I used Streaming teacher to Solidwork training. I thouhgt it was good. I think its a big advantage to have 2 monitors or 2 PCs and follow along in your software as they do it. You can move at your own speed pause and rewind when needed. Also while you are signed up you can use it as a reference.

The big boys at CNC need to understand how improtant this for their future. I don't just mean Solidworks. Almost all large companys Have lean projects going on. I have no desire to get into the argument about the value of lean. But based on the lean teachings and non-value added work, like the redrawing of a part or a fixture, needs to be fixed now. They will not look at future fixs. It really lends itself to your ProE, NX like software. Once again I am not saying I agree with it I am just saying it is.

I have had the training and I love vericut but I think someone that is new to 5 axis should be able to focus on the 5 axis code. The 5 axis way of thinking can be a tuff and I do not just mean in mastercam. Just the processing of the parts cause in many cases the part themselfs get a lot more involved. If phil had other people using Vericut at his site and he could simple be a user I would say go for it. But since he is asking the question here I assume that is not the case. I think asking someone to learn how to process 5 axis parts learn Mastercam 5 axis and most likly solids and Vericut with only phone support while a new machine is waiting for work is a bit much to ask. Just my opinion.

Vericut is a big investment in not only money but in time. You need the time to get your machines down right and you need time to learn the software and get good at it. This is not a the kind of software you can just learn by trial and error there is a bit of a learning curve. Its great software but if you try to use it halfway you will hate it. If you and your company are new to 5 axis and you do not plan on adding differnt types of 5 axis machines in the near future you might want to look at the Camaix stuff. They supply a post and simulator which they build for your machine and set up for turn key and it requires a hour of training and your good to go. It cost a good bit more then Mastercam Adv Verify and good deal less then Vericut. IMO its perfect for a begineer cause you can focus on your 5 axis operation not learning simulator software.

I had one the other day that I thought was a NCI name issue, it acted just like it but I had posted the program just before the upgrade with no issues. All the ops showed ok but I found that just a select all, Reg fixed the issue.

Yea it does it in XP. It is also repeatable. If you highlight a feature and press the Del key all is well. But if you enter the Delete command highlight a feature and then press the del key the buzzing startes. Once you are in the delete command the software is looking for the enter key not the del key. atleaset that is the way my box is.

To the people who are having major issues like myself. What is the source of your geometry? Is it drawn in Mastercam or imported? If its imported then from what software? I have begun to supect my solidwork 2006 solids may be causing issues. Funny how some of the problems that are common here I don't have and I have problems I haven't seen here yet. Example: twice now while coping operation my operations manager just goes blank. 30-40 operations just gone. Example2: I have a 50 meg 5 axis pallet for a DMU I am working on over the network and it works as dependable as 125K turning only part off my harddrive.

Why open a program up in the editor? Set the program name in the operations. Post it out and send it to the machine. Many of the programs I do are 5 axis. 30,000 lines is not uncommon. Hand editing is not a option. I post right to my DNC directory. Which is the mastercam default

FYI I was talking about James Meyette post. I was just trying to turn the thread from a flame fest to something useful. I have watch James help people for years on this boards. If a post can be made to do what you want James can do it. With combination of this forum and James post you could ask almost any question here MasterCam/Post/machining and pick which way you want to fix a problem. Just my 2 cents

"I have a finely tuned post for Kitamuras. It's going to cost tome coin though. Probing, Macros, Tool Breakage Detection, AI-NANO, Chip Conveyor, High Pressure Coolant, and a bunch of other features." All the forum BS aside you have any clue of the value of a post like that. I have no clue what he is asking for it but to those of us that use MCX as a tool not a way of life a tweaked, support post can mean the differnts between going home every night with a ton of stress or going home with a smile on your face. Oh yea and the machine runs more so your boss is happy to but who really cares about that

I know it’s the end of a long day but X is just giving me too many problems. I made the jump over to X about 3 weeks ago. After attending the upgrade class I was very gung-ho about using it. After about a week I lost the ability to translate solids. I figured I did something dumb and wasted several hours trying to figure it out. I then contacted my dealer who got into my system to find out it was my Mastercam. I watch him create a 1 inch block and try everything to move it with no luck. He was able to edit it on his Mastercam but not mine. I quick call to CNC they say reinstall. That fixed it. Over the last few weeks I have found a few bugs. Mostly small ones and/or related the solidwork converter. But today. Undo quit working on any solids command or translate. It just grays out. If I move a solid the drill point do not move and I posted out a drilling operation that was defined as absolute depth and it had multiple Z depths based on where I grabbed the solid. I have had tech support on my system and I am now waiting for the call back to tell me to do reinstall. With my IT department I will lose a day. This sucks Its easy to say my system is crap but its XP pro P4 3.4, 2 gig ram and a quadro FX 1100 that runs solidworks 2006 and vericut with no issues.

Its off to you, I have noticed the mirror componet had issues back with the 2005-MC9.

Never mind I just talk to the reseller. My problem is the Pattern command is not in Mastercam so it will not work in MC direct.

After waiting a long time I have made the jump to X. I have run into a problem. With my SW2005 I used MCDirect and most of the time it worked good. With X the MCdirect will not startup Mastercam at all and the first model I did the .SFB file save but when i opened it in mastercam it has dropped features. I know I can do parasolid but I use the solids tree infact I use it a lot with familys of parts. I just edit my extruded shapes open up the solids tree regen and repost. With parasolids I just get a brick. Win XP SP2 SW 2005 SP3.0 MC X MR1/SP2

I to would like to thank everyone that posted a link. Good info. I like the idea of a video course and that CNC programming Library from Industrial press seems like a must have.

I think it has to do with how so of the feature are created. I have not used MC direct with SW2006 and MCX. But even with SW2005 and MC9 I would get error on any file that I use Mirror 3D feature on. I think the hole wizard did it a few times but it work most of the time. If I get error I just parasolid it. Not worth the risk of messing you up mid operation and having to start over. If the Convertion does not give any error your good to go.

I have a 70 and a 50. I use the cimco post. You should not have a G7 other then what you posted above with a 5 axis move. Now what would be really cool is if your post support 5 axis tool offsets. The machine supports it but my post does not. Could be that Mastercam is not capible of that function.

ICam Big bucks! Get Mastercam, buy your post through Cimco and just use there online support. I did all post support online and my dealer was only 40 miles away. When you have an issue you just need to send the MCX file showing the problem what your post is out putting and a file showing what the code is you want. Next day post shows up all fixed.

Your Engineer is mold design engineer or a product engineer? I am guessing he is not a manufacturing engineer. He is use to seeing parts after they have been "Cherried" up by a toolmaker. I have seen some pretty neat stuff done with EDMs but they always have EDM finishs not mirror.

Back around 98-99 I did all the training for version 19. 1st day of Lath class. Teacher: You can do anything you want in Pro-manufacturing 3rd day Me: How do I pinch off the burr in the back of the ID so I can transfer part to the 2nd spindel. Teacher: Pause, You will have to right a C code routine to do that. Me: I don't know C code. Teacher: Your company should have someone that can program C. It was right at that point I decided Pro-Manufacturing was a addon not writen by people who had a clue about machining. Just my 2 cents

Is it to late in the topic to give Haas another slame?

Mostly depends on what you are doing. 2d lath work you could get a low end Geforce gaming card. If you are doing 5 axis with models I would not go any lower then Quadro FX 500. If you going to try to use STLs in Verify on 4 or 5 axis you may want a Quadro FX 1100. Nice part is you can skimp on the video card now and use the wasted time to justify a new video card down the road. Just don't buy a low end $399 box. They have the cheapest of everything. These low end boxs CAN have stabilty issues right from new.

First thing you should check is if your system can ping the system with the Hasp. I do not know a lot about WAN's but if your system needs to open a portal to get thru firewalls then I don't think it would work. I would think if you can ping the PC with the Hasp on it then it should work. You should read your Mastercam user aggreement. I think floating Hasps are based on site license. A company with multi sites can not share site to site.

Anyone know any good books on Macro Programming? After seeing James code it reminds me of the old basic I did back in high school. I have avoided Macro so far but I feel like its time.

+1 With what DavidB posted. Its so easy and operators pick up on it quick. We use it all the time on mills and laths.