Well I figured it out sort of. Still not compleatly sure what happend, but it works and that's the best thing. I'll keep digging into it and someday I'll find out why it did what it did. I had the variables formated as "fs 9 1.4i" and it seems that with that formatting the variable getts cleared any time it is used in any kind of out put statment. After many tries and reading the post manuals I thought I would try a different format for my variables and low & behold it worked. Thanks to all who offered help and I hope someone reading this is helped by my mistake. 4:15 pm I just found what is happining. In the version 9.1 MP Post Referance guide Vol.1 chapter 9 page 7 it says " Incremental output is calculated in the post excutable as the differance from the previous move to the current move. You should use incremental carefully becaues, at the moment after the NC output occures, the value is zeroed. So I guess I should have done a little more reading before choosing to use incremental.

Why don't I get the same values on variables each time they are used? I'm looking at the drilling cycles and the depth$ doesn't equal the value in the MC file for every drill call. Sometimes it is correct then the next call it will be way off. Also after printing a variable it is cleared to zereo. This is happining with variables I declare as well as the depth$ from the NCI file. I have tried to force a read but it doesn't work. I'm using X5 by the way. N20G0X0.Y0.T2M06 N30S3667M03 N40G0X-2.3669Y-1.323 N50G0Z1. incdrdp = abs(refht$ - depth$) in pdrill0$ ONLY N60G0Z.25 rtnrefht$ variable : P0. refht$ variable : Z.25 initht$ variable : Z1. zdrl$ variable : P0. depth$ variable : Z-.125 znci$ variable : P-.125 .N70G81Z.375F7.3 (without outputting the incdrdp variable it showes in gcode) '.' n$, *sgdrill, *incdrdp, *frplunge$ N80X-2.3669Y-1.323 incdrdp = abs(refht$ - depth$) in pdrill0$ ONLY incdrdp variable : Z0. rtnrefht$ variable : P0. refht$ variable : Z.25 initht$ variable : Z1. zdrl$ variable : P0. depth$ variable : Z0. znci$ variable : P-.125 N90X-2.334Y1.424 n$, x$, y$ N290G80 N310X0.Y0.T3M6 N320S4561M03 N330G0X-.9803Y.5828 N340G0Z1. incdrdp = abs(refht$ - depth$) in pdrill0$ ONLY N350G0Z.25 incdrdp variable : Z.75 rtnrefht$ variable : P0. refht$ variable : Z.25 initht$ variable : Z1. zdrl$ variable : P0. depth$ variable : Z-.75 (depth$ here should be Z-.875 as it is in the MCX file) znci$ variable : P-.875 .N360G83Z0.Z.1Z.1F43.8 (After printing the incdrdp in the line above it becomes 0. here) '.' n$, *sgdrill, *incdrdp, *peck1$, *peck2$, *frplunge$ N370X-.9803Y.5828 incdrdp = abs(refht$ - depth$) in pdrill0$ ONLY incdrdp variable : Z0. rtnrefht$ variable : P0. refht$ variable : Z.25 initht$ variable : Z1. zdrl$ variable : P0. depth$ variable : Z0. znci$ variable : P-.875 N380X.3603Y.8851 n$, x$, y$ N390G80 I'm not changing the depth$ anywhere just reading it and using it in the formula above. Any help? I can send the file if needed.

Thanks for the reply. We have had this machine for years and have been and are still using FeatureCam for most of the programming. We have some Thermwood routers and Robots that I have been using Mastercam with. The workload for the CNC's increases at time that I want to be able to help out. I have used the FeatureCam but I prefer Mastercam and I haven't really used the other for the last couple years. That being said I am trying to make the nc file from mastercam look the same so the operators don't have to try to figure out what is happining. The posting from the featurecam doesn't include the differance from the inital height. Also there isn't anywhere that the depth$ gets changed execpt when it is read from the NCI. As I said what is output isn't the same as what is the current value in the watch window. I am using the debugger in MC to step through the programto watch what is going on. This is very perplexing as to why it isn't outputting what is in the watch window. I will try your code tomorrow to see if it takes care of the problem. Thank you again.

Good evening all, I have been trying to get an old version 9 Bridgeport dx32 post to work with X5. I have everything good until it posts the canned drill cycles. I am setting depth$ = abs(depth$) and when I watch the value in the debugger it is giving me a positive value every time. When it writes to the nc file the first drill cycle will have a positive z value and the next G8? call the z value will be negative, even though the watch window says it should be positive. Then I might get a depth value that is .1875 smaller than it should be. Again with the value in the watch window being what it should be. Then it will go back and post the next call correctly. There dosn't seem to be any constincy in what it's doing. It also doesn't matter what canned cycle I use as it is doing the same with all. If anyone can help I gladly appreacate it. I have been pulling my hair out as it doesn't make logical sence as to what is going on. I would copy some of the post and output but I'm writing this at home and don't have the post here. If that is needed I can include it tomorrow when I get to work. James

Hi all. I'm not sure this is how to find this out or not but I'm going to try If I need to post somewhere else please let me know in a nice way. The company I work for has 2 seats of MasterCAM router and we also have some VMC's that I post to. Before I upgraded to version 5 I could rename the MD files to a .RMD extension and everything worked fine. With V5 I can rename the MD files the same way and they work but when I reopen the file later it always defaults to a Router MD. Is there anyway that I can get it to work like the older versions and keep the MD with the file? Thanks

I recently was given a program from a 2000 MotionMaster with a ***or 8055 controller. In looking thru the code they use U & W for the rotary axis. This isn't standard and I don't know how MotionMaster defines their axis. I need to try and convert the g-code into points to get into MCX so I can reproduce the parts on our Thermwood 5axis. The company I work for has taken the product over and our sales guys, as usual, made promises that will be almost impossible to keep if I have to manually program this part. I do have a program from Thermwood that will convert the g-code into a dxf but I need to get the rotary axis configuration to B&C. Any help is appreacated.

I know most of you will think I out of date but my company is still using v9.1 sp2(a). I need help getting a post to output generic incremental moves. I can't find anyway to do it and if someone out there could help I would greatly appreacate it. I need incremental to keep the program small and easly adjustable for my laser trimmer. Thanks

I changed the acceleration setting to the middle and it seems to be working OK for now. Thanks for all the suggestions.

I have a Dell Inspiron 9100,WinXP, with a ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 video card, 128MB, running at 1920x1200, true color. When running Mastercam Router upgraded to v9.2, I lose my cursor in the graphics area. It showes everywhere else. This makes it fustrating trying to select items on screen. Is there a setting that will restore the cursor or am I going to have to live with it? Thanks

How do you find the Cadcam FTP site? I tried to go to ftp.cadcam.com and got a popup that said the site didn't accept annomoys logins.

I'm not an instructor but a user. I wish that in your tutorial manual for Router that you would give more information on surfacing with 5 axis. As it is now the only thing about 5 axis is swarf and a 5axis version of a 3 axis pencil operation. Anybody that needs to do any surfacing for mold making gets no help at all from any of the tutorials or examples.