Prayers out to Pat's family, and the families of all who have lost loved ones in the war against terrorism. I've never served, never been in combat and I'm NOT criticizing at all. I found the number of troops that were killed (in Marc Lindsey's post) by accidental/negligent gunfire (our own troops mishandling weapons) and traffic accidents astonishing. What is it, like 15% or more? Un-*******-believeable. ::shakes head in sorrow::

There is a big, palm-shaped flat spot right in the middle of my forehead right now - duh.... Thanks. I feel like a very enlightened, idiot right now.

Is there a way to assign shortcut keys to the screen zoom and screen fit commands? I've been running a CAD system for around 10 years, and with that system I've written a series of macros & assigned hot keys to reduce the number of mouse picks necessary to perform some very common tasks. Is there a way that I can do the same thing in Mastercam, and assign my own key combinations to them? For example, I'd like the screen zoom command to activate with the key combination "Alt-W", and screen fit to execute with "Alt-A". Do I need to learn c-hooks to do this, or is there another way? Thanks in advance, -kid

You've raised a good question, and it's my opinion that which package would be the "best" depends on what your son plans on doing after graduation. What design discipline interests him? If he's happy working w/ simple to complex solid models, by all means go w/ whatever CAD system is predominant in the market where he'll be seeking employment. The other side of the coin is this - maybe he'd be happier working w/ a job shop that supports the big 3 in the prototype role. If that's what he's interested in - CATIA all the way. Definately more powerful - more robust - harder to learn, etc., but in a job-shop environment that is the type of tool he needs to get things done right, the first time, quickly. If he want to do high end - class "A" surfacing, then CATIA is the hands down winner between the two. Anybody who tells you otherwise is simply mistaken. Midnite_Oil: Ford was running I-deas by SDRC. The I-deas name still lives on after being purchased by EDS. d00d: The high end CAD packages absolutely have the potential to blow the cheaper packages out of the water. It just takes time to learn how to exploit their benefits. If a person/company is going to invest the time it takes to learn how to do things the "right" way - it's well worth the money. If the goal is just to get something "good enough" to do simple models/drawings, etc., then settle for one of the lesser packages that will work. After running I-deas for about 6 years now, I can tell you for sure that my days of running or recommending lower end CAD systems are over. I want the good stuff.

1981 Thermwood C50 router.

Mail Sent. I think I can do it for you in I-deas.

Thanks acerx3. We're just at the woodbutcher stage ourselves when comes to milling. I've run CNC lasers for about 9 years, but this IS a different game. To those who answered and tried to help - after many conversations with the tech team at Thermwood, and getting "help" that didn't, I dug into the actuator setup menu and found that the machine hadn't been properly configured when they finished the controller upgrade. The support team didn't know that, and couldn't understand why none of the advice they were giving me didn't help. They were getting to the point of "What's the matter? Are ya stupid?" I fixed a few of the major issues with actuator 1, and ran the most complex of the 11 sections I need to cut yesterday with only 2 minor changes to the posted code. It didn't come out exactly the way I wanted it to, but now that it's running I can watch it and learn what I need to change from there. Thanks again, to all who attempted to help. I greatly appreciate it.

A shameless BTT, +1 & bump - hoping some of the Thermwood programmers will read this. Thanks for the "Welcome Aboard", Thad.

Ron, The machine is an OLD 3-axis unit w/o tool changers, 2 non-programmable spindles, and one drill head. I'm well versed w/ the G52 & G53 fixture offsets, and have written a few programs that switch heads (G26ZW / G27) and use multiple fixture offsets. The problem is, the post I've got is specifically set up to use the "set zshift" command. It prompts for "Material thickness", "G92 x value", and "G92 y value" just prior to writing the posted code. The darned thing is set up to use the only feature I can't seem to make work right on the controller! And I'm finding that rather aggrevating. Deep breaths. Calm blue ocean. Calm blue ocean.

Rekd, Actually I'm glad you did that. I enjoy being able to contribute here. And yes, basic is very dated - but so is my programming knowledge. (I started out on a Radio Shack TRS-80 that you had to boot by playing a cassette in a tape recorder.) FWIW - I've got a TON of solid and class A surface modeling experience to offer, too. I did the surface models for all of the non-OEM doors for the vehicles our company builds. www.accubuilt.com

Rekd, That code looks familiar....

I'm running I-deas here, and we've got the add-on sheetmetal package that does it too. You're right, it's expensive.

Well, as sophomoric as the code is, here's a quicky that should get you pretty close: Run it using QBASIC. 10 LET R = 0 20 LET T = 0 30 LET A = 0 31 LET X = 0 32 LET Y = 0 33 LET Z = 0 40 INPUT "ENTER THE INSIDE BEND RADIUS OF BREAK (INCHES)"; R 50 INPUT "ENTER THE MATERIAL THICKNESS (INCHES)"; T 60 INPUT "ENTER BEND ANGLE (METAL MOVEMENT IN DEGREES)"; A 70 X = .4 * T 71 Y = (R + X) * A 72 Z = Y / 57.3 80 PRINT "BEND ALLOWANCE FOR BREAK IS"; Z; "INCHES" 90 PRINT "---" 100 PRINT "_" Remember, it only gives you allowance for the bend itself so you'll have to split the value in half, w/ having going to either side of the c/l of the bend. It works pretty good here - but we use mostly thin gage metal - 10ga & under.

Hey, thanks. My question is so rudimentary I almost hate to ask it in public... I've got a post processor that works, from my understanding that's the tough part. I can't get the machine to recognize the darned "SET ZSHIFT=" command. I enter the daylight value in the tool setup (F9/F2) window, but no matter what I put in for the zshift value, the machine ignores it. What the heck am I overlooking????? (Obviously, something I've forgotten from programming school..) Thanks again, and sorry for the questions.

I saw that video a while back. The moral of the story is: If you get caught passing around RPG's at night, after curfew, in a war zone, you might get killed by the helicopter you never saw. Go figure....