Cool. Thanks Roger. Bryan

My company is finally upgrading to the latest MC X6. So that means upgrading all out chooks. The x6 help file say vs2003 or later is required for the sdk. Is that correct? or is vs2010 the current minimum. Bryan

removing kb971090 (8.0.50727.4053) seemed to fix this.

Fresh install of vc++. I'm wondering if the chook is being compiled against a different version of the crt and the malloc/free version mismatch is causing this. Have to wait until monday to test.

You can get a Post Processor guide Cd from you reseller. Bryan

Hi all, I recently moved over X2 to win7 x64. Chooks that had no issues on XP 32 are now crashing. So far all crashes seem to be related to memory issues. Some I've been able to fix. Others have me stumped. For example: calling stdc free() (per the documentation) on the data from ps_tag_to_mc_ents(). 2 out 3 chooks this is used, it works fine. The 3rd (and simplest chook) crashes. The code for the 3 routines is: Call ps_tag_to_mc_ents with an edge tag loop resulting ent(s) if ent meets a criteria, delete it. free eptrs array debug is breaking on the free() or more specifically _ASSERTE(_CrtIsValidHeapPointer(pUserData)); in dbgheap.c Is there a compiler setting I should be looking for? Is the stdc free() the wrong function? Several mc api functions provide their own free routine. is the free for ps_tag_to_mc_ents missing from the api? In the api FREE() seems to be a wrapper for stdc free(). Should I be using m_free() in mastercam? Or something else? Any thought would be appreciated. Bryan

Out of curiosity, when you say 'database' are you saving custom info in the entity database, a separate file, or doing something else? If you hooking the save event to save to a separate file. I'm guessing, it maybe the redX or sim disconnected is calling MCEVENT_MCEXIT unloading any memory resident chooks before they can see the MCEVENT_PRE_FILE_SAVE. If you're saving custom data inside the mcx file and mastercam itself is saving the info, no idea. But I'd be your best friend forever if I could learn to save custom data inside a mcx file.

Thanks Roger. You rule.

This is for an X2 chook.

Anybody know what the function is to create edges/curves from a surf? Solids are easy enough with ps_solid_ask_edges and ps_tag_to_mc_ents but I'm drawing a blank with surfs. build_all_edgecrvs_on_surf, build_all_edgecrvs_on_surf_bndy, and build_edgecrv_on_surf look promising but they're not documented. Thanks for any help. Bryan

Thanks Pete, I saw that, not really what I need. I'm trying to automate projecting some lines, arcs, etc onto a bunch of surfs and solids. Bryan

I thought I asked this a while back but can't find the thread. What's the function to do xform project via a function? I see the other xform move/rotate functions in xform_ch.h but don't see the project. Thanks for any help. Bryan

Thanks Roger. Looks like me and the nci_manager are going to become good friend. lol Yeah, I just called back after being laid-off for 5 months. (It sucked.) Bryan

Anybody know if there's an api function to create the lines and arcs for a toolpath display without going through the hassle of backplotting the operation? I looked through the sdk and didn't find anything promising. My fear is I will end up having to scan the bnci and create the geometry myself. Bryan

I hear Visual Studio 2010/.Net 4.0 is supposed to have increase support for parallel programming. Maybe after those are released. Bryan

Hi Roger, I've been hiding under a rock for awhile. Buried under a lot of other projects. I'm trying to get back to some chook bugs, upgrades, new chook requests here at the shop. Thanks for the info. It just occurred to me while using the function there wasn't explicit "you need to clean this up yourself" comment in the doc and I was afraid of a memory leak. Or worse freeing it myself only to have MC do it later and crash. Bryan

Does anybody know if when using the eptrs and num_eptrs parameters in select_ents is the user responsible for freeing up the memory or does Mastercam clean it up later by itself? Bryan

Looks like you're pulling from the wrong pointer. After rotating ppp.eptr != punt2. try pulling from punt2->eptr->u.pt store_ent updates the ppp variable but rotate_silent doesn't. The values in ppp become stale. bryan

Yep, We're seeing it too. It's kinda annoying. XP machines. With Toolbar icons set both large and small. If you undock and redock the toolbar it'll temporarily restore the icons. It's a temp solution but better than restarting everytime. I've already had some email exchanges with QC to figure it out. But No luck yet. Please report this to [email protected] so they know it's more than one or two people and can get it figured out. Bryan

I had another thought if they are dealing with straight geometry convert it to an ascii format like iges and they can run it through normal plagiarism software. If they're dealing with geometry and toolpaths it should be easy enough to get a chook or vbscript written to convert the significant bits to text and do the same. level, color, time, entity number, radius, length, toolpath comment, feeds and speeds, etc. Bryan

Dave, I don't see why not. It should be easy enough to go through a directory of files and pull the entity number and creation times and look for and count the matches. If the student is half way smart though (but if they're copying they can't be too smart) they could reset the numbers and time by importing/exporting the geometry or merging it into a file with existing geometry. It should also be possible to compare entities looking for full or partial matches based on properties such as color, level, radius, length, etc and spit out a percentage of overlap. A certain percentage would be expected if the students are working on the same part but a higher number might indicate something else. Bryan

Pete, Thanks Pete. But that seems to do the same as calling OnViewPreviousView. I'm looking for a way to set the previous t/c/g views and then call named_view_manager. So that if the user runs previous view/cplane/tplane through mastercam it'll go back to the t/c/g view from before the chook was run. Either that or named_view_manager should be but isn't setting the 'previous' variables when called with VWMGR_TPLANE, VWMGR_CPLANE, or VWMGR_GVIEW. But I'm thinking since set_gr_view and set_gview don't set the previous whatever, this is by design and there a separate routine(s) for setting 'previous' before or after calling named_view_manager or set_gr_view or set_gview. Bryan

Thanks Pete Bryan

Pete, Are you talking about the useEntityAtts in merge_db or is there something else "Construction Attributes" refers too? If its useEntityAtts, I've tried it with all 5 setting to TRUE; Use the merged entities original settings. As well as a mixture of TRUE and FALSES. Bryan

I did the read_ent thing back in version 8 and 9. It worked great for a couple years. Simple entities aren't a problem, like points, lines, and arcs (and notes but they take a little work). But trying to do splines, surfs, trimmed surfs, and solids is a MAJOR pain. And some areas like solids are probably impossible given the limited nature of the sdk. Thanks for the help though. Bryan