Sounds like you got the best of the best hardware out there. Unfortunately I don't think you're going to get Mastercam to run more than 1 core. I'm sure that system will run top notch regardless of how many apps you have open at once though. I haven't done much research yet on multi core processors but from my limited understanding it is geared more for making multiple applications run at the same time without slowing down, rather than speeding a single application up. Are there other applications out there now that actually can use all cores at once in a single program? If you haven't done this already make sure you disable the "unified back/depth buffer" on your quadro cards. Also in Mastercam's Settings > Configuration > Screen topic, make sure to check the box for "Disable Front Buffer". I had a customer with a Quadro & Xeon processor that had slow performance until he did this, not to mention backplot display issues.

Is there any guide or example that shows how the Animation works? I've got a customer that is looking for a simple way to make 2D animation and I thought I'd see what this could do in that area. I have run it now but I'm not sure how to create any type of animation with my model.

You might try going into the Windows control panel > Mastercam X. Make sure you aren't running Mastercam while you try this or it may not take effect. Click the checkboxes for all of the items under "Reset". Hit apply at the bottom and close out and try Mastercam again. This will reset dialog box positions, etc. It could be opening off the screen...

Rakesh, That is exactly what it can do. It makes things easy if you have already toolpathed your original drawing and then get a new rev. You can compare the two drawings using the different views and then update your toolpath geometry based on the new geometry rev. Make sure to use "Save As" after you use change recognition so that you are not saving over the top of the original in case you need to go back to it.

Zerren, I haven't installed your addons yet but they look like they have great potential. I just got them downloaded and I'm reading through the docs. Just wanted to say thanks!

Once you get your toolbars tweaked the way you like them make sure to save the toolbar state with a new name, then you can use Thad's suggestion and just right-click in an open toolbar area, choose load toolbar state and select yours from the list.

I forgot to mention that the customer is running Predator for his DNC server. I think gcode may have hit it on the head. So Cimco Edit 5 somehow avoids the problem? Guess we can try the trial of Cimco Edit v5 and see what happens.

I know the files themselves are not marked as read only but I haven't had them check the folder yet. I'll do that. I would expect them to have seen problems with v9 also though if this is set.

I have a customer with a strange issue going on. They have been using v9 and posting out to their DNC drive without any issues. They are now using X MR2 and when they post out and try to overwrite an existing file on the network drive it acts as if it's saving the file but then the editor pops up with the old file that was on the drive. They have used multiple editors and the same thing happens. Also when they go to manually delete any of the files posted out from version X that are on that network drive it either looks like it is being deleted (but doesn't actually delete the file) or pops up an error that the file is write protected or in use. They are running WinXP on their two pc's that they use Mastercam on but the network drive is running Win98. The files created from X seem to be locked for some reason. Any ideas on what the cause may be?

Just revisiting this issue for my customer again. His mouse themes were already set to none. He's running 91.36 drivers on his Quadro FX 3500 and still has the issue with the zoom window and window selection not appearing all of the time. When it finally does appear, it will keep working for that session. Also he can usually do a zoom window right after opening his session (with a blank file), then load up the MCX file he was working on and it fixes the issue. If he loads the part first he usually experiences the problem.

I'm not sure about Mill at this point, but I know Lathe in X2 will have new Lathe.set and Lathe2.set setup sheets. These were a huge improvement in my testing and quite accurate.

quote: Circles appeares eggshaped and monitor seemd useless for Cad/Cam work.When the circles appear eggshaped it's usually a setting in the display drivers. This happens on the widescreen monitors when you set them to use a standard (non-widescreen) display resolution and it stretches the image to fit the monitor. You can use a standard (non-widescreen) display resolution but it needs to be configured in your display settings. This results in black space on the left & right sides of the monitor (since it isn't stretching it to fit the whole screen).

Thanks for the suggestion gcode. I've never messed with a Mouse Theme. Is the "Scheme" setting found in the control panel > mouse properties > Pointers tab, the same as what you are referring to?

Can CATIA export STEP or SAT? I guess if the customer isn't willing to export to any other format though you may be stuck with CATIA v5 format. If they will only use that format it sounds like the only solution is to use a Catia v5 translator. There's two that can be purchased that I know of. One by CNC Software and one by CADCAM-e.com. They may be priced differently so you could contact your Mastercam Reseller for pricing info.

I've got a customer with a new PC using a Quadro FX 3500. We've recently updated to the newest 91.36 Nvidia Quadro drivers and it fixed a couple issues he had with crashing and the tool moving forward/backward in backplot while stepping. We have disabled the unified back/depth buffer setting within the display properties for the card and set all other features to application-controlled. He still has one issue still lingering which is that the Window that appears when you do a Zoom Window or selection window doesn't appear all the time. Usually once it starts to appear it will be ok for that session, but after he closes and restarts Mastercam, then loads up his file he usually has no Window appear during Zoom Window. Any ideas on a fix for this or a recommended driver version? We tried to install driver 77.56 because I had heard others use this driver but the install says it doesn't detect any valid hardware BTW, we also turned off all of the Appearance Effects in Windows.

cascadeclimbr, I had a customer report that this has been happening to them. I haven't reproduced it here yet but I did submit it to CNC Software. You might want to send [email protected] any info you have on this.

cnc_now, It looks like c-hooks or any user applications are disabled in the demo. I got the same message here trying to run the demo. It's probably to avoid any exploits that would give the demo version more capabilities than it is designed for.

When an entity is live (light blue / cyan) undo/redo are not accessible. When you hit Enter to make it live you should then be able to access undo/redo at that point. If I understand you correctly though when you hit Enter and the entity becomes fixed (no longer cyan) you can't undo/redo?

quote: ps. any update with the surfaces jumping levels, and going haywire on the color issue of them?I don't know the history on this problem but have you already made sure the EA Manager is not turned on and switching surfaces to a certain level/color? Just my first thought after reading your post.

I don't know if this will help you with this particular issue, but I have found (with my limited use of Art) that the Edit > Filters... is a great tool. Try using the Smoothing inside the Filters dialog box. I've had it make almost unrecognizable images become really nice after using this.

This is a long shot but you might check your folder options in Windows. Control Panel > Folder options > View tab. Make sure "Show hidden files & folders" is checked and un-check "hide extensions for known file types". I haven't seen this issue because of these settings but I've seen installations fail and weird things in File > Open because of this. It's worth a shot though. The symptoms sound like access rights in Windows but usually an error would appear when you try to OK out of the config dialog.

John Paris, Do you have an Nvidia Quadro card? We have a customer with a Xeon processor + Quadro card and even though there's a setting in Settings > Configure > Screen to disable unified back/depth buffer, he had to turn this off in the display properties. I've seen that this setting fixes backplot tool display issues but in this customers case it actually significantly increased his toolpath regeneration times. If you have a Quadro card I'd really recommend disabling that setting in your display properties. Also I have found that when machining lots of surfaces, switching to machining on an STL model can significantly reduce HST regeneration times.

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Interesting idea JMC! I might have to see if that utility can do anything for this weak Geforce 4 MX 440 I'm running at the office.

JDowe, Sounds like you might be using "Standard Windows" for your File Get dialog. Some people use this to eliminate crashes when you do a File Get. You might try going into CNCREG (Start button > All Programs > Mastercam 9.1 > CNCREG). At the top it shows a drop-down for your product. Select the appropriate product then look to see what radio button is selected. If it is set to Standard Windows you could switch it to Mastercam and the bitmap should appear.