Oh that's great! Cheers!!!

Wow I have to say. Amazing response from people there. I wasn't expecting to get much... I just had a really frustrating time today. Though I managed not to scrap anything. Also I am sorry to everyone who quite rightly pointed out I didn't ask a valid question or explain the problems I'm having... But others filled in the blanks for me in places. Basically, the shop I work for try to standardise the programming so that the non-cam savvy can adjust the tool rads so that chamfers, rounded corners and limits all hit the mark. This is governed by the machines tool tabels. If we set the comp to "computer" it means there is no offset added in the control so adjusting tool rads makes no difference , everything runs off the CL. I've noticed the other options such as "wear" and wondered if they are a solution to this problem and thought some of you ninjas out there would probably be able to explain it to me, as there must be a simple solution ? As for helix bore functions, its my new favourite way to hit tight limit bores. But with "control" selected, if you use the "rough/finish" functions and don't keep the tool down you can find that it applies RL comp on the rapid back up to retract plane. Which was infuriating. No worries if there's no easy answer. Cheers for any feedback

...I swear it is. I'm new to mastercam (on a heidenhain control) and I've never found such a devilish system to wrap my head around. At first I thought I was sailing through it; I splashed out on some PDFs from this lovely site (which were a huge help) and even paid insane pennies for "tips for manufacturing" DVDs (also very helpful). All of my simulations looked joytastic and I was itching to start putting all my hard work to use in the shop. Then I encounter this old chestnut "cutter compensation-control" Staggering. Helix bores can now choose to randomly commit suicide. Lead in and out is a mine field. Translated toolpaths can go bonkers and my trust in the system is very shakey. I'm fortunate enough to work with a proper mCAM pro, but I already bug the heck out of him with questions .. I've looked around and found many other have problems but is there an easy answer that im missing? I've only worked in two jobshops in my 10 years of machining so for all I know people are setting things up differently to me; is "control" an option no one bothers with? Do the cam wizards adjust all delta radius tweaks within mastercam and not their tool library? I've got to go now... Need to figure out why my CC has decided to turn "Left" when leaving a hole at rapid speed.

two good replies there, cheers guys! I will check out the PPD forum and see if theres anything for newbies in there

Hello MasterCam'ers My first post on here so I will try and keep it short; I recently started a great new job where Mcam has been made available to me and im doing my best to pick everything up. I've been working through a flurry of training material and am understanding things relatively well so far... in a bite-sized-chunks sort of way. However. As I work under someone with considerably more experience and skill than myself, I have noticed that the ability to tweak post processors here and there is a massive help! Sadly it makes little sense to me, but im willing to put some hours each week toward building a basic understanding and hopefully one day I will be able to make some tweaks myself. Im just wondering if anyone can point me in the right direction for some instructional material. Even if its "well you need to learn to read code, it will take years..." - it seems worth the effort from what I see each day. Many thanks to anyone who does bother to skim through this