Stock Model is mostly used for transferring stock from stage to stage, and keeping the stock associated to all previous stages. Think of a multistage process; lots of roughing, lots of finishing. The stock model lets you see the actual stock, at any point in the process. The alternative to this, would be creating a static model of your stock. The benefit of "stock model" is that as you update roughing ops, the changes flow down to finishing ops as well. You can see potential gouges and excess material before they cause you trouble. In your situation, it sounds like you are altering finished parts into "new" parts? If so, you could simply select the finished part as the stock and achieve a similar effect. J

I used Makro grip vises extensively. As good as dovetail vises without the prep stage. 3mm clamping depth. Really nice kit. http://www.lang-technovation.com/en/artikel/gruppen/65339.makro-grip-workholding.html

Does mastercam support this without the mill-turn option? As best I can tell, there is no way to sync anything except to do it by hand, in great peril. Is this in fact the case? Am I missing something obvious? I don't think I should need mill-turn to simply program a twin turret lathe for example. Also, I should be able to post to machine without editing by hand... it is in fact 2016 ya know! J

For radii like this, I've always found blend to be the best option You choose the "spiral" cut method and you get super clean n' easy tool motion. The way it's done is by projecting the top and bottom edge of the rad to your working plane(for simplicity sake...),offset the contours accordingly, choose the 2 profiles to blend, and choose the entire model as drive. What makes this method superior to others, is that you can increase or decrease how far the tool "rolls" by simply offsetting the contour. Tool goes too deep over the edge??? Just offset the contour and regen. You want to go an extra .05" overlap on the top face??? just offset the contour and regen. Best of luck. Jay

Thanks Colin, That kinda-sorta works, except when I switch from high-contrast and back again, Mastercam loses all it's navigation buttons. I need to kill it via the task manager and relaunch each time I switch. Only Mastercam...Everything else is still fine! I'll experiment with making my own theme to remedy this properly! Jay

Microsoft has removed the advanced appearance settings from 10. Do a quick search and you'll see.

Harvey Tool has an excellent selection of plastic and composite specific tooling http://www.harveytool.com/cat/Plastics---Composites/Application-Specific-Designs/Browse-Our-Products_191.aspx They also have this: http://harveytool.com/secure/Content/Documents/Tech_CompressionCutter.pdf

Thad, Yes. When you check the box, it becomes visible.

This is on a regular X9 install, on windows 10. I haven't tried 2017 yet. And I have full administrative rights on my PC. J

Ok, I can't read any of the text in the dialog box. See attached. Back in the day, windows let you change anything you want, but I cannot seem to find any thing on 10. As soon as I put a checkmark in the box, that one item becomes visible. Any ideas on how to change these colours? can't see.bmp

Afternoon Everyone, I need to resurrect this topic. I thought it worked, but it doesn't. Or should I say, it works in typical "Mastercam" fashion! All jokes aside; When I use a "surface high speed" operation, and I turn on the "tool inspection", everything works wonderfully. Now, when I use a "2D high speed" operation, and I turn on "tool inspection", it doesn't work at all. I've compared the NCI for both of these paths and only the "surface" version has the 70000(pause for inspection) control flag in it. Is this yet another mastercam bug? The 2D path is actually generating the retract points per my criteria, but it doesn't output the NCI flag to initiate the pause. How can I remedy this? I'm really, really, really counting on these inspection points to work!!!!! Jay

Thanks a ton GCODE. I got it working perfectly. J

Gcode, No updated anything. Everything is pure, clean X9 mastercam. Like I said, I get these on "manual entry" paths...There's no tool associated with them! And if it were a bug with a tool def, shouldn't the NCI fail predictably? I'm just not used to a CAM software being so unpredictable. I don't like it. I don't feel like I can ever trust the software. If it's user error, that's fine; but this is totally random. J

Thanks, I see that now. However, It's useless without post editing. How am I to distinguish the time based retracts? Where will I start editing? J

Morning, Does Mastercam offer the ability to set a "retract after time" value? For example, I'm going to mill a large pocket with WG-300 ceramics, and I want the cutter to retract and stop every 3 minutes for edge rotation. Is it possible to automate this? J

I'm using X9, completely up to date,and I get them constantly.

Morning, What are some possible causes of the "Repaired NCI" I keep seeing in my files. Literally, every time I open a file, I get at least one. There's never anything wrong with them, just locked and the name is changed. It happened today on a "Manual Entry". What could possibly go wrong with a manual entry tool path? Is this normal, Mastercam behavior? J

Thanks a lot everyone. That's what I thought. I was hoping for some magical solution but I guess not! I'll translate and make new planes! Jay

Morning, I have a fully programmed job on a horizontal "B" axis. Boss wants to duplicate the job on a vertical "A" axis. Now, no special considerations were made when programming the original. No relative planes, nothing like that. What is involved in converting this file? Are there any tricks? I really don't know where to start. It feels like I'm basically going to have to start over. Move everything to correct orientation, recreate planes, verify each op, etc, etc. Is that correct? JAY

https://www.whitneytool.com/Category.aspx?ID=9 WTC makes all kinds of tiny drill extensions. You might find something in there! Jay

Morning Everyone, I just got to work and confirmed the "Create From" option. It works. So, in summary; if you "COPY" a plane, it is linked to the original(unless you alter its angle or position). if you "CREATE FROM", it is not linked in any way. I couldn't find this behavior mentioned anywhere in the help file. Hard to say if it's a longstanding bug or "working as designed". Thanks again, Jay

Colin, This is exactly what I'm doing, and it's not functioning. My WCS is "Top" for every operation. No offset listed. I have 8 T/C planes, each with an different offset listed 0-7 Every single operation has the checkmark, and shows the correct number. Up to here, everything works perfect... When I copy the T/C plane, and define the new offset, the plane that I copied from changes too. Everytime. If I rotate the new plane 1 degree, everything works. If it "shares" the rotation with another plane, both become linked. I know how it's supposed to work, it's just not. I think I have found my mastercam bug of the day! Jay

BenK, You're right...You SHOULD be able to change it, but you can't. As soon as I change an offset from within the toolpath, the global offset changes in the plane manager thus changing every path associated with it. They are linked and I can't break that link. I tried copying the plane(so it's unique) but that's a no-go as well. Any similar plane is treated as identical and linked; update one and they all change. Basic, basic, basic functionality like this should be easy! Jay

Morning, As the topic suggests, how do I get a G55(for example...) on just one operation that shares a workplane with another op? I've tried duplicating the plane to give it it's own offset but for some reason, the planes remain linked. If I change the output on one, every similar plane changes. If I add the offset to the planes page of the op, it changes globally as well. I feel this should be really simple, and I just can't find it! Jay

Thank you Colin! It's all in there, just hidden in many different spots! Jay