Yes it is a surface model, not a solid model.

Greetings, I'm posting this question on behalf of a co-worker who is learning to use X9 lathe. He took the re-seller's training class about a year-and-a- half ago, but has just begun using Mastercam recently. How would one go about creating geometry for turning from a surface model. We have a model with fairly complicated internal features. Is there a way to section the model at the centerline to accomplish this? If somebody could explain the workflow to accomplish this, it would be most appreciated. Thanks in advance. Scott

Never mind. Somebody here suggested Ctrl-Alt-Delete. Duh... Fighting a cold. Head's up my rear end today. I shouldn't even be here today. Thanks

Hi everyone, I've been having a problem creating an operation as it has continually gets stuck processing (dirty). I've deleted the troublesome operation numerous times to start over. I have it deleted and I'm trying to shut down Mastercam and I'm continually getting the message 'Multi-threaded operations are still processing. Do you wish to stop them before continuing?' I click yes and get the message 'unable to stop multi-thread operations'. There doesn't appear to be a way out other than to shut down the computer. Help? Thanks, Scott

Selecting all and changing the nc file name did the trick! Thanks!!!!

I've run into a little problem I've not seen before. I have a program written with 13 operations. Everything looks good when I run it in verify, all operations run. The problem is when I post it, the last operation does not post. The operation posting is NOT toggled off, and the operation is checked with all the others. I also do not receive any Partial NCI output file warning "Not all operations have been selected for posting. Post all?" Any ideas what I should be looking for? Thanks, Scott

Hi Daniel, I just realized that I've been accessing the pencil tooltpath through 'Toolpaths > Surface High Speed > Pencil' as opposed to 'Toolpaths > Surface Finish > Pencil' When I do it that way, the interface matches the Tutorial interface. That would also explain how some of the other finishing toolpaths I've used have appeared different in the interface. Thanks!

Daniel, I'd be happy to send you some screenshots if you provide me with an email address. Case in point, last night I was looking in my X9 Mill Advanced Tutorial while troubleshooting a pencil toolpath, and the interface shown in the book was quite different from my licensed seat of Mastercam's interface. To answer your second question, I would have been using the X8 HLE software when taking the X8 Mill advanced eCourse, as my Mastercam seat was only X7 Mill at the time. We upgraded to X9 Mill Advanced as soon as X9 was released. As far as I know, my seat of Mastercam X9 is the default configuration and we are using Windows 7 Professional. I will not be able to send screenshots until tomorrow evening. Thanks.

Hi Daniel, Now that you've refreshed my memory, I now remember that I did not buy the X9 Mill Advanced eCourse. I had purchased and completed the X8 Mill advanced eCourse and shortly thereafter, my company upgraded my seat from X7 Mill to X9 Mill Advanced. I'd ordered only the spiral-bound X9 Mill Advanced Book to have as a reference. But my question remains the same. The interface depicted in the X9 Mill Advanced book is different from the interface of my X9 Mill Advanced Software.

Greetings, I purchased the X9 Mill Advanced eCourse last year shortly before we upgraded to Mastercam X9 Mill Advanced. I have a May 15, 2015 bound hardcopy, and although I did not realize it at the time, the interface shown in the book appears to be from a previous version. We upgraded from X7 Mill Basic right to X9 Mill Advanced, so I'm guessing the interface depicted in the book is X8. I'd completed the course before we received our X9 upgrade so I didn't know any different at the time. There have been some instances where I've had difficulty translating the information in the book to the software when troubleshooting. I'm wondering if there has been an update to this book, and if so, can I receive if without having to purchase it again. Thanks, Scott Lent

I apologize for not returning to this post until now. I'd sent an email to my reseller that evening and they responded the next morning. All set now. Thanks.

Greetings, Up until about an hour ago, I'd always been able to toggle between Toolpaths and Solids by clicking on the corresponding tab at the bottom of the operations manager panel. Suddenly, those tabs have disappeared and I have to click on 'View---> Toggle Toolpaths Manager' or 'View---> Toggle Solids Manager' to accomplish the same thing. Can somebody tell me how I can get those tabs back? Thanks in advance.

Wow! That was simple! Thanks!

How would I go about changing the NC name of a program file after the fact? I have a program written, the NC file name is SN124. Now I use this program as a template for other similar versions of the part. I would like to rename the template NC name to SNxxx, so that when I post it, SNxxx populates as the default file name, and I can change the xxx field as required. I do realize that I can simply change the numbers from '124' to the desired numbers, but I don't want to risk overwriting a CNC post should I happen to forget. Thanks in advance, Scott

Thanks David

Thank you both! I was not aware of the options by right-clicking the angle textbox. Now I can retire some of my Rube Goldberg drawing practices

How do I draw an angled line relative to another line in X9? Thanks in advance

gcode, My post is about a year and a half old. I had it made for us for this machine when we purchased Mastercam. I do development work so generally once a job is finished, I don't ever see it again. Physically correcting the direction of the a-axis rotation won't have a negative effect on past jobs. I have also come to realize that part of the problem was the fact that I had my a-axis set to CCW in the Machine Definition Manager (representing the machine), but at the same time, I've been creating my planes in the direction that reflects the actual a-axis rotation of the machine, thus compensating twice and getting the incorrect results. I have my Machine Definition Manager set to CW now and the post is correct. Whether or not all of this contributed to the problem I was having originally with the tool approaching from the opposite direction, I don't know, but the fewer variables I have to deal with the next time this might happen, the better. Thanks.

Thank you all for your help, I am slowly getting to the bottom of this. wdg5555 I will definitely remember that trick... Colin, as a practice I do set up my planes in the manner in which you suggested, but I did go through and create new ones following your instructions to the letter. The result was the same. I did however, notice you mentioned at the end that I should always leave the rotation option set to ‘no rotation’. That is news to me and I changed those settings accordingly, and that instantly solved the problem with the tool approaching from the wrong direction. Now everything runs correctly in verify. But now I do have an issue with the way my post is positioning the a-axis. It now positions the A90 plane at A270, although the X, Y and Z coordinates are correct, unlike yesterday. I did try changing the rotary axis direction in the Machine Definition Manager but the results are the same. I've been aware that my rotary axis rotates opposite of the standard clockwise direction. It's always been that way since day one and since we've always programmed by hand, it wasn't an issue before we got Mastercam. Most of the 4X programs I've done in Mastercam up to this point have been A0 and A180 indexes. Direction didn't really matter. I've read here on the forum that others with the same situation haven't had satisfactory results by changing the direction of the rotary axis in the Machine Definition either. At this point, I am going to have the a-axis rotation direction looked into and corrected, whether it means changing a machine parameter or changing the way the a-axis is wired. I think I've been chasing my tail partially because of this. Again, thank you all for your help.

I'll try that in the morning and see what happens. I've had enough for one night. Thanks!

Interesting new twist... I am now to the point where one of two holes drilled in this operation is at the correct A90 and the other is at A270. Both of these holes are drilled from the same 'Top of Stock' and are drilled a depth of .050. Top of stock is at Z-1.367. Depth is at Z-1.417 This is what I get: G00 G90 G80 G40 G20 G17 G94 (TOOLPLANE NAME - A-AXIS 90) G15 H4 Z30. IF [VTLCN EQ 4] NST1 T4 M06 (.2188 BALL ENDMILL, CG MAKE) NST1 M08 G00 G17 G90 A90. X0. Y-.7495 S239 M03 G56 H4 Z-1.267 G94 G71 Z-1.267 G81 Z1.317 R-1.267 F.24 M54 Y.5625 Z-1.317 A270. R1.267 G80 M09 M05 G00 Z30. G00 X-30. Y30. G90 M30 This is the desired result: G00 G90 G80 G40 G20 G17 G94 (TOOLPLANE NAME - A-AXIS 90) G15 H4 Z30. IF [VTLCN EQ 4] NST1 T4 M06 (.2188 BALL ENDMILL, CG MAKE) NST1 M08 G00 G17 G90 A90. X0. Y.7495 S239 M03 G56 H4 Z-1.267 G94 G71 Z-1.267 G81 Z-1.417 R-1.267 F.24 M54 Y.5625 G80 M09 M05 G00 Z30. G00 X-30. Y30. G90 M30

CNC post has the correct A90 for the mill cuts operation on that plane, and A270 for the drill op on the same plane, which obviously isn't what it's intended to be. Y coordinates that are supposed to be plus are minus, and visa versa. It's like I'm working from a phantom plane at 270 degrees.

I'be been playing around with the rotary axis settings in the MMD file and I'm posting A90 when I mill in that plane and A270 when I drill in it. The fact that it runs right in verify with rotary axis control set to no rotation makes me wonder if a setting isn't right in the MMD. I have to admit that up until now I've only needed a-axis positions at zero and 180 degrees. It almost appears that my a axis moves are incremental, ie 180 + 90 = 270

I've tried both. Interestingly, if I set Rotary Axis Control to 'no rotation', the operation runs perfectly.