You may want to do some timing tests on the P4 hardware. I just bought a P4 laptop - 1.7Ghz 512Meg ram - it runs slower than my 1.2Ghz Athlon. 1.2 Athlon - Leftover demo part -select all regen 2min 23 seconds 1.7 P4 3min 55 seconds I will be trying all the tweaks and tricks I can pull out of my black bag and will report after the weekend. Craig Madsen [email protected]

The Mastercam program only recognizes the 4 standard com ports. However, the CIMCO editor and DNC programs will recognize the others. I would suggest that if you need to communicate with more than 1 machine at a time that you contact your dealer or CIMCO (www.cimco.dk)or any other program you may like. Craig Madsen [email protected]

In general you can get away with spaces in directory names with any program if you include everything quotes. i.e. "c:program filesCustomer partsJob nofile name" Some programs will look at the first space and try to make the rest of the line into a filename - it won't succeed. Craig Madsen [email protected]

JM2C - - I am a dealer (in the SF Bay area) and this issue had popped up from time to time. A PDF File is useful for publishing, but, not for any highly detailed work. Imagine trying to make out the details of a 'D' or 'E' size print with hundreds of dimensions on a 8.5" x 11" piece of paper. I've had several customers call and send files with just that problem in the last year or so. One major problem is that you can not zoom in to get enough detail for the programmer to make out the values accurately. If your customers can make a PDF in their design software, I would assume they can make IGES, DXF, SAT, or Parasolid files with little additional effort. Craig Madsen [email protected]

On the tool paramter page, 'tool display' button, you may have a delay set there. Set it to 0.0, also you may want to select endpoints instead of interpolate. You could also have interpolate with a very small value. (.1 is the default) Craig Madsen CM3D CAM Systems

Something to consider - you will have to run at the lowest resolution to display this on a television. VCR capture is not designed for the resolution and refresh rates the typical video card is capable of. Craig Madsen

You could use the c-hook FLATSRF to flatten the surface. (ALT-C to run a chook) As an alternative, you may need to project curves onto the untrimmed surface and, in 'options' create surface curves. Then flatten the base surface and use the MAP c-hook to copy from the original to the flattened surface. This is usually pretty close but not perfect and sometimes requires swapping the UV direction or mirroring the result.

Copy your title block / sheet to mcam8MillMC8SamplesTitle Blockssheetas.mc8 This is the one loaded by the LAYOUT c-hook.

I believe that if you add a J0 to the offending line (N80) you will solve your problem. This is a common problem with many controls. They will 'fit' the arc to the endpoints unless forced to do otherwise. To simulate what the control goes through, draw points at -.9999,0 and .9999,0 and then create arcs endpoints with a 1.0 inch radius, using the points. When you analyze the arc center you will see a substantial error. This usually occurs with programs written using "R" values near 180 degrees. I will also occur if the control does not assume J0 for the unsupplied value. I've been here before - for years. Craig Madsen [email protected]

Actually, if I understand your problem, set the cutter comp values to 'off' for both 'comp in control' AND 'comp in computer'. This will drive the tool right on the contour within the tolerances you set on the same page. Craig Madsen

For Windows NT and Windows 2000 there is a way to control the amount of CPU time is given to a program. You are controlling the PRIORITY of a process. This involves editing the shortcut on your desktop (right click on the shortcut, select properties) and adding a short string in front of the existing text to start the program. In front of the 'target' string add: cmd /c start /low This will make the line look like: cmd /c start /low "C:MCAM8MILL8.EXE" This starts a command processor with low priority and launches Mastercam. The end result is that the OS (Windows) will give priority to other programs over Mastercam, but testing I've done indicates that Mastercam has ALMOST no change in speed. There is some measurable difference on large multisurface programs, but only a few seconds. This only works on NT and 2000, as far as I am aware. Craig Madsen Mastercam dealer

I would imagine that the dealer for Mainland China is NOT on Taiwan. There may be a dealer in Hong Kong.

I think the problem is due to the rs232 communications system having something left in the buffer to send. It is waiting for a signal from the machine to send the last couple of characters. You can test this by going to the machine and trying to read another program, I think the communications window will close at that time. If you use the CIMCO communications mode you can close the prgoram without using ctrl-alt-del. screen / config / start&exit / communications set to CimcoDNC ------------------