Just load the rpfan.pst in v9.

There are a couple of other things to consider with this subject. First, the power supply fan pushes air out of the box. If you have too many of these type of fans, you can actually increase the temperature inside by creating a vacuum. You have to have enough "openings" in the case to support the pull of the fans. Second (Almost always overlooked and probably more important), where the box is going to be will make a HUGE difference as to where (and what direction) the fans should be. If you are putting the case on the floor, you should only add an "inward" fan if it is mounted higher up in the case (on the back perhaps). A floor sitting case with an intake fan at the bottom will tend to get VERY dusty inside. Check out your surroundings and think about which areas get less dust build up. that is where you should keep the box, and should also help decide the placement and orientation of fans.

I think he's trying to do a subprogram transform of a subprogram transform, which isn't supported by MP at this point (not even v9). [ 03-11-2002, 01:42 PM: Message edited by: gstephens ]

Zero typed: quote: What happened to Mastercam's verify? I think it was better in V7.2.c when you could at least rotaate and zoom in on the part after the toolpaths had been verified. Any chance of Mastercam merging with any one of these 3rd party verify programs in the future? You're probably thinking of v7.1 which had the Microcompatibles NC2000 verification in it. 7.2 saw the launch of the Sirus NC Verify kernal integrated into Mastercam. Both companies have been bought out by bigger ones. The current Mastercam verify is still based on the Sirus kernal, but with GREATLY enhanced features since the buy-out. You can still rotate the part around (even more so than before), if you use "true-solid" mode, and even (to a lesser extent) standard mode but it's a little confusing - and not very well documented IMNSHO - as to how it works.

Will the editnci c-hook do anything for you? You can post out the original .nci for that toolpath, mirror it in editnci, and then post out the mirrored path. No associativity, but no regen either.

quote: Just one question though. I saw in the upper right hand corner of the Thread Cut Parameters page a box for "Number of Starts". I tried putting in "4" , and the back plot seemed to work fine. Is this what I may be looking for too? Does mastercam automatically calculate everything here for me? Yes. As long as you are using long hand threading (G32 on fanuc) Mastercam will calculate everything for you.

Remember to get the OLDER set of drivers. Something in an update a few months back is what screwed up the cursor.

quote: The next question would be this then .. there are other CAD/CAM companies to get your buisiness will offer a trade in on your seat .. is that illegal by mastercam's terms also? They (as well as CNC) do not take your seat of the other software. Thay usually offer a discount to owners of competitive products. Software licensing is a strange concept to almost everyone. You do not buy the software, you buy the right to use it, and per the licensing agreement you "Click to not show again" you cannot sell that right without the express permission of the Owners of the copyright (CNC Software in Mastercam's case).

Unless I'm mistaken, the only PDF's that come out of any software other than Adobe Acrobat are pixel based only (and the Adobe versions can only retain font and simple graphic info that was created within). There is no way to "extract" the vector geometry. PDF's are becoming more widely used to distribute printed information, but it is no more useful than something out of Winfax or such. An electronic copy of a print is great, but it is just like taping the print to your monitor . I would NEVER try to "convert" a PDF into geometry. It exactly the same as scanning a print and using raster to vector - fine for visual stuff, but useless if you're trying to hold normal machining tolerances.

It's most likely related to your video card (I know it sounds like a lame reason, but MOST Mastercam anomalies are caused by this). Make sure you have the latest video drivers for your card, and if that still doesn't work, post your Windows operating system and what video card you have and maybe someone will be able to give you some ideas.

quote: "R" in the second G3 block is .0001 less What is the actual radius of the arc in the geometry, and what size tool are you using? If the toolpath radius ends up with more than 4 decimal places, you're getting a post rounding error. These have shown up before and have been covered in this forum as well. As others have said, v9 allows for single output of 360 degree arcs. If you aren't going to update, you may want to have someone look at your post and add the required buffering code to get the output for you in v8 as well as fix the rounding error.

quote: Thanks that gives me another way to look at this. Glad I could help quote: IMHO??? In My Humble Opinion I usually use IMNSHO (In My Not So Humble Opinion)

Add "G325", *tloffno, "Q.005" right after the line that has "G08", "P0". It should be in ptlchg or pretract by the looks of the output.

I've e-mailed this as well as put it on the FTP wildcatcorner-g.mc8 Basically I modelled the toolpath and ran a swarf using branch sync points. This is definitely the cleanest path you can get although it took a little while to do. I could probably use other surfaces and such and have to model less, but I prefer complete control of the tool axis.

Find the convertconfig folder on the CD and run setup.exe

Are you burning a hole then an outside contour of the same part? Window chaining will chain ALL of the closed contours the same direction (CW or CCW)depending on the setting in the chaining options menu. You will have to either select all of the holes first then the outside edges, or go to Geometry in the ops manager after the path is done and reverse the paths that are backwards.

There is no "Corner rounding" toolpath. If you choose a corner rounding tool fr the contour, you can see it in backplot and verify, but there are no specific settings for that type of cutter.

quote: Whats the proper error code for mistakes ya make on jobs and if its on the part is QC allowed to reject? I think "FU" is the appropriate notation and no, QC MUST accept the parts if properly notated

Buzz: The main features are tabs, nesting, and engraving capabilities. Router comes with rectangular part nesting (toolpaths not yet included, but coming) and raster to vector translation including an EPS file translator. Sharp point engraving and true shape (irregular) nesting are add-ons as they are for mill. Other than that they are identical.

I just e-mailed you the latest hdd435.exe Try it out.

The window chaining follows a definite pattern that can be switched between one-way and zig-zag. It works like this...1st, all point entities are selected with a "next closest" method starting with the point closest to your "start point" selection. 2nd, again starting from the same start point, it finds the closest endpoint of an entity and chains as if you selected the chain at that point. From here it does one of two things: If your setting is for zig-zag, it searches from the endpoint of the chain for the next closest entity and continues. If your setting is for one-way, it returns to the start point of the current chain and searches from there. Either way the method is pre-determined. You can, however, go to the Geometry in the ops manager after the fact and re-order the chain as you like. Hope this helps.

Run the insatllation again and choose "repair." This should set the registry settings correctly.

quote: I like to seen if i can get the surface rough pocket tool path to wrap around in a rotary 4th axis fashion . Fairly tough. The only "regular" surface toolpath that will go around the part is flowline, so unless you have a single surface, you're out of luck. Second, you could run the surface rough pocket, then turn on rotary replacement to get 4th axis motion. Problem is, you have to use flat pattern geometry since "Unroll" is not available on surface toolpaths. Biggest problem is, Xform-roll, does NOT work on surfaces. If you can approximate the part with a single coons surface for the roughing op, you can unroll the geometry used to create it, build the surface flat, run the rough pocket toolpath on it with rotary replacement, and you're all set. Or you can run flowline rough on the rolled surface, backplot and save the geometry, then run a contour with rotary replacement and Unroll selected, and you're done. Sounds fun huh?

Having just been through this...Biesse has 2 controls on their machines. The OSAI 10/310 is Fanuc compatible and would probably be fairly easy to tweak in. The other control - XNC 1000 - is NOT in a "point-to-point" ascii format. Each operation is output as a block of variables. I've looked at this one and do not think that a Mastercam post is even possible. The control is designed to accept a .dxf file and run it's own toolpaths.

Cool.