunity to learn more things than I could have imagined. We didn't have anybody doing any offline programming to begin with so there was nothing that could have been set up or forseen in the first place. I got a wonderful opportunity to advance myself and make myself more valuable than I was, and I went into it head first. I read this entire forum from top to bottom, both at home and at work while learning Mcam and I still read every post every day, whether it is relevant to what I do or not, I read books, messed with demo, etc. quote: It was unfair of your boss to lay all that on you in the first place. It just shows his ignorance. I think that was the smartest thing he could have done. Instead of tying up a half a million to a million dollar machine with me programnming it on the the machines controller, I sit at a $2000 computer and make program to keep cycle times up instead of having program time at the machine. I feel proud that he thought I could handle the job at hand and gave me the opportunity to do so. He allowed me to get a computer based on recommendations learned here, let's me buy any and all tooling that would improve efficiency, sent me for training etc. I feel fortunate to be in the situation I am in and really do enjoy what I do (NOT the first few months though). Most importantly though, a HUGE THANKS to anyone that has posted on this forum. This is by far the most valuable tool that I know of and the laughs help the days when things aren't going quite right That's my 2 cents one more time

I don't think 3-6 weeks is out of line at all. It depends on what you call simple and what resources you have to work with. I am what I would consider a "skilled" machinist. I was at Mcam training for 2 weeks and came back to the shop and it was here you go, make this part. No one at this shop had any Mcam training. I have a generic post off of the cd that are machines don't like (and not sure if it is the post or me causing the problems). No tools defined in a library. Tools longer than some people's "Z" travel of there machines. A computer with a fresh install of Mastercam, crashes/video problems and all. My boss breathing down my neck. Models that won't convert into mastercam and here I am I am supposed to make a good "efficient" program from a desk environement right off the bat without crashing into clamps, the table the head of the machine, when the job is rotated at a funky angle, etc. STL models that won't verify without getting the "stl watertight blah blah blah" error. I don't think so. Simple to program and run at the machine, yes, from a desk with no experience, no. To many factors involved. There are alot of variables to what some would describe as a simple job. It's been 2 years and all I do now is program from an office and I still am learning tons of things each day. Sure I could make it look pretty on a screen, but in the real world? JM2C

Do you have copy source operations and posting disabled checked?

From 3 different manufacturers I am told anywhere from 20 minutes to 1-1/2 hour depending on the application. Lately we here have been trying to optimize speeds and feeds on our cutters to get 30 minutes of insert life. JM2C

# General Output Settings # -------------------------------------------------------------------------- spaces : 1 #No. of spaces to add between fields omitseq : no #Omit sequence no. seqmax : 99999 #Max. sequence no. arcoutput : 0 #0 = IJK, 1 = R no sign, 2 = R signed neg. over 180 arctype : 1 #Arc center 1=abs, 2=St-Ctr, 3=Ctr-St, 4=unsigned inc. do_full_arc : 0 #Allow full circle output? 0=no, 1=yes helix_arc : 2 #Support helix arc output, 0=no, 1=all planes, 2=XY plane only maxrad : 999 #Maximum arc radius breakarcs : 0 #Break arcs, 0 = no, 1 = quadrants, 2 = 180deg. max arcs force_wcs : no #Force WCS output at every toolchange? stagetool : 0 #0 = Do not pre-stage tools, 1 = Stage tools datum_style : 1 #Datum Shift style, 0=Tables, 1=Values tooltable : 1 #Call 'pwrtt' for pre-processing of tooltable cool_zmove : yes #Output coolant off with last move maxfeedpm : 100 #Limit for feed in inch/min maxfeedpm_m : 2540 #Limit for feed in mm/min use_gear : 0 #Output gear selection code, 0=no, 1=yes max_speed : 1600 #Maximum spindle speed min_speed : 6.9 #Minimum spindle speed zretr : 20 #Safety Z height - 0 for M92 style retract drillret : 1 #Full clearance retract moves during drilling, 0=no, 1=yes cycl32 : 0 #Output CYCL 32.0 tolerance cycle, 0=no, 1=yes eobchar : 0 #End of block '*' character, 0=no, 1=yes sm92 M #M92 retract string sextnc H # -------------------------------------------------------------------------- # Rotary Axis Settings Here is a section of my post showing where the .h extennsion is called out. HTH

You can change it in your post. Look for the line that says sextnc. Change the NC to an H, or you can change the parameter page when you post each time where it says NC extension.

I've got the 5950 on my box and it works like a charm.

Joe, Not sure this is the fastest way, but it saves me time when the engineers change the model. I will put my solid on one level and the wireframe on another. If i am doing toolpaths off of the wireframe, I just copy that particular bit of wireframe to a seperate level for each toolpath I do. I also do that with containments when working off of the solid also. This way, on all 2-d toolpaths they are not directly related to the original wireframe. Now if there is a problem with the original model, I pull in the new or revised one, change any chains that need be and repick my drive surfaces. Not perfect, but it works for me. Oh yeah, tell the engineers to draw it right the first time

spi, Get the solids add on for mcam. I wouldn't have it any other way. It'll pay for itself over and over again and your life will become much easier.

All my models come from inventor. Nor sure as to why you would want to get rid of the wireframe though. I put the solid on one level and the wireframe on another, that way it is there if I need it. With solids the model comes in good, but it is a "dumb" solid meaning it has no history tree.

Playing with new cutters all day and I miss a Heid thread. Anything Mayday or Snowman can't help you with Todd, feel free to email me or post it on the forum. All I program is Heid's here. 14 years on the floor and and 2 with Mcam. Like mayday suggested go with the conversational instead of the ISO format you posted here.

Hello all, I've got a question for anyone that has run into this situation. All of our horizontals are set up with the "z" axis being either the table or the column (depending on machine) and the "w" axis on all of our horizontals is the spindle axis. Well we are about to try a plunge roughing cutter on on a very large arbor, and the tool rep wants me to use the spindle ("w" axis) instead of the "z" axis. He also didn't want me to use a drilling cycle, so I drew lines that would allow me to do this and chained them and transformed them to get the desired toolpath I wanted. My question is how would you get the desired result from your post "cleanly"? Would a misc integer be the way to go so you can flop the "z" and "w" with a switch sorta? Do you folks always have the spindle as your drilling axis? (except this isn't a drilling operation, it is a 3d milling operation) What ways are being used and what's the general concensus on the proper way to do this? Thanks

Welcome Paul

gview > number > 8, if I understand correctly, that is the axonometric view.

kinglouie, I couldn't open it either, so I had one of our engineers open it in inventor 9 and save it, nothing else. I then opened it, named it plate and sent it back at ya. Do you want the .ipt in version 9 back also?

kinglouie, I open inventor 9 .ipt's all day long with no problems. However I can not open earlier versions anymore. If need be I just have the engineer's open an older version with inventor 9 and save it, then all is well. If you want, send me your inventor 9 .ipt and I will change it to an MC9 for you if all is well with your file.

Thanks Chris. That's the one I'll start messing around with.

We have an older retrofitted VTL that has live tooling on it. Which post off of the CD posts out proper feedrates when milling a profile using the C-axis. (control type doesn't matter to me at this point - just how the feedrates are approached) Just wondering what would be a good starting post for me to look into. Thanks all

Ok, another shameless Dapra plug here, but I am really starting to dig this manufacturer's tools. In the right application they are working well for us. Material - 1045 Cutter - 4" Square shoulder Speed - 629 RPM - 660 SFPM - machine shifts gears at 630 RPM and horsepower is lost, so this is where the machine makes maximum hosepower Feed - 65 IPM (.0128" fpt - 8 inserts) DOC - .166" 1" x 4" x 20 foot long had to have a 1/2" x 3-1/2" notch cut in them. The pictures don't do it justice, but the machine was removing 420 cubic inches of material in 13 minutes. I was impressed and just wanted to share.

quote: Its like a Woman. Visual stimulus always gets you interested, and once you learn how to use their keyboard, their shortcuts, chooks. ect the final output is what you where buying to begin with. remember oh sure after a while you dont like the the way some of the addins work but thats not what sold you on it. An hour later I'm still speechless and LMAO at that one. People keep looking up here and wondered what I smoked on the way to work.

Gregg, Create a new tool library in the future with your own specific tool parameters. (stepover, peck, speeds, feeds, rpm, etc.) Then when initially open mcam to start your next job under the toolpaths>job setup click on "use tools step, peck and coolant" and also under feed calculation check "from tool". Then program away using toold from the library you created and you will have no more of the quote: CLIck, CLick, CLick, CLick, Open, Close, Open, Close.......... Stand on your head, bark like a dog, baaa like a sheep, swing like a monkey..... HTH