I use square points to do the tabs manually. Otherwise it will almost always put a tab on a corner or in a radius where it is hard to clean up if I leave the tabs connected as I do sometimes for small parts.

bump:

Gunther, I have been needing to ask, is the Rapid Fr box in inches or meters per minute? If I use the actual rapid in IPM of my machine it makes the time way low.

[ 02-03-2007, 06:06 PM: Message edited by: Tommy Dorgan from Standard Router ]

I have a job that I want the tab removal to post as a separate op and even though I check the box to do so it is not generating an operation to remove the tabs. What am I missing? Using X2 but never needed this option before.

RDOT

I can hook you up with cable pin outs if you need them. What control is it? What machine? I have setup many WinDNC setups as our routers used to have xxxxor controls prior to switching to Fanucs.

I just assigned a keystroke and programmed it to the left scroll.

Doesn't seem to work on my MX Revolution for some reason.

Trying to set buttons on my new mouse. For some reason the push to pan on the center wheel doesnt work so I thought I would set the left scroll to pan but can't find the keystroke.

As a dealer CNC Software sends me one big box that contains my new copy and a copy for each of my customers on maintenance. It is my job to deliver to the customer.

EX-FACTORY Not sure of the web address just google them. Just about any and everything there.

Mine is checked and I still get the error from time to time for some reason.

You guys need to check out Mozy. YOu can sign up and backup 2Gig online for free. That way your files are safe offsite. I have a free account for my database/server PC and a $4.95 a month account for my laptop that gives me a 30 gig offsite backup online. Works slick until I add emails to the backup and that takes forever for some reason.

I have actually slowed them down for setup sheet to get closer times..

It does not properly count Z moves any more for cycle times.

For instance, do a canned drill cycle for ten holes and backplot the cycle time and see how low it is.

Then do the same canned drill cycle for 100 holes and see how little it actually changes the cycle time. It seems it is counting the rapid time and not the actual drilling time to me.

The more Z movement you have in your programs the less accurate the time will be. If I do nothing but simple contours the time will be very accurate. If there is a lot of drilling or pocketing the times is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay off.

My problem is time. Our production shop is sooooooo busy that I am constantly crunching programs and managing flow. I have a 22yr. old kid who is a go getter and has turned down better pay to stay with me and learn. He is dying to learn to program and we bought him a copy of design to learn to draw on. I just don't have the free time to give to properly train him in Mcam and I need him to do some of the programming to lighten my load. I may have to send him to class at another dealer so he can get going.

All that said, if you find someone with the aptitude to learn and willingess to do so....grab them fast. I have let 2 go in the past 2 months because they did not have the drive to make it to work on time. Worked hard when they were here but you cannot schedule a shop around folks not showing up.

Glad to have you here Woody. Jump on in but keep a watch for the bird droppings.

Notice they won't give a price on that Radius 320. You have to fill out contact info and they will have a dealer contact you. I would like to just know what the cost of it is.

Edit: Finally found a site where someone had gotten the price. Only $15,995.00 and goes into production 1st quarter of 2007 if you want to get on the waiting list.

Now that is freakin' awesome!!!

Get your posts dialed in and let the software do the work. Manual pasting and editing eventualy results in errors.

Dan you've got mail

I am a former Edgecam user. My former company used it forever and it was a constant bug patch that caused new bugs. Started as Pathtrace when it was DOS based and became Edgecam when they went to Windows interface. I find Mastercam to be much more intuitive than Edgecam. The learning curve is way less and the post configuration is way easier with Mastercam. AND the main reason is the level of support you will get from Mastercam and the forum here.

Once you plug it in to pc you need to set the parameters on the com port it grabs to match your machine....baud, parity etc..

Under

# Optional Output Settings

stock_info: yes$ #Display stock material and size/location?

Then I have

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

# Format assignments

# --------------------------------------------------------------------------

fmt X 7 stck_ht$ #X - Stock Height

fmt Y 7 stck_wdth$ #Y - Stock Width

fmt Z 7 stck_thck$ #Z - Stock Thickness

fmt X 2 stck_x$ #X origin of block

fmt Y 2 stck_y$ #Y origin of block

fmt Z 2 stck_z$ #Z origin of block

fmt 2 stck_crnr$ #Origin corner of stock

In the header section I have

pheader$ #Call before start of file

pstock_info #Stock information output

Then further down I have this"

pstock_info #Output stock information if requested

if stock_info,

[

"MATERIAL TYPE = "

if stck_matl$ = "NONE" | stck_matl$ = "", "*NOT DEFINED*", e$ #No material type was selected

else, stck_matl$, e$

#" ", e$ # Blank line

]

if stock_info & tlplnno$ <= one, #ONLY if in TOP plane

[

#If any stock values are empty, disable don't output

if stck_ht$ > 0 & stck_wdth$ > 0 & stck_thck$ > 0,

[

"STOCK SIZE = ", stck_ht$, " ", stck_wdth$, " ", stck_thck$, e$

"STOCK ORIGIN = ", stck_x$, " ", stck_y$, " ", stck_z$, "(", *stknote, ")", e$

#" ", e$ # Blank line

]

]

Thanks John

Gunther,

You guys got the X+ for X2 ready yet?

It has become a valuable asset. I just wish the cycle times were more accurate out of Mastercam.

If there is a lot of drillling or pocketing the times can be 60% off slow. Just contouring time is very accurate.