Let me know if it is a Proe file and I can help you out.

Ron, I need more information. I have made a request through the link on the website. This looks like a solution we have been looking for with in mold inspection.

Let me first say that the guys I have worked with who have serious problems with ProE usually are pissing and moaning about it didn't work that way in (Insert Cad Package Here) and that goes for any software change. Embrace it and add it as another tool in your package of “look what I can do.” The Cost of Proe maintenance is HUGE when compared to many cad packages. Customer service for me has been great. I think a lot of that depends upon you Maintenance supplier and the size of your company. The ProE website is difficult to use, but once you have access, it has a lot of useful information. Pro can be buggy at times, but so are other cad packages. IT all depends upon what you are doing. IF you are doing single prismatic parts then SolidWorks is sufficient and very efficient for your needs. Come into the realm of Family Table replacement parts in Mold Design and Solid works fails miserably....Come into the realm of complex surface design work and SolidWorks fails miserably. ProE works great when it is utilized properly. Come into the realm of mechanical simulation for complex automation functions and SolidWorks fails miserably compared to Pro. If you use ProProgram to automate many functions it flies. Electrode design is simplistic at best in Proe if you know how to use cut-out functionality in assembly mode, and if you can utilize surface design functionality it gets even better. There is however a huge learning curve to become productive let alone efficient. We still have guys here after years who don't understand parentchild relations and the dangers there in if applied incorrectly. Proe part files and assemblies have always come in fine for me through the Proe Translator with solids. My datum planes, coordinate systems, axis, and curves always come in so that they can easily be layered off. The datum planes are very helpful when creating new Work Offsets. Like others have said there are pluses and minuses to all packages. Don't fight the system your management is putting in place. Respectfully voice your concerns in writing with factual information backing your stance. Leave out your anecdotal evidence, because management will mark you as a complainer. Finally make the best with what you are given to work with. A lot of us make a living using Proe and Mastercam.

+1 on EMUGE. They are expensive, but when programmed at the recommeded speeds and feeds the tool life is expceptional. I ran a 1/8 NPT thread mill from EMUGE and did 150 holes in P20. The same cutter from Harvey would give me about 30 holes before I had enough tip chipping that the gage would no long fit. Harvey cost about a 1/3 of what the EMUGE did.

I used them alot until I started using the HPM line of cutters. The speeds are actually slow when people think of HSS machining, but the chip load and MMR is huge. 8mm CUTTER(JHP 170 SERIES) 56-62 Rc TOOL STEEL SLOTTING 1201 RPM 36.3 IPM .157 DOC FULL WIDTH

For future reference Jabro makes some excellent cutters for this kind of application. Their HPM product line would work great for this. They make the cutters down to 2mm and up to 16mm. You could pretty much 1 pass those slots for roughing and then leave a .005" all around for clean-up. If you want their contact infromation e-mail me at john(dot)joyce(at)tycoelectronics(dot)com.

I am having to quote some wire cuts, and it has been about 3 years since I did it. I don't have my formulas with me for this calculation....I remember 28sq in from somewhere, but I don't remember on what thickness with .010" wire. Will someone please give me hand here for calculating this? Much thanks in advance.

You must set your part and tool path tolerance very low. I used .00004, and never filtered.

John do you have the constructiona and toolplance set to the same? I have problems with chaineing when I have a construction plane chained somewhere.

Welcome back Randall....I can see the guys have missed you. I always enjoyed your spirited topics, and the fun that ensued from them.

Yes Keebler. Prism has a real good demo of this function on CD that they will send you if you ask really really nice. It was part of the rollover training. Did you get missed. My boss made me go to the one in Baltimore instead of the one in Horsham. 1/2 day boondoggle instead of a full day with some overtime.

I was never happy with the results of using one toolpath. My recomendations would be to use two toolpaths. Make sure and limit your toolpaths with the angle setting so you are not recutting alot of area. I usually use about a 10° overlap.

I see how they are recouping some of the price drops that I have seen over the last few years. Note to self make parts break and then gouge the he!! out of them for spares and will make more money in the long run. Managers stay happy because they see initial cost lower and they ignore employees and tell them to work around the problem. What the manager says, "We have a workaround? Then why do we need to fix it?" I love how business works.

No you can transform the "front" view you have drawn by changing to the front construction plane and xform translating the desired wire frame from the current location to the new z values of the front and back of your part. The options are copy, move, and join. Join copies your selected geometry and creates vector lines at all of your endpoints between your new and old geometry. Makes sure when you draw in the future that when you set your "Z" values at the end of the areas you want to draw on when you change your construction plane. One very helpful thing you can do is to open up your viewports and then whatever port you work in will automatically change your construction plane and this will update all of your other ports real time. You can actually see what is happening without rotating your part around. I reccomend this to new people so that they will understand how the constructions take place in MC. I would never do that after you have a handle on z depths and construction planes verse view planes. HTH

Contact Tesco. They are the resellers for Seco and they have a great selection for hardmilling, hsm, and hpm.