thanks guys I will try these following ideas Monday morning when I return to work from my three day weekend,..  

Is there a way to get my tools separated from the assembly files that were created by default when we upgraded to X8. I have over 100 assemblies and want to just have them saved as tools so I can see them on the tools page in the tool manager. I've started creating new tools from scratch but figure there must be an easier way. If anyone can help it's much appreciated..

I too am having this problem. Got a alarm 357 cutter comp interference because the arc was 50%. Changed lead in/out arcs to 100% and didn't get the error. BUT- when we ran the program, the machine ended up taking a huge bite out of the side of the part that should have been a .003" finish cut... My mistake is I only backplotted instead of simulating, but the issue is still not resolved... This is the first time we've ran control compensation.

 

It looks as if the cutter is following the toolpath at the center of the tool during lead in/out, and at the end of the lead/beginning of toolpath, it switched to cutting edge...

 

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make sure you have gouge check box ticked so you get no gouges on lead in and outs..

Im guessing your going to have to provide a better image of your part you are trying to make. By looking at the image you have it does not appear to be round so Im just guessing but probably not.

HTH...

Ok thanks for suggestinions I just ended up righting a path in master cam and checked the backplot time and tweaked it to get a run time of 3 hrs. Just going to run with that. Thanks again for advice..

Oh yea it's a Fanuc 18i-Mb control thanks.

Long story short. Replaced X axis ballscrew and maintenance wants to run the table back and forth for few hrs to break in the ballscrew. Is there a few lines I could manually command from mdi with a m99 at end so that it would loop back and run for say 2 hrs total or a program that will run for an exact 2 hrs.. thanks in advance.

updating to X8 fixed the troubles I was having with the tool manager in X7 not deleting tools. Im assuming this is a bug in X7.. Mastercam QC would have to confirm that one as I don't know for sure. just happy it was fixed when updated to X8.  HTH...

What could be the problem is if your tools are already linked with a holder. If that's the case, it's now an assembly, so you'll need that checked or both.

yes I think they are linked with a imported holder that mastercam did during the update of X8. Is there anyway to un link the holder so it is not an assembly if this is the case ? thanks in advance

we have several of the D688 models where I work at and they are very solid vises for steel, Mold Max, Aluminum, and other materials as well.

It does it with filtering or without filtering. I thought that was the case too when I upgraded to X8 and started having the issues with the tool manager. I have since drug the columns to the far right of the screen so I don't have to see them but was hoping someone might know what causes it to act the way it does.. thanks.

make certain your not collapsing the columns, if you do that it will reset to default

you can also drag the columns, it's like working with an excel spread sheet

Question. When I have my tool manager open like this and I go down and check the tools only tab instead of both, all of my tools disappear. What is causing this issue?  The tools are there just not displayed for selection when the tools tab is checked. thanks

We run sumitomo brand carbide drills and in order to get the correct feed rates output in mastercam we have to set them as 1 flute tools instead of 2 or thus we get doubled feed rates.

 

 

I would say that you have mico switches or proximity switches that are gummed up or contaminated by swarf and the logic of the toolchange macro is failing.

Or someone has played with the macro and the logic is messed up, however then the toolchange would likely never work.

 

Many machines have a Large/Heavy tool toolchange sequence that runs physically slower than a regular toolchange to combat inertia.

probably gummed up proximity switches most likely on the machine Im referring too. The tool change area and arm and all that goes with it gets soaked with coolant throughout the day. As for the speeds we have 3 very large makinos in our shop two 50 taper and the other HSK-100 taper I think? but they do not have the option of adjusting tool change speeds for different tools. they all are changed at same speed. thus the reason I questioned this logic. but if its available and its a viable solution Im all for it. I know I would like the misc integers more easily accessible than they are now for other reason than mentioned above basically for dwell times for custom drill cycles and to be able to change wcs and many other things that could be implemented.

A robodrill I run does this at every tool change in the program if your post multiple tool programs. I like the idea of this. the EOB you are seeing is being assigned by your machine when putting it back out from the control. I don't see how its a problem as the machine should just process (skip this line)  and go to next line automatically. I would think you can set cimco edit up to strip the EOBs off when reading programs back in from the machine as well.

Is it possible to slow down the speed of a tool change. reason I ask is I have seen machines alarm out due to the tool change arm being out of sync or some odd reason and not moving at all thus after about 60 seconds an error is thrown up on the screen of said machines saying tool change cycle has timed out. this leaves you stuck dead in the water and having to start your tool change process all over again. So slowing the speed down could cause machine errors possibly ?? or is this something that can be adjusted via parameters or keep relays at the machine control..

I recently used a threadmill path at work and I normally right click and select Z depth from the input tab on my depth and go select my depth with the mouse to get my depth value as well as the same for my top of stock. Normally my top of stock is Z zero and depth how ever far below it needs to be. this instance was different as my Z zero was bottom of block and the top of stock and depth were going to be in positive values of which were not know off top of my head. well when I went to select my depth first then top of stock I received an error saying incorrect expression has to be 0 to greater or something to that extent. after following the same procedure to select the depth of my start point first then the final depth I did not receive said error. I  was able to continuously repeat this, Is this a bug or a feature to make sure you have your thread mill set up correctly. Reason I ask is it never mattered in X7 if you chose the depth or top of stock first and now it seems it does. thanks,

yea I got two letters in the mail this week saying my info may have been compromised from Anthem Insurance this week and I haven't had that insurance for long time but there excuse was they keep peoples info for 10 yrs for some odd reason, so now they are offering me free credit monitoring protection. As for the cloud machining yea its sounds all nice but if you have anything proprietary which most things we as machinists make is then probably not a good idea to be putting it out on the net where its even easier to get when people can get to it right in your own business if they try hard enough. mixed thoughts on this as this technology evolves.

Sorry, I missed the non laser in your original post.  

 

What spindle do you have in the machine?

Its a Toyoda FV1050S with a 15000 RPM spindle and a Fanuc 18i-mb control. really good running machine would just like to tighten up my tolerances of my touch offs

I apologize for the error, but would that help u out?

It might if I understood how macros work with variables. lol. I was envisioning a program I run from memory which I assume the above does once stored there but have it so I can set an known X,Y.Z zero in g55 and when I hit cycle start and run the program it knows the tool in the spindle without me telling it and also to tell said tool number to go to my x.y.z zeros without having to type this out all long hand in mdi. basically set the XYZ as needed per set up in the program that's in memory and once done I can go through my tools that need blended off. also a way to start with say tool 1 and work incrementally upwards but the ability to skip tool numbers if needed due to not being used in toolpaths posted to run. If this is to far demanding of a macro I don't know but if possible would definitely be helpful and I most grateful.  I don't know how to tell what variables are used or not other than the variables that are stored permanently for use with my probe. 500 to 520 I think cant recall since not by my machine.  thanks so much in advance for all help and ideas on my procedure im trying to simplify.

I think he means G0X#601Y#611Z#621. :unworthy:

thanks ron I was looking at that last night and thinking something just dosent look right. I understand macro programing just enough to be dangerous and love to use them but don't know as much as I would like to when it comes to writing them out. Any good books on macro programming for beginners out there in macro language.

Our Hermle C40u's have the probe and setter as you and they are running within a tenth.  

 

How are you setting the standard and probe length? Off line or on the machine? The most accurate is to use a gage block and bring the spindle nose down to a slip/no shake, set zero and then probe the top of the block.  This compensates for the probe deflection. 

 

Make sure you use the radial offsets for the blume. the laser is at a slight angle and your error will increase as diameter increases if not. HTH's

My Blum is not a laser tool setter. Its just a round touch pad that the tools touch off on the face of. I calibrate my part probe using the renishaw macro that came with the probe to calibrate the length of it. as for the Blum tool setter ( non laser) it came with a precision made and ground standard with the length laser etched into the side of it. That Value is used when calibrating the tool setter using supplied macro to do so. All off this calibration is done in the machine. I would be interested more in hearing better ways of calibrating my machines probe and tool length setter other than the supplied macros so as to tighten up the tolerances between them and my tools. I would love to have a .0003 tolerance would make my life a lot easier when I kick off 20 some paths to run unattended. thanks for all info provided. 

Be careful with using incremental clearance values with 2D paths drills, contour, pockets etc. A .250 incremental clearance retract could actually be a .750  absolute value from the bottom of your work piece and then you will have a tool crash and a scrapped block.

I blend all my tools off before running finishing paths on my cavity and core blocks by doing the following. I will set a g55 wcs of to the side of my work piece. I will then go through the time consuming task of typing in mdi the following.

T1 M6 CYCLE START.

TOOL IS IN SPINDLE

NEXT.

G55 X0 Y0

G54 G43 H1 Z0

This brings tool to location where I can set a relative 0 and handwheel the cutter from the side of block onto the work piece to see if it blends or not and how much it needs adjusted once it does blend.

Next

cutter is blended and off .002

update the offset for tool accordingly and watch that the offset was added or subtracted in the right amount.

next

onto the next tool repeating this process upwards of ten tools or more on each work piece.

anything you can right a macro up for here?? say something I can set the x,y,z values in once time and hit cycle start and it takes tool in spindle to the location given while grabing the wcs and offsets from the macro somehow..

thanks for any help or advice in advance.

Plunging with larger diameter endmills than the probe causes error due to the endmills center clearance. Does Blum have a manual setting macro to handwheel off center to pick up a single flute? We plunge on center with all of our probes. The higher powers didn't like the idea of the tools spinning on a carbide probe surface. Anyway, a 1/2 inch endmill on a 1/2 inch chamfered probe usually picks up a .001 error. I have seen 3/4's on the same 1/2 probe be off .003. I either just account for the distance or set it manually by hand wheeling off center line. If all the tools were being set accurately but just off the same amount, it would we a work coordinate issue. Blend issues are caused from errors in picking up large and smaller tools while plunging. And if the probe face is not indicated in. 

The macro I use has an option to offset the X or Y half the diameter of the tool in order to address the error for tools larger than the touch off pad. When touching off tools that large I always bring them down to a known surface in Z and adjust them as needed for the error if any in measurement. The tools I finish with are always less than the diameter of the touch off face which is 25mm I do believe. I also checked for flatness of the tool setter pad with indicator and its dead on.