What's a "tag". Do you mean Tabs? Mike Mattera

You need to install SP1 Update 1 before you install SP1 Update 3. Mike Mattera

For future reference: Help!!! is not a subject. "Tread milling information" is a subject. Mike Mattera

Should work the same as in V9 Mike Mattera

BTW: The condom joke was pretty funny Mike

The Story Of Evaluating Customers =================================== I worked a machine tool show in Texas early in my sales career. A rough looking Texan came in the booth to ask some questions. The guy looked like a real farmer. I probably did not give him the attention he deserved. After he left the experienced salesman working the booth with me explained this... "You never know who your talking to at a show. The guy with the most $#iT on his boots, probably owns the most cattle." Someone wants this kid to build a CNC machine. There must be some money to do it somewhere. So good luck "Age of 16" on your project. Mike Mattera

-- "The guys I'm talking about never upgraded their technical skills" -- This is the difference between having a job and having a career. Career: n, profession - conduct in life, or progress thru life. I was so facinated with machine tools and CNC technology, you couldn't keep me away from learning. Before I knew it I had a career. Mike Mattera

So Benden, who would his dealer be, SFA? Send this guy their PH# so he can get some prices. Mike Mattera

Any one can learn how to use Mastercam and be good at it. You just have to invest some time and go thru the examples. Everyone says the want better classes and better teachers. I've seen dealers put on specialized classes and not be able to fill them. Good, experienced Mastercam programmers are not cheap. Having them teach a class for 2-3 poeple is not a good return on investment. No one has time to take a class and learn the right way of doing something. They would rather struggle and complain how the software dosent do what they want. In my 18 years of teaching Mastercam I've found that most people want to know the same things. Once youn learn some of those basics, other functions/problems are more easily overcome. The most important thing in any training is to learn how to fix mistakes. We all make mistakes, so recovery is the key to success. If I make a mistake in my training videos, I leave it in and show people how to fix the mistake. It's real world stuff. I wish decent video training was available for every program I wanted to learn. Good advice from a person with experience. Books work for some people, but not me. I like video training. Mike Mattera

These self executing videos will explain the procedure. http://www.tipsformanufacturing.com/bin/Form_Tool-002.exe http://www.tipsformanufacturing.com/bin/Form_Tool-003.exe Mike Mattera

If your planning to build it yourself ans ude stepper motors, your not looking for high accuracy. So why dont you just go buy a Haas Minimill and a seat of CAM software. Save yourself a lot of problems. But I guess if someone else was paying the bill, it would be fun to try an build my own milling machine. Certianly good experiance. Did you look at the kits. You can buy an AH-HA controller, or an Anilam for fairly cheap. Then you just have to hang it on the machine and do the mechanical part. Mike Mattera

GOOD NEWS!!! If you dont think it's worth that amount, you dont have to bid on it. I put a price on it I can live with, for parting with the jacket. Personally I think it's worth more. Buying a jacket and having it embroidered with the Mastercam logo would look the same but it wouldnt be the same. You can buy a green sport coat and tell people you won the Masters Golf tournement. But it's not the same as owning a Jacket won by Jack Nickalous (sp?). You can build a Shelby Cobra copy, but it's not the same as owning a REAL Cobra. That's the difference. As for.... "That's tannamount to buying a trophy somebody else earned isn't it?" Maybe. But people buy Academy Awards (Oscars), Olympic Medals and things like that all the time. I dont need this Jacket anymore. I cant see it just sitting in my closet collecting dust. Thought the worlds biggest group of Mastercam junkies might like to have a collectible jacket. It's for sale at an amount I can bear to part with it. Bid. Dont Bid. It's all OK with me. I'm sure the person who whins the auction will not be dissappointed with this jacket. Just thought someone would like to have the same jacket Mark Summers has. Come to the next tool show wearing this and you'll have their attention in the Mastercam booth. Ron: Yes you can buy a lot of diaper with that amount of money. But I gave up wearing diapers weeks ago... Mike Mattera

Why are you using Cutter Comp in a Lathe post? Masterc does tool nose radius comp already and the res can be sdjusted with the XZ offsets at the machine. Mike Mattera

Please Read The FAQ Mike Mattera

"bump" oops! did I do that?

In V9 I would use between 120,000 - 200,000 for Toolpath and 40,000 - 60,000 for Database. FastZCut needs a min. of 90,000 for Toolpath. This is for doing 3D machining. Mike Mattera

No user interface is 100% intutitive. You guys use this word like you should be born knowing how to use a CadCam system. They All Have To Be Learned. Your all whinning because it's not the same: It's NOT The Same! It's new. New is not bad just different. "They should have asked the users": Hello! where do you think these interface ideas came from? "I used to use the keyboard without thinking": I Know a lot of people like "not thinking". But I have news for you, The keyboard interface is NOT that different. Spend 10 minutes playing with the Alt & Ctrl keys and you find you can do MORE than you could with V9. "I wish there was a way to have Design under the Right Mouse Button (RMB) and then have Mill under the RMB": You can. It does. It's not magic. It does not change by thought. But you can make any menu anything you want. You can have multiple configurations to load any menu or combinations of toolbars. The Mastercam interface is the most highly configurable interface I've ever seen in ANY application. If your spending too much time moving up and down the screen grabbing the button you need, you need to create you own Right Mouse Button (RMB) menu. Or create you own floating tool bar. Mike Mattera

It keeps the tool from banging into the wall with the lead in/out. Which is what Contour WILL do. Mike Mattera

The menu it on top. You still have Create and Analyze (etc). Hit Alt and then Hit C. You get the Create menu to pull down. Hit A for arc. It's very similar to the standard Mastercam menu functions. Consider a book or a training cd. Mike Mattera

Definatelty NOT cursed. If anything Blessed. I made a good living selling Mastercam in this jacket. It adds a little prestige and presence when you go in to do a demo. But since I no longer sell Mastercam, I no longer need the jacket. Your luck day. Make a bid if you're interested. You're not likely to ever see another one for sale. Definately NOT in this condition. Mike Mattera

Got the same error at a customers site. You have to run SP1 first. Then run the SP1 Update 3 patch. Mike Mattera

Victor, If the slot is 1/2" wide and the tool is 1/2" wide, just put a line down the center (center of arc to center of arc) and pick it as a single entity for a Contour. There's got to be a way to do a zig zag to get to depth. Try "Depth cuts" and "keep tool down" options. Mike Mattera

When you import the Solidworks file, there's an option Create Edge Curves. The saves the time of doing a Create - Curves - On All edges. If you have 3D edges you can squash them. Except I dont remember where Squash is in X. Mike Mattera

I no longer need this Mastercam jacket. It's in excellent condition. Thought one of you guys might be interested in owning a Mastercam collectors item. 1 of 8 in the world (CNC could correct me if I'm wrong about that) as best I know. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...item=7206532379 I hate to see it go. I really love this jacket. Mike Mattera

I dont understand this. So what iof you have tool 2 ? Do you want T2 H3 D4 ? Wht not add 20 or 40 to the D# T1 H1 D21 T2 H2 D22 Use the "Add to tool" function in the Job Setup Page. That's what it's for. It's really NOT GOOD to hardcode stuff like that into the post. It takes away your control. Mike Mattera