1 hour ago, Tim Johnson said:

I know nothing about Haas but can you add a block number where you want to start and do a  GOTO?

This is probably the "easiest" way to do this in a Haas. From my experience trying to restart in a Haas, it will not let you single block into a sub and then search down through that subprogram to a different starting point like in a Fanuc or other controls. The program restart setting 36 only complicates things if you use probing at all (I learned this the hard way not too long ago). 

Because of this, we hardly use subprograms in our Haas machines the way we do on other machines that are much more flexible in the way they let you navigate through main and subprograms.

4 hours ago, Colin Gilchrist said:

Have you ran a "File Repair" in a while? This used to be called "RAM Saver".

If you aren't familiar with this function; it is a life-saver!

I'm not sure if that will fix this particular issue you are having, but it is a function I run at least once an hour when working with large files.

I have not. How big are the files that you consider "large"? Most of my MCAM files are between 30 and 100mb, although I do have one that's about 1GB.

In either case, I'll give it a try and see if it helps. Thanks, Colin!

They've always been marked dirty for me, at least up until a few weeks ago. Must be something weird going on with my system. If it ends up being too much of a pain I'll have our reseller take a look at it. We might be moving to 2019 soon anyways. 

Morning Everyone,

I've noticed this issue pop up recently where my edited manual entries are not being marked dirty. I've had to be careful about immediately forcing it to regen after editing them to be safe but, ideally, I would like to see them being marked as such so I don't miss anything.

Anything I should try to fix this issue? Thanks.

Edit - This is in 2017, by the way.

6 minutes ago, Kampfzentrum said:

Thanks. Yeah... Option 1 seems a bit more up my alley, I've never modified the post - where does one even learn to do that?

From the guy that posted that, lol.

2 minutes ago, Leon82 said:

If you have a saved assembly would it load the holder?

It should. I usually do as everyone has said, if I don't already have an assembly built, I create a throw away operation to add a holder, then do my surface path. Kind of annoying but it works.

While it's very possible to add this in to the post to be called by misc values, we've just done it at my shop using a Manual Entry containing the tool breakage call and parameters. It literally looks like this, for our Okuma, no less:

(***TOOL BREAKAGE****)
M09
M05
G30 P2
CALL O9858

This way, we can just copy the Tool Breakage manual entry wherever we want it, and edit the parameters on a case by case basis. You said you already know about this method, so you have it in your pocket if the post option doesn't end up working out. 

1 hour ago, medaq said:

I do not see anything out of the normal. This is a standard mpmaster post modified.  

I've seen weird things happen because of Misc Integer values being different between two operations with the same tool/feed/speed etc. I've even had rotary moves forced because of it. Maybe try selecting both operations and forcing their Misc Integers to be the same through editing common parameters. 

This is definitely reasonable. I program the same type of stuff - mostly HMCs, high production. I've been taught to do it with loop logic and registers counting how many parts have been ran. When we design and create our fixturing we know exactly where each part will be. Then we program one of the parts (top part, left part, whatever we pick to be the "seed" part) and then use the loop logic to jump to G52 lines where we shift the work offset to each new part. This also helps because I program for a lot of forged parts so it makes it possible to shift everything around to line up to the forging and make small tweaks to get things in print. This way, we can run just one part, all parts, or any number of parts and everything happens at each tool change, so there's no time wasted running one part completely through, and then another. 

We've also figured out how to get all of the logic to post out nicely in Mastercam with manual entries and Point toolpaths. It takes some upfront work, but once it is done it makes everything very nice and no hand editing code, either. 

I recently tweaked the logic to use both block delete and registers (i.e. #700= # number of parts to run) for a dual rotary setup in a haas with multiple parts on each rotary. I really like doing it with logic because the possibilities are endless.

13 minutes ago, Leon82 said:

Set the holes as an air region and use dynamic mill.

That worked perfectly. Thanks! I keep trying to use Dynamic Contour but I always end up wondering why it's even there anyways.

Hi All,

Is it possible to do a plunge entry with dynamic contour? I have some thru pockets that I've pre-drilled an opening for so I can just plunge in with my endmill and start a dynamic path to finish out said pockets. The result I'm getting is a ramped contour down to my geometry and there is no entry method tab for to edit parameters. Even setting all linking parameters to incremental zero will not force it to plunge. Is this just not possible or am I missing something? This is in 2017, by the way. Thanks.

On 11/28/2017 at 7:45 AM, Colin Gilchrist said:

Time = Money.

Which do you have more of? TCI Metals make good quality "prepped" blocks. (Machined on all six sides)

It will be cheaper if you can give them some tolerance. +-0.015 makes it much cheaper than +-0.005. I think the closest you can request is basically +-.003(ish), without grinding. The more tolerance you can give them, the more money you will save.

Flatness and Parallelism are other big factors. The tighter you need something controlled, the more expensive it will be.

I had them supply some 304 stainless blanks that were 6" x 8" (+- 0.03), and thickness controlled to 1.85 (+- 0.002), with .001 Flatness and Parallelism, and they held it, no problem. I also had them dovetail the stock after finish grind.

It was cheaper for us to just purchase the prepped material vs. the internal costs of doing the same work. Plus, it frees up a spindle that would be dedicated to just "squaring stock".

I haven't found any other material supplier that will beat them for "prepped" stock. If the quote comes back high, ask them "why". Often there is some rather arbitrary reason you picked the tolerance you did. Do you really need +-0.005 on the length? Really? Why not +-0.03. Because that is 1/4 of the cost of the tighter tolerance. Their internal inspection plays into that as well. +-0.03 can be checked with calipers, and requires no 'secondary' inspection, beyond the 1st piece. A tighter tolerance may necessitate 100% inspection by an inspector...

Thanks for the info, Colin. The prepped stock would have pretty loose tolerances (±.03) as it would be just to eliminate the need for a dovetail OP for raw extruded aluminum, out of which the final part would then be cut. I could incorporate the dovetailing OP into my procedures, but I'm also looking at cost/benefits so getting prepped stock may have saved some money on each part. I'll have to let my managers decide if the time savings is worth any extra cost.

I will keep them in mind for future projects, though. We make a lot of custom fixtures so having some nicely prepped blanks that are flat/square within tight tolerances would make all of that much easier.

Hi All,

I just wanted to see if anyone had any experience with TCI Precision Metals, more specifically their prepped material for 5-axis vises such as Raptor. Getting prepped material ready to go in the vise would reduce a setup for me but I wanted to hear everyone's thoughts if they had used TCI specifically or any other company. Thanks.

In the multi-axis post I've worked with at my shop the B/C outputs are handled in the ptiltout and protout (for B and C, respectively). I haven't tried moving them around before but that might be where you want to look, as well as where those postblocks are called from other postblocks. 

On 7/28/2017 at 2:36 PM, civicegg said:

You could write out the Macro call and associated commands as a manual entry, so it posts out correctly. 

This is what we do. Create a point toolpath where you want to macro to start, since it's probably all incremental, and then a manual entry with the macro call and any parameters needed to pass through into the macro. 

Just now, JParis said:

There is a coolant switch in there......typically, if coolant is on, I just leave it set to on

Right, I guess what is happening is the toolpath will have coolant on from the toolpath parameters. I'll then go back in to edit a feedrate at a point with the toolpath editor and without even opening the coolant dialogue box for that point the coolant will be affected. The fix seems to be to open the coolant dialogue for the point I'm editing and then, without making any changes to the coolant (they're all set to "Ignore"), hit the green check and accept the edit. Doing that, I've been able to get clean points without weird coolants. Maybe I'm missing a critical part of the toolpath editor workflow to keep this from happening?

Hi All,

I'm having weird things happen when editing toolpaths. I've found that when editing simple things like feed rates in a toolpath, Mastercam will then post out coolant offs, turn on a different coolant, then turn it back on, etc. It's directly correlated to the point(s) I've edited. Is this something weird happening to the NCI file when editing a toolpath or is it the post?

Thanks in advance.

1 minute ago, civicegg said:

use_pitch   : 0     #0 = Use feed for tapping, 1 = Use pitch for tapping

LOL was just about to post this. I just figured this out the other day. 

I've been wondering the same thing (sorry I have nothing to add). Although I have noticed that on some of our posts, depending on which face I index to first, either 90 or -90 the rotations will follow the same sign from that point forward. If I index to 90 first, then I will get only positive outputs for the entire program. Alternatively, if I index to -90 first, then I'll get all negative rotation values for the remainder. I haven't looked into it further than that, but I guess it shows the post is absolutely capable. 

On 12/2/2014 at 11:14 AM, The Cathedral said:

Had an operator run the spindle warm-up program on an HMC with a 10" long Allied inserted drill. Once it hit 15,000 rpm the drill came out of balance, bent then sheared off and flew out the back of the machine. Straight through the sheet metal all the way. He was standing at the control panel; had the drill decided to fly towards the front of the machine instead, it would have been bad.

This exact same thing happened in my old shop on a brand new Matsuura. The operator had so many years of experience and obviously knew more than anyone in the shop (sarcasm). He has since earned himself the nickname Wreck-It Ralph. 

52 minutes ago, petro7 said:

Yes Sir that's the one thanks allot.

Awesome, glad I could help!

I'm not sure if it will work, but in your arc filter parameter page, under smoothing there is a check box for "present arcs as line segments". Any luck with that?

22 minutes ago, Colin Gilchrist said:

Hi Frank,

No, you won't need access to a computer with Mastercam during class hours. The course is essentially one big lecture, with some "homework" that you can do on your own time. You would need access to Mastercam to test your code, but that will be part of the "homework", and not needed during class.

Perfect! Thanks Colin. Good to know I won't need to stay after work during class hours. 

Hey Colin, quick question about the class format. Will we need access to a computer running a licensed Mastercam seat? I'll be doing some training away from work the first two days of the class and want to make sure I can still attend the post classes those evenings. 

I've found that keeping all of my stock models and verify STLs in TOP, regardless of what planes I'm using for toolpaths works the best, without the issues you're seeing. At first I was confused about how it all worked, but since I've been keeping everything in TOP it almost always works the way I want it to.