I've been using lathe myself for a while and it rocks! I've done some post customizing too if you need help. We've got some live tooling lathes and it does some really neat things

Wow!!!!!!!!!! THAT is cool!

James, Thanks for all the help you have given me, both directly and indirectly!!!!

Rick, Which version of MC. We have seen this here wtih V8.1.1 When you create letters (MC box format) it deletes all tool groups and puts all toolpaths in one called Toolpath Group 1 as you have seen. Could you have done any lettering before you went home last night? This applies to "create lettering" and not drafting. We never found a fix for this. V9 doesn't do this

Over 28 years and 3 shops. started at deburr. been doing cnc since 1978 or so. started programming 8 years ago and have been here as a full time programmer for the last 5

Jay, I think this is what you want: # -------------------------------------------------------------------------- # Rotary Axis Settings # -------------------------------------------------------------------------- srotary "B" #Rotary axis prefix vmc : 0 #0 = Horizontal Machine, 1 = Vertical Mill rot_on_x : 2 #Default Rotary Axis Orientation, See ques. 164. #0 = Off, 1 = About X, 2 = About Y, 3 = About Z

Thanks for the replies guys. I'll check them out

Thanks Rekd, Maybe it'll give me something that the others lack. Predator doesn't do canned cycles well (no depths) and gets confused with the Fanuc home commands. I'm always on the lookout for tools that might make my job easier or improve accuracy.

Rekd, Where can I find info about this? I looked for "NC Editor Station" on Google and only found a dead link (or so it looked) Does this work better than Predator V4? That and the veryfier in Extreme DNC is all we have. Neither works very well.

I believe that you would want to remove those ##'s. This section will output the WO (as well as X Y Z and any rotary as well as G90/G91) if it is changed from previous. The # characters will keep it from being acted upon.

Yep We have a "normal" AL-2 and 2 SL-1 machines like you describe. I heard it's a parameter setting to change. Ours came from another division when it closed and we left it at an X- setting for the old programs If it were up to me I'd change them and trash or edit all programs for them. Too much chance of making a Boo-Boo if you know what I mean! But........ it ain't [ 06-26-2003, 08:18 PM: Message edited by: Mark C ]

Years ago I had a 1970 Boss 302 Mustang that I sold to buy my current toy. It is a 1965 Mustang coupe with a Boss 351 engine, top loader trans , 3.91 rear gears etc, etc. It puts out an honest 285 hp at the rear wheels as measured at the rear wheels. It's set up like a road race car and is somewhat street legal. I'm currently installing 4 piston disc brakes all around

Thank you for your responses, Chains haven't been reversed, and are in correct direction with tool on correct side. I'm using comp in control. Funny thing is, I came in this morning and regenned it and posted it and it came out right. The ops weren't "dirty". When it does it it's putting out the right x & z, just a G42 instead of G41

Hello all, I'm fairly new to MC lathe (v9 sp1) and have a question. Sometimes when boring, and using comp I get a G42 instead of a G41. One of the setup guys pointed this out to me, so I went back and checked some prev programs and some are right and some (fortunately the minority) are wrong. What might I be doing wrong. I tried posting with the MPFan post right off the install disc, so it's something I'm doing. Thanks in advance

Actually, thinking about it for the past hour or so, there may be an easier way. You say this: pdrillref n, *drillref, *sgdrill, pdrlxyrot, *refht, *depth, *frplunge works but no dwell. If you ALWAYS want dwell and the same amount you can probably do this: pdrillref n, *drillref, *sgdrill, pdrlxyrot, *refht, *depth, *frplunge, "P2" Let me know

Which version of MC and which post? MasterCam uses dwell to force lefthand threads in most posts. They usually say "0=R.H, 1=L.H.", but what happens is 0= RH and anything but 0 is LH. The MPMaster post uses the tool selection to select rotation direction.Whe I get to work tomorrow I'll look at one of my posts to see the logic and how hard it would be to describe to you. It can be done, just might take a bit of thinkin'

What a jerk!!! Fire Dragon doesn't want anyone to know who he is but doesn't have a problem flaming people here and on their e-mail accounts or offering up Jays ftp site for others useage! I definately think this jerk should be banned from the forum. Whattya say webby? Let us know if theres anything we can do to help you Jay.

Andy, That worked great. I was able to put that in my post and output the tool list at beginning as well as write the tnr Thank You

Duh!! Didn't look there. I figured it was in the config Thanks Bucket!!

Hello all, I have recently taken over much of the lathe programming here and have a few questions. First of all how do you get MasterCam to allow feed rates of less than .002/IPR? I can't find any setting anywhere. The next 2 involve the post processor. I'm customizing the Mplfan (v9) and it won't output a tooltable at the beginning of the program like a mill program will. I also want to include the tool nose rad in the tool comment, but can't figure out how to do it. What i have done is include in the pwrttparam section is: if prmcode = 20104, tnr = rpar(sparameter, 4) and define the first 4 variables in line 20104. all I'm getting is the ascii code for the insert type (the first # in line 20104) for the very last tool used only. I've been through the post manual to get examples and looked at several mill and lathe posts, but info is spotty. How do I get the tnr to appear in my tnr variable and get a tool list at the beginning of the program? Thank you in advance for any ideas

I have a Sony Clie that uses the Palm OS. I found Machinist Toolbox PDA on the web as shareware and bought it. It has calculators for speeds and feeds for different matls (all editable), bolt circle, triangle, cusp/stepover, true psn and sine plate calculators, among others, as well as conversions, polar to rect, chord data etc, etc I use it when I'm in the shop or when I don't want to draw something up and analyze it in MasterCam. With the palm software you can also schedule all your meetings, keep data on contacts and sync it with your PC. I find it a useful tool. Machinist Toolbox PDA is found at: www.machinist-toolbox.com It is available as shareware as I said, but the temp licence didn't last as long as they said.

I agree with James that the MPMaster post is the best starting point for anything that is close to a Fanuc control. Everything I use is modified from it. We have a 4 machine 630 cell line with about 100 pallets. They are really good machines. I have a post that I can send you if you wish, only problem is that I'm on jury duty probably till the end of the week. Let me know and I'll send it when I get back.

OK guys you piqued my curiosity. What do I have to look forward to when I get V9.1? (hopefully later this week) We have level 1, level 3 and lathe

Couldn't have said it better myself. A special thanks to everyone here

Thanks again Jay