While you are in the "export" dialog box make sure solid is selected. Click on Customize layers. This will bring up "Choose Layers" dialog box. Under "export status" you should see "ignore" for every layers. Change that to "skip" for any layers you don't want to bring in when converting. This works for me all the time.

John,

I couldn't agree with you more. Sometimes changing or adding a new software is a strategic move for a company.

We use one from CoolJet and having great success.

Paul provided posts for our mill-turn and 5axis machines. We use the same post template for Proe and Catia. We have different executable file for different software. I have been doing business with him for almost 10 years now.

For our Mori NL machine when we activate the M code to sync the 2 spindles for milling we have to have the sub spindle's collet open first.

I implemented Esprit here last year. Very happy with it. The posts are excellent. Their web support is top notch. The software is very easy to learn. Esprit 2008 will be shown at the conference here in Newport next week.

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......This process has been extremely time consuming and mentally draining.....

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I agree but you haven't seen nothing yet until you try to implement the new software.

I also agree with James regarding Catia trial. Something like Catia, Pro/nc or UG you just can't use 30 trial to evaluate. Just a month ago I had a P.O on my desk for Catia implementation. I talked my way out of it. Not because Catia is not a good software but because of so much time and effort that involves. I had Catia pushed back to the end of the year.

We had this problem before. The only we could get it to work was to delete all the comments and parenthesis. It depends on your software version too. The Mori application guy swore to me that he didn't have to delete anything to get it to work. Hope this helps.

"In a nutshell NURBS (For Fanuc) has absolutely nothing to do with the surfaces."

This is what i found in one of the article from MMS ONLINE.com.

Take the following points away from this article:

* Nurbs interpolation offers an alternative to traditional chord interpolation for machining complex contoured forms, like dies or molds. If you are instead machining geometrically simple parts, nurbs interpolation can't help you.

* Nurbs interpolation may let you machine these complex forms at a higher average feed rate than you would achieve using chords, without compromising accuracy. CNC processing speed may provide the reason why, but there are other reasons, too.

* By itself, nurbs interpolation is not more accurate than chord interpolation. But when accuracy is required, nurbs can offer a more efficient way to achieve it.

Here is the link to the article

http://www.mmsonline.com/articles/079901.html

Please look at the test part they used. It seems to me nurbs interpolation is only idealy for machinging complex surfaces.

James kinda lost me a bit there when he said NURBS has nothing to do with surfaces. I guess he was refering to NURBS itself. i think all along we were talking about NURBS interpolation.

All of our new machines have this option. There are 3 advantages that I see with this option.

1. Program is a lot shorter especially with complex surface.

2. Better cycle time. About 15%.

3. In most cases better surface finish.

Basically it is a curve machining option.

If you are going to start a new shop or your shop is small, Fadal or Haas will be a good option. If your shop is well established, acquiring Fadal or Haas as your main work horses then that will be a bad management decision. High end machines are not only more accurate than low end machines, they pump out more parts than the low end. If you stick with fadal and Haas you are not being competitive.

it'd better if you should show us the parameter pages for setting the dataserver.

Ocean,

Do you need a password to log in the FTP server? Make sure the password is upper case because from the machine controller everything is uppercase.

With parametric cam system things not always smooth. If the features that you referenced to are deleted or suppressed the software will ask you for new reference feature. Programming in paramatric requires different mindset in order to be success. You have to pay attention to "parent/child relationship", "design intent". If you these terms only applie to designer then you will be in alot of trouble. This is just my personal experience from a Mastercam programmer to a parametric cam system.

Check out MFGQUOTE.com. That might be a good start.

Well it seems like you guys are still fortunate than other people when it comes to Pro/nc. When I started on it 8 years ago there wasn't WF3 around and I didn't have any support from my manager at all.

The driver version is 8.4.2.9. The 17" screen is awesome. The fx 2500m blows away the fx3450. It's a very good tool.

We have both of them here. Both with 20k spindle.I like the NV5000. The Kit you have to warm up the spindle everytime after the machine is shut down. The spindle is really noisy since it's gear. The sheet metal is very flimsy compare to the Mori. But the Kit is a little more precision than the Mori when it comes to cutting high precision part. The control on the Kit is 16i fanuc. The Mori has 18I fanuc but the crapps 2 is behind it so it's really slow.

I use it to program mill, lathe, mill-turn and wire edm. Plus design. Shoot me an email if you have question.

Murlin,

instead of "set all" try "set selected" then select the feature. some dims will show up. select the dimension you want to set. hope this helps.

in the particular case as Chip described above it still works. But of course there will be cases when proe fails to regenerate.

Hevymelt,

yes it works. That will changes the actual size of part. i already proved it out as i stated above. what i did was open up a part, make sure the tol was set up correctly. set the dim bounds and regen the model. that was it. i use this alot in manufacturing for r&d study but not for exporting to mastercam.

Mman10,

sorry. i made a mistake. you should set it to "Middle" not "nominal". i tested it. it worked.

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In my opinion why forcefully go for another software when you can do it in mcam.

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Mc can't do sheet metal, assembly drawing, top down design, etc,etc.....

Integrexman,

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There is a software package we are investigating that will alter the Pro/E model to make it to the mean so when we bring it into MC, the are correct. I will get the name of it for you.

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you can set all the dimensions to nominal before export the model out. go to "setup", Dim bound", "set all", "nominal", "done". Hope this helps.