I agree, but there are special cases where I need visual confirmation. There's plenty of custom form tools in the machine and I really prefer seeing them in visualization as they are in real life. Toolpaths for them are very simple (usually just a full circle with lead in and out).

Not happy yet. As the geometry consists of many tiny line segments, instead of a few arcs, performance is quite poor. Is there any tool that would fit arc to a set of lines using given tolerance? Best I've managed so far is convert the tiny lines into a spline and break it into larger lines using break many, but I can't get the tolerance option to work. "Number" option works as expected.

Thanks a lot! I was putting way too much expectations on overlapping detection...

Chain appears to be valid and there are no overlaps. I have done similar custom tools before, but this one just won't do. What is wrong? Geometry file was downloaded from Iscar's site and I extracted profile from it. iscar2.mcam

Thank you for confirming this. It's a nethook project then. I'm asking because sometimes it's better to rotate the WCS instead of transforming ops when a fixture moves from one pallet side to another. And this is where mass editing WCS comes in handy.

and leave tplane and cplane intact. Can it be done?

It is grayed out and unchecked. CimcoDNC.exe however exists under installation directory. The tab is just missing.

Could somebody explain me the "artificial intelligence" part of AI Nano contour control option?

Just read from Mastercam machine simulator tutorial... The following toolpaths or functions are not currently supported in MachineSimulation: lLathel Wirel Transform operations Is this the case with 2020? I use transforms extensively and this limitation just does not make sense.

I decided to learn the machine sim, and unsurprisingly got stuck at the very beginning. Using 3_4AXGEN_HMCTB as a template, I copied and renamed the folder into a new directory NEW_MACHINE. I renamed the XML file same as the folder name and updated the XML tag <machine_data name="NEW_MACHINE" version="1.8" units="metric"> So practically everything's the same except the name. But when I try to use the machine for my simulation, I get 3_4AXGEN_HMCTB works fine. What else needs to be done?

So we bought Cimco professional a while back and I'm quite sure there was a file transfer tab there in the user interface. It was updated to 8.02 at some point and now the file transfer tab has gone missing. Do I have to purchase it separately too? All I want is CImco as it comes with Mastercam but installed on a non-Mastercam PC. I don't need simulation etc., only file transfer.

Hello. Studying NetHook and developing an add-in for my company ATM; the NETHook API surprised me positively with its ease of use and sophisticated interfaces. Kudos! However, there's a little problem. I can use Operation.NCIName to change the operation's NC file name, but I can't find any way to alter or read the operation program number, which is a very important number used by our external database. Is it omitted on purpose? I am not yet familiar with the C-hook API yet (it is vast!), but I suppose it can be changed with that, am I correct? Thank you very much. Edit: long op_common::prog_n Program number. is obviously what I need to have access to

IF[#541 GT 1]#3000=0(STEPOVER TOO LARGE, TOOL WILL BREAK) If that doesn't work, put THEN between ] and # characters. I think it is good practice to always check user inputs.

Sorry it took a while. Actually it has nothing to do with posts but what Gview is relative to: I want to lock the WCS in place and use views only relative to current construction plane. Can it be done?

I always put precondition checking in my macro programs to avoid infinite loops or too large stepovers and other nasty things, when one mistypes a digit.

Is there a C-hook for this?

Anybody yet found any actual use for automatic work offset?

Viewsheets rule and I use them all the time. However, language barrier (or my tired mind) is stopping me from making any sense. I'll take a screenshot tomorrow and explain further. Sorry and thanks for patience. :D

Sorry for not expressing myself clearly. It's not about work offset. In my setup TOP is the plane from above the pallet - it is always the WCS. To get rotations I just change the toolplane. I'd love if it was possible for left/right/back etc. planes to be relative to the active construction plane, NOT the WCS, when setting the GView.

Having used Mastercam for 3-axis milling for ages, I never get used to the view system in tombstone programming. I'm used to setting Wcs AND construction plane the same plane so that left, right etc. are always relative to top. The problem is that whenever creating ops, Wcs is assigned a wrong value and it should be the same for every op. I have added a post warning if Wcs changes, but it doesn't help when posting single ops (many times). Btw, are there other NC file comparators like the one in Cimco, that would be more robust? It should be able to ignore line numbers and comments as an option (Winmerge doesn't do that).

Thanks for the info. I asked this a few years back and got the impression that it isn't there. There are simply too many buttons for me to discover everything by myself.

This is one of those very basic and common operations that definitely should exist in Mastercam by default. Just enter chamfer size and the drill is driven to the proper depth. No user calculations. (fortunately is it a rather simple custom cycle to implement)

Is it not possible to get a floating license so that you both can use it, just not at the same time? I would likely switch jobs if I couldn't design fixtures with Solidworks any longer.

This is quite a massive request IMO. I don't think Mastercam will never beat a "real" modeling software and it should focus on the CAM side instead. Adding this feature would require some third party software middleware which would be very expensive. Why did you lose the seat? Any chance of getting it back anytime soon?

Yes, it was a viewsheet that saved the color. Disabled it in viewsheet settings. Thanks to everybody.