Analyse/Surfaces/Curvature/Surfaces/All surfaces/done/doit This will actually tell you the minimum & maximum radius within the geometry.

Yes James, I have noticed that on other programs when i first started using the WCS but soon realised to make sure the Origin is set correctly. But this problem seems to only happen when i use the drill cycles the programmed depth is correct but the post is using this depth for the next safety height the first is ok please look below lines 29 and 47 are the ones to note. 1 BEGIN PGM CAVPLFH_1 MM 2 BLK FORM 0.1 Z X+0 Y+0 Z+0 3 BLK FORM 0.2 X+0 Y+0 Z+0 4 TOOL CALL 1 Z S2000 ; 5. CENTER DRILL 11 L X-50,0000 Y+78,0000 R0 F MAX M3 12 L Z+2,0000 R0 F MAX 13 CYCL DEF 1.0 PECKING 14 CYCL DEF 1.1 SET UP +2,0000 15 CYCL DEF 1.2 DEPTH -2,5000 16 CYCL DEF 1.3 PECKG -2,5000 17 CYCL DEF 1.4 DWELL 0 18 CYCL DEF 1.5 F100 19 CYCL CALL 20 L X+0,0000 R0 F MAX M99 21 L X+75,0000 Y+53,0000 R0 F MAX M99 22 L Y+3,0000 R0 F MAX M99 23 L X+50,0000 Y-72,0000 R0 F MAX M99 24 L X+0,0000 R0 F MAX M99 25 L X-75,0000 Y-47,0000 R0 F MAX M99 26 L Y+3,0000 R0 F MAX M99 27 TOOL CALL 2 Z S700 ; 12. DRILL 28 L X-50,0000 Y+78,0000 R0 F MAX M3 29 L Z-2,5000 R0 F MAX 30 CYCL DEF 1.0 PECKING 31 CYCL DEF 1.1 SET UP +2,0000 32 CYCL DEF 1.2 DEPTH -44,5000 33 CYCL DEF 1.3 PECKG +3,0000 34 CYCL DEF 1.4 DWELL 0 35 CYCL DEF 1.5 F50 36 CYCL CALL 37 L X+0,0000 R0 F MAX M99 38 L X+75,0000 Y+53,0000 R0 F MAX M99 39 L Y+3,0000 R0 F MAX M99 40 L X+50,0000 Y-72,0000 R0 F MAX M99 41 L X+0,0000 R0 F MAX M99 42 L X-75,0000 Y-47,0000 R0 F MAX M99 43 L Y+3,0000 R0 F MAX M99 44 TOOL CALL 3 Z S1500 ; 50 T/MAX 45 ; MILL TO +2 46 L X+51,0000 Y+131,0000 R0 F MAX M3 47 L Z-44,5000 R0 F MAX 48 L Z+2,0000 R0 F MAX 49 L Z-1,0000 F1000 50 L Y+98,0000 F2000 948 TOOL CALL 0 Z 949 L Z+250,0000 F MAX 950 M30 951 END PGM CAVPLFH_1 MM

Hello all, I have updated from V8 to V9.1 and all is going well I really like the WCS once i got my head round it....but....for some reason when i have any drill cycles included in my program the nc file looks bad. The drill depth programmed in the cycle is then used as the Z safety height of the next cycle so if its minus 30 deep the Z for the rapid start height for the next line would be Z-30 followed by the correct height on the next line Z+2. I am using a heidenhien post processor MPH426M.pst and this only happens when I'm using WCS and drilling only all is well if I don't. I have sent this problem to my re-seller but as yet have heard nothing any help would be great thanks.

Cheers Bill, I have worked it out by creating lines between the centres of the arcs at the edge curves of the surfaces then setting the constuction plane at entity of 2 lines and creating an arc of 4 rad between them then repeat between other 2 lines. Then created the program which keeps the tip of the cutter in the correct position if you view from the side with shade on then backplot you will see it more clearly what i'm trying to say. Updated the file on the ftp site to show this. But thanks anyway Bill.

I am trying to cut a runner toolpath with a 4 dia BN cutter that has to follow a 3d profile. But i need to create a curve that follows the centre line of the runner. I have up loaded a file onto the ftp site and placed it in the MC9 folder and called it "runner profile" if someone could take a look and maybe point me in the right direction i would be trully grateful. The surface is untrimmed to show the tube dia but in real time it would be trimmed to show half which is the depth of the runner.

Flycut, If you go into the operations manager then right click go to toolpaths/trim it will then prompt you to select geom (i just selected the 0.5" dia in the top plane) then you have to click outside of this dia then do a ReGen and this should trim your program so as NOT to travel over to the centre. Hope this helps.

Thanks Snowman, Tried the cancel and it works everytime the program stays clean.

Hello all, I know most of you have been very fortunate to have been able to upgrade to X but some of us still have to use previous versions so i hope that you can show a sympathetic ear and try to help with a problem which is bugging me with the program operations manager in V9.1 Sometimes when i open a file and then go to the Toolpaths/operations and then go into view the parameters of any function as soon as i come out even if nothing has been changed the red cross indicating that a regen must be carried out appears. It's not everytime but pretty regular and is just very annoying because if i have to make a change elsewhere i would then need to make a save but i have to do a REGEN to update the program that i never changed. Why is this happening and how do i go about fixing it.

I have never noticed this before but the same happens in my post as well. As a quick fix I got round it by editing the jump height between each hole so just select all the centres required even the ones with different depths but same dia then edit depth on those that are shallow and then edit jump height between them this then forces the drill cycle output. see below (metric) i tested for all drill cycles and it seems to work. 1 BEGIN PGM TEST MM 2 BLK FORM 0.1 Z X+0 Y+0 Z+0 3 BLK FORM 0.2 X+0 Y+0 Z+0 4 TOOL CALL 1 Z S1500 ; 6. DRILL 5 L X+0,0000 Y-16,0000 R0 F MAX M3 6 L Z+2,0000 R0 F MAX M8 7 CYCL DEF 203 UNIVERSL DRILLING Q200=+3,0000 Q201=-20,0000 Q202=+3,0000 Q203=+0,0000 Q204=+2,0000 Q205=+3,00 Q206=3000 Q208=10000 Q210=0 Q211=0 Q212=+3,0000 Q213=100 8 CYCL CALL 9 L Z+4,0000 R0 F MAX 10 L Y-8,0000 R0 F MAX 11 CYCL DEF 203 UNIVERSL DRILLING Q200=+3,0000 Q201=-15,0000 Q202=+3,0000 Q203=+0,0000 Q204=+2,0000 Q205=+3,0000 Q206=30 Q208=10000 Q210=0 Q211=0 Q212=+3,0000 Q213=100 12 CYCL CALL 13 L Z+6,0000 R0 F MAX 14 L Y+0,0000 R0 F MAX 15 CYCL DEF 203 UNIVERSL DRILLING Q200=+3,0000 Q201=-20,0000 Q202=+3,0000 Q203=+0,0000 Q204=+2,0000 Q205=+3,0000 Q206=30 Q208=10000 Q210=0 Q212=+3,0000 Q211=0 Q213=100 16 CYCL CALL 17 L Z+4,0000 R0 F MAX 18 L Y+8,0000 R0 F MAX 19 CYCL DEF 203 UNIVERSL DRILLING Q200=+3,0000 Q201=-15,0000 Q202=+3,0000 Q203=+0,0000 Q204=+2,0000 Q205=+3,0000 Q206=30 Q208=10000 Q210=0 Q211=0 Q212=+3,0000 Q213=100 20 CYCL CALL 21 L Z+6,0000 R0 F MAX 22 L Y+16,0000 R0 F MAX 23 CYCL DEF 203 UNIVERSL DRILLING Q200=+3,0000 Q201=-20,0000 Q202=+3,0000 Q203=+0,0000 Q204=+2,0000 Q205=+3,0000 Q206=30 Q208=10000 Q210=0 Q211=0 Q212=+3,0000 Q213=100 24 CYCL CALL 25 L Z+4,0000 R0 F MAX 26 TOOL CALL 0 Z 27 L Z+250,0000 F MAX 28 M30 29 END PGM TEST MM

Roger that sounds very feasible and i will give it a try however my computer has crashed and i think died. IT have took it away and given my old computer back with MCAM8 only they think its a motherboard problem. So i am back to square one with my old computer and V8 for the time being i will post a message later to let you know how everything went. Oh by the way i got a telephone call from my re-seller and they have said that they will send V9.1 on a CD in the mail to reload onto my computer which i am guessing will have the latest MP.DLL file as well so thanks for all your help Roger cheers.

Can you explain in a little more detail what your problem is. If it is to do with arcs then maybe i can help cos we have a Roeders machine and this was an area that proved to be a problem for us. It turned out to be full arcs, if the pst line reads as below but with 1 then change it. do_full_arc : 0 #Allow full circle output? 0=no, 1=yes Also check that arc output is for IJK

Question 91 is as below. 91. Name of executable post processor? MP But what i did was copy and then overwrit all my pst files from MCAM8 into MCAM9 and then ran the UPDATEPST9 c-hook. My reseller past on some files to copy into my c-hook directory (cp5v9.dll, cp5rev.dll and misc.dll and some other txt files) but these have prooved inefective.

No joy accessing the ftp site on the 16 March i'm afraid just the rolling flashlight.

Windows XP!! I have just been looking at something on unigraphics NX.....anyway as said earlier i have got round that problem and have come across another that i hope someone can help with. Everytime i post out a program i get an error box that pops up with the message "warning - unsupported function call. Recompile with new m_*.h files, link with new m_*.obj files" I have been in touch with my reseller he past on some files but still no joy waiting now for his reply but if anyone here can help then that would be great. The NC files by the way are ok they do run but this message pops up 3 times for every one program its just annoying.

Yes i know, when i upgraded to V9 i also upgraded to WindowsNX. But because the problem seemed to be in mastercam as it is while in there that the files cannot be read it kinda throws you off track. Plus there was not this problem while running V8 on windows 2k you do assume that this would not be an issue.