Hi Jay!! Speakin' of books, I'm going to use the inhouse training tutorial book in the fall. Do you know if it will be available for V9? Thanks, my west coast freind! Mike R.

Does anyone have an example or two of either a process plan or a routing for any of the jobs you run? Something more detailed than mcam can give. I'm doing a class on routings & process plans tomorrow and just though of this medium for examples! If ya do, please email them to me! Thanks a heap!! Mike R.

Unless he's talkin' about a constant variable(ing) speed and feed, sounds like hokus pokus to me. BUT there is a chance I speak out of tern... Mike R.

Not to be stupid, but whats the name of the solid works converter in mcam, and is it a freebee in V8? Thanks! Mike R.

Hi John! Actually, there is a formula. OD-P Or, if you have a 3/8-24 ID thread, it would be .375-(1/24). (Pitch is 1/Number of threads). For Metric threads it's the same. A simple example is for a 3/8-16 thread - 3/8-1/16=5/16. Here's a link to my web page, which has an automatic calculator (botom of the page, "Mike's handy dandy calculator") http://mpt.corning-cc.edu/~reynolds/Machining_Formulas.htm Hope this helps!!! Mike R.

Hi Michael! (nice name...) Can't you just use the MPLfan.pst with the part transfer c-hook? Mike R.

I've heard the arguments for mcam not to develope into MasterCAD, but when it is so good on the CAM side, why not try to develope the cad side more? At this point, I'd rather do single models in mcam than in any other solids package (barring, of course, the parametric thing). But when will we be able to link solids together to do assemblies? Don't get me wrong, I love mcam, but this would certainly be a great improvement on the cad side of things. JMHO, Mike R.

How about "dockable" toolbars (user defined)??? Mike R.

Hi Basil! Nope, you can do 4th axis stuff on mcam quite easily. But are you talking about a horizontal machine with a rotary axis? If you are, you need to use mpfan.pst and reset a few settings in it. I do it all the time. Hope this helps!! Mike R.

No, it wasn't a spot drill, it was the "pre drill" thaang. Got it. Thanks fer gittin back to me though, and it was good yakin at ya last night bubba! Mike R.

I just did an auto drill toolpath with 3 bolt hole circles. One with a .25 dia hole, one with a .5, and one with a .625 hole. For some reason, when mcam generated the toolpaths, it picked (amoung the correct tools), a .375 dia drill. How's come? thanks in advance! Mike R.

'Bout how much per year are we talking about (roughly). I make around 70K here in Upstate New York. Six pack of beer is about 4 dollars (gotta keep things in perspective). Just wondering, Mike R.

Thanks all! I posted this question while in a mcam class, so they could see for themselves how AWSOME you all are! Thanks for the fast replies! Mike R.

How do I go about machining a pocket that is open at both ends. Like machining a long narrow slot open on both ends? TIA, Mike R.

Thanks for all the help! I'm on it. MikeR.

My school is thinking of taking a donation of a mazaak with a cam-2 controller. Will this c-hook work with it? Thanks!! Mike R.

I've had a similar problem for quite a while (V8). Sometimes when we try to run mcam, we get the message "hasp not found". Start, mcam8, hasp set up, and run it, works fine. But once in a while, we have to go thru it. No big deal, but I'm wondering why, too. Mike R.

Hi all!! I teach at a community college, and am missing two sims. Anyway, I give my students the demo version to practice on. Now the question. A student came to me today to show me a program he posted "on the demo version". Normally, I trust this student, and would not question his possible involvement in the case of the missing hasp. HOWEVER, when I looked at the nc code he printed out, it looked REAL GOOD. I don't know if the x's and y's were right, but the header and semantics looked perfect: GO G20 G17 G54 G90 G40 G80 M6 T1 GO G43 Z.1 H1 M8 YADA YADA YADA. G0 G91 G28 Z0 G0 G91 G28 X0 YO M30 Or something VERY close to the above. Will the demo version spit out code that looks that good? Is there a chance this guy's not lying about having one of my sims? Thanks for your help! Mike R. Loyal and Honest mcam user

HI Heavy Metal! Funny you should post this question. Today in one of my classes, we talked about just that. I made a solid in mcam and saved(converted) into parasolid, dxf, and iges. I then imported all files both back into mastercam AND UG. Dxf sucked at best. Just like James said, ok for flat geo, but forget about solids or surfaces. I then converted the iges file, and that was much better. It came with surfaces. Next, parasolid. By far the best of these three. Hope that helps! Mike R.

Thanks fer rememberin'! What is the file name on your ftp site for the win98 driver? thanks again!!!!! Mike R.

Thanks Jay! Mike R.

Hi All! I'm wondering...IF someone was to convert an MC8 to a file type that UG could open (out of the box), would it be IGES, DXF, or Parasolid? Thanks! Mike R.

Actually, it's just a 3 axis mill. The controler is a "smart I CNC". Any help would be appreciated!! Thanks in advance! Mike R.

Got it, and yup, works great! Thanks for all your replies! Mike R.

Hi Jim! Check out my edited post, I didn't mean for him to change the X_rot line, that just came in when I cut and paisted that part of my post. Am I correct? Thanks!! Mike R.