@Jay "..but you need the Fire GL and Fire pro series not the standard ATI" --- I'm not sure what you mean. It was a FirePro V7800. But at this point... Anyone want to buy a nice workstation class video card :-) http://www.ebay.com/itm/160672991098?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649 I really liked that it's smaller, quieter and runs cooler that other cards with the same performance. Running cooler is an important issue for me, since it gets up to 105° outside, for months at a time. Mike

Adding edge curves to a solid is getting to be a waste of time. It's much easier to machine right off the solid. Especially if your using the 2D HST toolpaths. It's very rare that I need to create edge curves anymore. Mike Mattera

Yep! I got one of those too. Mike Mattera

You didn't get a new version of Key Creator, did you? That might be an issue. Or maybe it was reinstalled and now it's outputting a newer version of parasolid. Mike Mattera

ATI Card Update: I give up. There were some weird problems with the ATI when I did Verify. All these big crazy triangles would flash across the screen. Bought myself a nice Workstation FX5800 and all is good now. The down side: The NVidia is just a little louder. Not much, but a little. It's a LOT hotter. I can tell that my office gets a lot warmer now. So there's the update. NVidia wins again. Mike

mc7 = 1997/1998 - WOW! Seems like Yesterday a long time ago. Mike

The con for all of those is that they are a subscription service. They all expire. Consider this... http://www.tipsformanufacturing.com You buy'em, You own'em, They never expire. Mike

There will always be times you'll need some wireframe geometry. For those times you can... Create - Curves - One edge or All edges. But most of the time you should be able to machine right off the solid model. It really is a better way to go. Mike Mattera

Shops develop standards and it's really had to change them you have a file cabinet fill of "historical" programs. I'll give you a weird one... The first shop I programmed in, we programmed the Mills in Absolute and the Lathes in Incremental. I dont know who came up with that rule, but it was the "standard" in the shop and there was NO changing it. I loved it when an operator would come into the programming dept and say "every time I make a part, it gets .001" smaller". And we would ask "did you change the program?". Sure enough he took off .001, but didn't add it somewhere else. and every time he made a if got smaller. Mike Mattera

When I first started programming in 1979, we used IPR for everything. It makes it easy to change the RPM% Override dial and not overload the tool. When I went to work for Anilam and realized that their retrofit control had no feedback from the spindle, I thought it was really strange. Had to use IPM. After writing postprocessors for 25 years, It seems like everyone uses IPM. In that time, I've probably only written 5 mill posts that use IPR. But if it were my shop I would use IPR. Because it is all about chip load, isn't it? Mike Mattera

CNC Software Video Training Developer (MastercamU) and Beta Tester. Mike Mattera

This is a nice system. Just posted my benchmark times (1:09) in the Benchmark thread. Having Win7 has allowed me to install my audio capture card (M-Audio 192) and now I can record 2 guitar channels and a MIDI guitar Synth channel all at the same time. No latency problems. I've run a bunch of small Mastercam projects on it with no problems either. I'm using the same flat screens and I think my graphics look a little crisper on one. The other flat screen is on it's way out. But I've got 2 new screens arriving this week (24" 1920x1080). The thing I hate about getting any new computer is the installations. Install the Video capture software, video editing, graphics editing, digital audio capture, CODEC's, Database, Email/Email lists, Browser bookmarks, calender, AntiVirus, getting it on the network, mapping drives, etc... Not to mention installing and configuring X3, X4 and X5. Everything is running SWEET now! Mike Mattera System Info: MagicMicro.com Intel i7 970 (6Core)3.2Ghz / ASUS Rampage III Extreme X58 / 12 GB Ram 500GB SATA II / 1TB SATA III / ATI FirePro V7800 w/ 2GB Mastercam X5 MU1 on Win7 Pro X64

"In our defence we're blokes who don't read manuals or instructions!" That's why I produce Video Training for Mastercam. No one reads the manuals, including me 1:09 regeneration time @ .0001 tolerance. 10 seconds regen time with a forced regeneration (no changes and regen file in the folder). I'm pretty happy with that. It's not overclocked or anything, just standard factory settings. Mike Mattera Magicmicro.com Intel i7 970 (6Core)3.2Ghz / ASUS Rampage III Extreme X58 / 12 GB Ram 500GB SATA II / 1TB SATA III / ATI FirePro V7800 w/ 2GB (yes ATI, really) Mastercam X5 MU1 on Win7 Pro X64 Windows Experience Index. Processor, Memory and Graphics are all at 7.7 While my main system Hard Drive is at 5.9 (SATA II)

I'm not sure we're talking about the same test file. I downloaded the HST-Core-Horizontal-Raster.mcx file from the SolidBox web site. My system regenerated all the toolpaths in about 16 seconds. It finished so quick, I wasn't sure it was done. When I did it a second time, It took 9 seconds. Mike Mattera Intel i7 970 (6Core)3.2Ghz / ASUS Rampage III Extreme X58 / 12 GB Ram 500GB SATA II / 1TB SATA III / ATI FirePro V7800 w/ 2GB (yes ATI, really) Running X5 MU1 on Win7 Pro X64