It's too late but... If you want to use the exact name for the 3D HST operations, the post parameter 12628 will work: 12628: 0-Core roughing 1- Area clearance 2- Waterline 3- Constant stepover 4- Horizontal ... ... For the complete list, see page 265 in the latest edition (X6 MU2) of NCI & Parameter Reference or seach it for, for example, the word "core roughing". HTH Kyosuke

Roger Martin, Thank you so much!!!

I was asked to post the following question from a collegue, who doesn't have account for entering the forums here: "Greetings. We are having a hard time producing toolpath on stl with our chook. Could anyone please tell us how to program the stl files to be recognized as "drive surface"? Thank you so much in advance. Best regards, Jon" He used the word "stl files" above but exactly what he is asking is about stl mesh entity, not external .stl file. He would like to know the way to pick stl mesh in the graphic window and use/treat it as drive surface for generating toolpath by our own c-hook, like we can do with surface entity. Does anyone know?

T_MALENA, Did you find the solution to your problem? I've been facing the same problem, too. Would you let me know if any idea?

We're developping a program for X MR2 with C-Hook and just facing a problem in it (the function "toolpath_init") If following the steps below, Mastercam X MR2 always crashes: 1. Create a toolpath operation (anything) in X. 2. Run their own C-hook program using the function "toolpath_init" like below: extern "C" __declspec(dllexport) int m_main (int not_used) { MC_BOOL succf; toolpath_init( TRUE, TRUE, TRUE, TRUE, &succf ); return MC_NOERROR; } 3. Click the "Delete all operations, groups and tools" button on the Toolpath manager. The developer wonders why... Can I have any idea to avoid this crash?

markov, Thank you for the information! I'll transmit to the developer.

I imagine that the thing I'm about to ask here is a piece of cake for most of the C-hook developers in the world but it's so hard for me because I'm a stranger to development. I've got a question from a developer. He just started writing the codes of the chook for Mastercam X and asked the way to determine whether machine definition now exists, or not. He is trying to port the chook from v9 to X. The chook uses the NCI Import function to import the external text nci file into X. He would like his program to determine whether the (proper) machine definition is now loaded, or not when the program imports the nci file. Although he refered to the SDK and I searched eMastercam for the information about it, we couldn't know how to do that. Could anyone let me know the way or the information to achieve it? (I would like to know the things, say, variable, function, etc...needed to see if the machine now exists currently.) I read the documentations in sdk but I couldn't know what to do (It's written in Geek for me... ).

Here is a question regarding the creation of Chain with C-hook. It is impossible to set the Chain when running the program like the followings in the Lathe module (Mastercam v9.1SP2). - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 1) Creating the blank Lathe groove toolpath operation: operation_manager( &op, OPMGR_INIT_ADD, &d_ptr, &succf ); 2) Creating the chain by picking the geometric entity (entities) from the graphic window (repeat the following by the number of the geometric entitiy): add_curve_to_chain( &ew, 0, TRUE, SELECT_BIT, chain, &ce ); 3) Applying the chain which was just created in the previous step to the blank operation which was created in STEP 1: cmi.op_idn = op.op_idn; cmi.mode = CHNMGR_ADD; chain_manager( &cmi, 0, &succf ); - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Some procedures are omitted in the sample above, but anyway, it is possible to apply the Chain to the Lathe Rough toolpath operations or the Lathe Finish toolpath operations with the procedures like those. However, for the Lathe groove toolpath operations, chain_manager() always results in fail. Is this a defect in C-Hook? Or, is the special procedure needed to do that for the Lathe groove toolpath? If so, could you let me know the way to apply the Chain to this type of toolpath operation?