Thanks Ron I will. I have been able to modify several things in my post that are helping us to keep from hand editing the nc files. This is one of tha last thing to fix.

I am trying to control the retact angles and the way the machine unwinds at the bottom or top of a curve. We use no safety zones. We us misc pivot length for each tool.

I would like to see if anyone or (Charles Davis)Specifically can help me update and modify my post. I have been working on it as the company that it came from is no longer in business. I need a little help on the unwind functions to give the machine a smoother program output.

I developed the original positive shape for the upper die and then place it into the block (upper). I have not made them common. I just wanted to use the upper solid shape without the upper block to boolean a cavity into the lower block. And yes I have done this before. This particular solid I am assuming has problems. And I am trying to fix them so that I may continue. To make the bottom Block. This is for a forming die.

The actual error is cannot create a non-manifold body.

I am working in version 8.1 I do have Solid Edge though and am thinking about using it instead.

Sorry I can't at this time as this relates to a new product. If you could give me so general reasons fo a non-manifold body error message I can probably fix it.

I am working in solids and trying to use the Boolean feature. I have a positive mold block (TOP) and I wish to Boolean out the cavity on the Bottom Block. When I try to do this I get a parisolids error. Boolean operation will result in a non-manifold body. Please explain what I am doing wrong.

And I just lowered my Cholesterol.

So far I haven't had good luck making Mastercam play nice with the ATI cards in general. Never tried the Fire GL.

Westwind make a good Air spindle. IBAG make a good electric. We run our air spindles for Titanium at 65000 rpms We have also developed Adapter heads for the Fadal and Haas machines to hold six spindles. So we can run multiples of smaller parts.

If you use the constrction attributes and tools in Solid Edge you can make you part into a Suface instead of a solid. Or output it in Iges and import into MCAM and it will convert it to a tirmmed surface. Then you should be able to use it.

Help me I'm meing. ........... AAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHH.

You guys should make sure there is no spywear attached to this program. Besides there are numerous programs that do the same thing. Net2phone communicator. This one lets you call to another computer or to a telephone. Yahoo messenger. You can chat, use video and sound. There are more.

Depending on the file size you may have to go into the configuration of mastercam and give it more toolpath buffers to work with. If your system is set to the default amount this may no be enough. Also if the file is extremely large or complex, you may need anoth 512MB of ram. A newer video card would be nice but won't help you calculate toolpaths any faster.

I meant to say Vmware uder linux. Sorry.

I think Virtual PC was actually made by company called conetix or conectix, something like that. However sine these type of programs are emulators of the x86 series processors they tend to be slow. The speed can be increase by creating native windows partitions on your MAC drive, but since you will not have a real pentium processor you won't be able to go as fast as on a real Pee Cee. Running under linux via Virtual PC is as fast as or faster than windoze because it's using native x86 code to run. If your not doing a lot of 3D machining it might work fine.

In the pas I have also have two identical computers in two locations and a removable Hardisk bay. In this way you get all your info and programs and the package is smaller. This is a little more expensive but you can built better and faster machines with no limitations. These HD bays are avail at Fry's.

Sure, It should be a good idea for you. You can have all the power and Graphics capability you need in a small box. You ram will be limited to 1 gig depending on the motherboard. I was using a company called AMC up in the escondido area. The do a pretty good job. If you into making one yourself you can go to Fry's to get all the parts. They have the shuttle box with a presintalled motherboard P4 in a couple of configs.

Shuttle makes several versions of this Brick computer Pent4 ish. They can take a couple of cards and generally have two simm slotts for memory. They are small enough to carry around. Charles look in the Computer Edge here in town. There are several companies here locally that sell the shuttle.

I have run several of my 3D and CAD Cam programs via VMWARE in linux. I wish Mastercam would make a linux version.

It will be a wise idea to check for a windows XP compatible driver for this printer/plotter. Also if windows XP loaded some kind on default driver for this printer it is likely that the serial port was reset to 9600 baud. You will need to set the proper baud rate, Stop bits, and parity for the printer type. The newer dirver may take care of this for you. Driverguide.com has tons of driver for just about everything.

I use to own a rapid prototyping and design shop. We used thermojets from 3D systems, We mostly produced castable waxes. The system uses hot wax which is deposited on a 10 x10 palllet via 236 heads. I was pretty acurate.

pi*D*N CS = -------- (unit: FPM in inch units) 12 pi*D*N CS = -------- (unit:MPM in metric units) 1000 where CS = surface cutting speed D = diameter of rotating part or tool N = RPM of tool or workpiece -------------------------------------------- 12*CS N= ------ (Inch unit) pi*D 1000*CS N= ------- (Metric unit) pi*D The surface cutting speed at which material is a given quatity and is normally obtained from a machining data handbook or by experience. Tooling sales personnel can also make recomendation and to these settings based on extensive trial and mutliple error.

Thanks Rekd This was something I use every now and then. Most of the Design and Dimension stuff I do outside of Mastercam.