Seems like a nightmare. Do all machines have that same X,Y & Z travel, Horse Power, rigidity? Do you make all programs to wimpest machine? does not sound like a money maker to me.

Thanks Dave,,, I know Camaros Arent "cool" anymore but someones going to have to pry that car out of my cold dead hands. I have not done Mazak I some time. I am currently using DMU evolutions and they use a G7 to set planes. I was told by someone who I thought knew what he was talking about that Mazak could do the same thing it 5 axis positioning but it could not do it is true 5 axis work. Maybe he was referring to 5 axis incremental moves. I will need to figure this out tho cause my company has Mazaks in the UK and we may transfer jobs from time to time.

I am a fan of the mazak controllers but they have one weakness. In true 5 axis work they can only work using single predefined origin point. So any post you get is going to ask for the distance from that point to your MC origin on every WCS you have. As a general rule these custom posts are pricey and locked down by the Mastercam serial numbers. Since you will need to know the distance away just shift your part in Mastercam that distance and your current post should work. I currently am running multi-part 5-axis production of medical parts lights out and all parts are programmed this way. Funny part is I have the high end post but with proven programs I want my operators to fix what’s wrong at the machine not just try to adjust the problem away.

I think what happened is you coppied the one drill path to make the second drill path. When you did MC asked you "Do you want maintain depths" you answered yes. That locks the two depth. I have found no quick fix for this. Delete the coppied path, recopy this time say no.

www.Monster.com Keyword: Mastercam Press:enter 86 listings. You should check it everyday.

My reseller told us they had the MR1 build but it needed a patch. Since the MR1 build is a patch for update 2. It seems we are waiting for a Patch for the patch of the patch that was for the first patch of the first release. Who's on second, No,,,,

I switched to 8 in 98? Would any one still have 7? Sometimes I can get older stuff from some of the down graded older boxs but we are talking an old NT box P2 233 64 megs of ram. That won't even run a decent database anymore. The PC we use to check in the UPS is faster then that. If I remember right Camaix was the Mazak bomb back then. I think their mazak support dropped with 9.

"Lol. Well, this machine aint gonna hurt no1 cause the company i work with are all experienced and they know how to make these stuff already." Ok that is where I am mistaken. See here, where I live, people make mistakes and when those mistakes end a career layers get involved. Once layers are involved everyone gets sued. Machine building company’s know it and are insured for it. I still think its a great project and wish you luck.

Don't get me wrong I think its a great project but you did start out your post with "My company kinda" When you are done you will have a neat little project but you should not put a operator in front of it and say run these parts. If you did you are opening up your company to a hugh law suit. I was just saying if you rebuild an existing machine the design responsibility still goes back to the original manufacture. You would still know 10 times more then any 16 year old knows about CNCs that I have ever met. It’s just my opinion but it you want to build automation build a pick and place robot, something low power that can not hurt anyone. FYI as a tool designer I have been to court over a hydraulic fixture that was designed by me that pinched off someone’s fingers. The design assume twin palm button on the actuator but that had been disabled. My company was found not liable but still had to pay lawyers and waste time. I do think there was a settlement between the operator and the company that made the palm buttons.

What a undertaking. I can see it as a hobby but for a boss to have someone that work for him build a CNC? There is a lot more to a controler the move X stepper then move Y stepper. Buy a Used South Western MX3 for 5 grand rebuild it. You will have 1% of the headaches and be done and ready to run "Safely" 10 times faster. In the end you will have a nice sellable machine. Most states protect employers from being sueing if an employee is hurt at work. Machine manufacture are not protected. Build your own machine and your employee cuts off a finger or worse and you open a door that could cost you everything.

How bad it is when a person not smart enough to know he is breaking a law can download a pirated version of Mastercam and install it. Guy I know bought his son a MP3 player so he can download all his music for free. Guy had no clue he was setting himself up to get a fine. Oh the good old days when you had fight thru the back alleys of WareZ and end up reformating about every 2 week to pirate something.

------------------------------------------------- Had the same interview and test. When they told me what they were offering I was totaly disapointed. I'd be stuck in traffic making over 10k less a year. Good luck ! ------------------------------------------------- Man I am glad you did not take the job. I was coming from the Western part of PA and was just laid off. It is truly a great company. They are paying for my move, all the costs selling my house and they did not even mention you get paid OT. Which is unlimited, its nice to work for a company that has money the last three places I worked for were fighting to stay in business. Edit: Still I can't shake the feeling I got sloppy seconds. [ 12-20-2005, 01:59 PM: Message edited by: DC Gorn ]

What fastercam said, My last interview they sat me infront of a box with a print and said go for it. Funny thing was I was nervous and the interviewer asked to change the number scheme for the "N" numbers so I opened the post and started to change it. He was like NO! I ment in the editor oh never mind you passed. Then I had a writen test. 6 hour interview all told. It did end in a offer and I have been here ever since. Afterwards the interviewer did tell me he had people that claimed they knew Mastercam but could not draw and program a simple box.

"Kia support", Those are two words that can only be put together when "There is no" starts the sentence.

Dan, You have mail.

I looked through and did not see one. I saw a Maho that could index the head 90 degs only. You have a file names? Might want to head of to Vericuts website. http://www.cgtech.com/forum/index.php?sid=...e859d29efade53f

It is nice to see an engineering student interested in machining. Most engineers tend to throw stuff over the fence and blame manufacturing if it does not work. The best design engineers have a good idea how the prototypes will be made, then review with manufacturing changes that will improve the production of the part while not effecting the design intent. Knowing Mastercam and how it works is a great first step. Might want to also want to check out Vericut. (http://www.vericut.com/) MasterCam will write the code and Vericut is a full cyber machine that can test run your CNC program. BTW: Many new controls not only connect through RS232 but they also have network cards that allow for domain settings, Both windows and netware are supports. So a machine shows up as a node on the network. It can even be a drag and drop folders right on your desktop.

Is it professional to post a topic that can only result in flames? This is one of most useless threads we have had in awhile. Course I read it and responded, Doh! I 'm ducking back under my flame resistant blanket.

I had this problem with a ATI card aways back in ver 9.1 sp2

There is a text out function in both 10 and 9. You can text out a tool library from 10 and read it in 9. Don't do it. I ended up with an "almost library" but the tools have errors in them. It works sometimes but it can bite you later. Problems show up if you try to make operations library from a job that has these tools and you can get tools that do not show in verify and they looked all messed up in Vericut after the info exchange.

There are some used Spaceballs 4000 on Ebay. Is there any differnce between a IBM or a HP? They are both called spaceball 4000's? Are they just putting their name tag on it?

If I understand right you are asking for stock reconition in a milling operation. We have been asking for that since like version 6.

I think your question is too general. I will give you a quick rundown of what I know. There are a ton of softwares that handle 3 axis mill and lathe. The full version of Cimco is the first that comes to mind. I also like one I found long ago called inplot. 5 axis is a whole differnt story. I know of three softwares that sim 5 axis. The first you stated Camiax second was also stated Vericut and third is Predator. Camiax: I have used and found it works as advertised it runs on NCI code and has added crash detection recently. Downside is it has limitations and its criptic to edit simulator I also think it required a Camaix post processor. This system really is great for your first 5 axis machine. Just write the check and get a turn key from Camiax. You could be up and running in weeks. Training is measured in hours. Vericut: This software is amazing. I am now working on production 5 axis stuff using tomestones and tool changes/indexes can really get out of hand. With Vericut I am running a true simulation of the G-code with tool changer and anything else I want in the model. I can add automation and do real gouge checking. I can save off inprocess models for the CMM. Downside is Price and leaning curve. As for Predator someone else will have to help you out I have not used it.

We had bought a post from our dealer that I was told came direct from CNC software. They even requested the model number so the could tweak it for our machine. I think there was some tweaking but it was fully supported. Just post out a operation and edit it to what you want and send a copy of befre and after into your dealer and post shows up in a few days. Very painless. Oh the joys of a supported post

Shawn, Just to renforce what Pete said. IGES format has had a lot of changes over the years and it has a lot of format adjusting allowed in the file specs. Many companys like autodesk no longer support IGES files because of the constant updates and 100's of varibles. This is why IGES seems like Pot luck. Sometimes IGES works great other time it just crash your App to the desk top.