I just looked at your dummy part file. I didn't see any holes in it, but am curious if there are any that you can use expanding mandrels to locate and tighten with? That would be an easy fixture to make if that's what you have. You could also use a vacuum fixture if there are no holes in the part. So there are a couple of other options as far as holding the part. As far as the cutters are concerned, We use YG-1 X-Power end mills on our hardened steel parts, and usually get good results with tool life and flatness and finish. Whichever way you go, let us know how it turns out.

Terry Does the Fill Holes option in Surfaces not work for these features? In cases where it doesn't work, I just use Curve One Edge in Wireframe to outline the holes, then use Line Endpoints to connect the straight lines inside those outlines, then you can use Net Surface or Flat Boundary as needed.

This is not exactly the answer you are looking for, but you could always add an extra pass or two to ease the chipload. Yes, I understand it slows down the whole operation. Just giving an alternate solution.

That looks like what I need, but we just use Active Reports for our set up sheets. Just tried using the shaft as a holder, but then I can't add my normal holder because then it replaces the shaft. I can make the shaft a tool, but I'm not sure it will assemble it. Getting ready to try that now. Yeah I can't put 2 tools together as an assembly.

Yes, I am in the stand alone tool library. I want the operator to be able to see the shaft mfr code and the head tool code both. So in the instance I described, the shaft mfr code would be VSSD075L800S12UC. If you try to put both on the same line, that makes it a very long code. I will say, I have not tried to put both on the same line, only because I hate re-typing that stuff all the time LOL.

We have ISCAR Mulit-Master and Tungaloy TungMeister shafts and milling heads. I have never liked that MasterCam does not seem to support this idea of tool assemblies, simply just tools and toolholders (CAT, BT, HSK). I want to be able to put together a tool where both the shaft number and the head number are listed on my set up sheets. But as you may know, the tool numbers on both of these are very long, so trying to fit both in one field is next to impossible. We currently make up separate tool lengths with the heads only defined, not the shafts. But we do have the shaft lengths defined within our tool. An example would be: 20mm 4-Flute R1.0 L=139.8 Tungaloy, and then in the Mfr. Tool Code would be: VED200L15.0R10-04S12 for the milling head. So I'm curious what others do in this situation. Thank you for any input.

How thin is the area that you are trying to keep flat? And how are you holding the part to the table? We use YG-1 end mills on 60+HrC D2 and have pretty good results with them.

I have found that while the Migration Wizard takes care of a lot, and personal settings you have in the configuration, you will have to find a way to copy or transfer over.

You can also check out the OSG Phoenix tool line. We use 2mm diameter 3-flutes with tapered necks on steel a lot. They hold up really well too.

Like crazy^millman said, you can't tie your s/u sheet to the viewsheet. But remember, you can bookmark your viewsheets so that you have the same view every time you go to print your set-up sheets. That is what I do with mine. I have many repeating parts that I have my files set up this way, with locked viewsheets. Brent

I have gotten this from older files that I have opened in 2017 and higher. Releases before 2017 had a habit of having to be repaired a lot, and I think this was because of tools and tooldb that got corrupted over time. Sometimes still, when I open a file that my coworker made, I still have to replace a certain 3/4" end mill in his file with one from my tooldb in order to get it to work. Brent

So we have separate holder libraries from our tool libraries, and our tool libraries are separated by material and hardness, since we do a lot of rough milling and hard milling. I have brought up to Mastercam the possibility of tying a certain holder library to a certain machine definition, as we have one machine that uses HSK63, and I get tired of re-selecting that holder library so much when I need to use it.

I think the other thing you need to consider is whether or not you are getting the coolant out from the spindle after you are done running your TSC. If you have air blast thru your spindle as well, make sure you run that to purge the excess coolant out so that it's not "standing" above the tool. I know that most of it drains out, esp after tool change. But if you run an extra 5-10 seconds of air blast after running TSC, that might cure your problem. We always run that purge here, except on our DMG, which doesn't have the thru air option. Brent

I have seen Dynamic Optirough be like this even on newer machines with High Speed Look ahead. 20 minutes longer on a 20 year old machine, to me, isn't that bad! What everyone has said here is correct based on what work I have done as well. I only have one machine where all of my programs match what Mastercam puts out, and it is only 1 year old.

I have ran into this before. It can be related to either number of teeth, or if INC vs ABS or both used in your Top of Stock and Depth settings. If you can show us those, I think we can help you better. But hopefully this gives you a place to start. Brent

Is the file still keeping solids and surfaces? If so, maybe this is part of the problem as well. I hate using surfaces instead of solids, but everyone has their own way, so I'm not knocking it. But all the individual surfaces add up in file size too. Esp if the solid was complex to begin with. Brent

The easiest way to find center of rotation, is to indicate the table flat at the top and zero your x-axis and z-axis at the center of the table and face of the table respectively. Then rotate your table 90 degrees, and find the x-axis location of your table face, and then the center of the table in z. Between those two measurements, you should be able to figure out your center of rotation. Then just figure out what those distances are from machine home, if necessary. Hope this helps. Brent

Uncheck Use Mastercam colors when you get to that page, then you can change colors.

I had this issue with a 5-axis toolpath if I remember right. It would suspend all of my previous Opti-Rest toolpaths that were tied to Stock Models that would suspend as well, even before the 5-axis toolpath. I have been told that this was fixed in 2021, but I have not tried it there yet. Brent

We use HSMAdvisor here too. I have noticed though that drill feeds seem quite high I think. I don't dial back the RPM but I do the feed based on what I've seen so far with it.

As far as custom set-up sheets, one of our former programmers used the Active Reports Tutorial from Mastercam.com and made a pretty decent report that we still use today. I have had to tweak it on occasion, mainly after upgrading to next version, because sometimes Mastercam will change an XML tag. But it's not too bad to go through. That's what I used to figure out where to tweak and edit it to get what I want. Brent

When I first looked at this yesterday, I didn't think much of it. But as I worked today, I could see how this can help a lot. So I loaded all three versions (19/20/21), and have them all set to Start-up. Thank you very much! Brent

Actually, I've been playing around with this lately for my electrode sheets. Set your Glass setting, then click on a solid, then click the glass button, and it will only turn that solid transparent. I've had some pretty good luck with this lately in 2019 with no issues. I've even done different solids in the viewsheet with different glass levels. Hope this helps. Brent

Are you calling the STL in Machsim? Or in the Toolpath Manager? I have had similar issues, but have found that if I call the STL in Toolpath Manager, then in the Machsim I tell it to use Mastercam defined stock, I think that is what has worked best for me. Been a few weeks since I've had to do that, so I don't remember exactly what I did, but I think thats it. Hope this helps. Brent

So that is after your drill cycle is done. I'm guessing it is hard-coded into your post as the home position. Not sure of that, but that is what it looks like.