Edit: Nevermind. As ALWAYS, I figured it out right after. Unintuitively they do not appear under "Add-ins" but "Commands not in ribbon" selection. Moreover the add-in name of the example was missing so it was hard to spot..

Okay, I've done this before and it worked then but can't figure out what I'm missing here.

Shouldn't the icons of nethooks appear here that you put in [shared mcam holder]\Add-Ins ?

I built the 2023 examples and they launch ok using Run Add-In command but their icons do not show nor does my own

We can't update to 2024 yet so ribbon customization is not an option.

I downloaded the SDK years ago and had no problems then but now when I try to download an update by accessing https://my.mastercam.com/communities/3rd-party-developers/c-plus-plus-downloads/

"You do not have permission to view this content."

Not seeing any reason why, so why? Account is linked successfully.

Having to regenerate the NCI and recalculate the entire toolpath data are different things. Changing stuff that don't affect the toolpath data itself (for example, a misc value) should not require the toolpath to be recalculated, which may take a lot of time. There does not seem to be consistency between operation types, for example, flowline which is my favorite stays "clean" when I change S&F or misc values, Surface Rough parallel becomes "dirty" when S&F is changed but not if a misc value is changed, and again 3D High Speed (Blend) stays "clean" even if both are changed et cetera

This is obviously a difficult thing to manage for coders because it's easy for the op to become bugged and thus it's just safer to flag it is as dirty if *anything* changes. But there would be no fewer bugs if more software testing were prevalent.

So I have been working on this project with a LOT of shapes at different depths, using mostly 2D high speed (Dynamic mill & rest mill) and am really frustrated by the fact that almost any change makes those operations become dirty. Changing program number, any misc value and speed or feed will do that. I have wasted so much time waiting for the ops to regenerate, as tool breakage check, spindle/axis load monitor etc. are controlled via misc vars and they are often added in a later stage, not to mentions S&F optimization. There are other operations that will remain un-dirty when changing those parameters. I thereby implore CNC to fix this inconvenience as it would make using mcam much more efficient.

On 9/26/2023 at 5:51 PM, Span said:

I see the same thing, turn off 'Automatically determine Z depth' and it works correctly.

Can someone give me an example where this feature is useful?

Another one is, if an operation is inside a subgroup, you won't notice that something has become dirty until you expand the toolpath group, only after which the icon turns to red X.

Simple things like these should be at the highest priority in the evergrowing list of bugs to be fixed...

I wish mcam supported variables and formulas in its numeric fields

I have over a hunder 2D Dynamic Mill & Rest Mill operations that need Stepover Distance to be changed. I have never used the NET-Script editor, is this something that could be done with it? Obviously it is not a trivial task and it would be faster to change them all by hand, but if there's a template for anything similar, I'd be glad.

(BTW. Vertical scrollbar behavior with collapsed regions is hideous...it's the same as in mcam code editor)

Out of curiosity, do you plan on using C++, C# or both?

3 hours ago, crazy^millman said:

This not working for you?

Hello,

Not what I meant. I meant this:

The operation's NC file name is assigned same as file name by default. But I wish there was a checkbox such as "Use default NC file name" etc. that would change the operation's file name automatically according to setting under Config->Toolpath Manager->NC File name.

Also it seems I remembered incorrectly, the file name is not assigned same as Source library but current file name instead.

Importing ops is something I do all the time, and I believe I'm not alone with this. But why would I ever want to use the imported file's name as default for the imported operation? No, I want it to be the same as in every other op in the machine group. Please add option to do this. Changing file name every time after import (or forgetting to do that, even after all the years) is no fun. And CAM-programming is supposed to be fun, right?

Edit: I know there are multiple options under Config->Toolpath Manager->NC File name but only "Last operation's NC file name" works for our process.

On 2/1/2024 at 2:28 PM, Thad said:

I've only clicked on geometry to select the next entity. Clicking the arrow never even occurred to me. When selecting any chain, you click on the geometry to select it. When MC finds a branch point, clicking on the geometry seemed like the logical thing to do.

Sure thing, the problem is that both arrows overlap the geometry (lots of small segments) so you have to keep zooming in to be able to click the geometry and then zoom out to get the big picture. So I thought maybe I should just learn to click the arrow.

3 hours ago, Aaron Eberhard said:

If you click on the wrong geometry and go down the wrong branch, don't Unselect (U) as that throws away the whole selection.  Use Previous (O) to go back one step.   You can iterate really quickly via the keyboard by using X (NeXt), J (AdJust), O (PreviOus) to just try your various options if there's ambiguity.   

Good tip but It's not that I select a wrong branch, but start another chain without noticing it until it is too late and then it is just faster to start over.

3 hours ago, Aaron Eberhard said:

 I'm not sure what the keyboard shortcuts would be in Finnish, of course

Doesn't matter, I never use localized version (for good reasons )

Clicking on geometry makes it very easy to accidentally start a new chain without even noticing it, when the chain is very long.

There's been a lot of chaining work lately and it's constantly either a) clicking on the wrong arrow, going back and retry or b) clicking on wrong geometry, starting over

What Aaron described is not working for me. In the above case for me, red takes the turn.

It would be nice if the appropriate geometry was emphazied/boldened when you hover over the arrow.

After years of use, I still haven't figured this out.

Which arrow goes straight and which one turns? What's the rule here?

22 hours ago, Jake L said:

You mean like converting the scientific notation to standard form?

https://www.calculatorsoup.com/calculators/math/scientific-notation-converter.php

No. The control is hiding digits by using exponential notation if it deems the value too long, which is kind of dumb, because there is more than enough room for digits in the user interface. Otherwise the control is very fluidy and nice, but I would really appreciate if the numbers being engraved were displayed fully!

In 2023, 2D High Speed refuses to regenerate until "regenerate" button is mashed multiple times. When it does, the toolpath generated is not always the same. Is this a known issue or should I provide a sample?

Did you find a solution?

This seems like a no-brainer to me, but how the heck do you check what number is stored inside a macro variable if it is so long that the control forces to display it as exponential? Dealer has not been able to provide a solution. Are the values stored somewhere on the hard drive so that I can write an app for manipulating them?

These is an option "Not exponential display" under the settings menu, but it does not resolve this problem.

I absolutely hate that error message, having spent hours and hours looking for "gaps" and whatever with custom tools. This error message needs to be more precise. Step files have however always worked fine in 2023 for me. If this is broken in 2024, then it is a showstopper

Never mind, it is working as expected. I just got confused because the source files had all their holders names as "Imported holder" (whatever did that)

When importing ops (which is a very common process) all holders are renamed as "Imported holder". Why? I don't care if its imported or not - the name is more important!

I was just making the package but now all of sudden I can't reproduce it any longer! It showed the "computation error" once and when I regenerated again, it somehow succeeded. Now I am not able to make the error show up any more.

Can't find the options NOT to show the context menu in main ribbon, which once again is hiding the filename due to long path. Where is it?

Usability tip: Show the file path so that it is cut at the beginning, not the end.