Pow!! Problem solved and James comes through again!! !!!Usted el hombre!!

The model is fine. The problem is with the custom tool. The custom tool profile is just an endmill and holder drawn up per the custom tool instructions (Radius=1.0). It looks good in backplot. In verify (with 'as defined' checked)I get an octagonal representation of the round endmill which obvioulsy is a very 'coarse' approximation to the real thing. It under cuts the model by .040" or so. Thanks for any help!!! MF

Alot of things have helped me get over (getting over) the same stuff. During the first days, weeks, few months I got strength from reminding my self that all I had to do was make it till bed time without having a drink -easy. Just till tonight when I go to bed. Next day same thing. Another biggie was the realizaton: I don''t have a problem with life with alcohol. I have a problem with life without alcohol. The humilty and and how idiotic I felt saying that helped me focus on life. LIFE BABY! One more. Do the low CARB thing. Thats low carb NOT NO carb. Go steam it up at a gym sauna a few times week and do light cardio machines. You'll drop 20# in the first 2 weeks and look and feel alot better. Good luck bro. MF

Thanks again robk!

Oh well. Somebody tell me the hot tip to gettimg images to appear on my post/reply? TIA

And it shows my tool under cutting the STL model by .014 on a profile cut when it really is .02" away from the model. Is there any way to 'tighten up' the faceting to minimize the error? I have the slider bar all the way to quality on the verify comfiguration. ftp://www.ppcadcam.com/Mastercam_forum/All_pictures_Jpg,gif,bmp's/verify.jpg ...my first image, hope it works. Thanks for any help!! MF

Thakns robk!

Can't figure this one out: I've got my holder and endmill drawn (to scale) on a level. I have the 'custom level' checked on the 'Define tool' page and it "looks" ok. But when I Backplot its way too small. My 1.25dia endmill is shown to be .781dia and the holder is scaled down as well. What the heck is going on? Thanks for any help!!! MF

Hmmm, rats! Won't be able to use it for this job. I'm still needing to come up with something that will substitute for Bondo but not be porus and soak up coolant. I need it to fill in pockets from other parts that were machined with the vac fixture so I can do this part. Somebody mentioned something called "Tooling Stone" but I can't seem to find it online. Any ideas? Thanks!! MF

I just recieved the Babbit putty that I ordered after reading your reply to a question I had on vacuum fixtures. http://www.emastercam.com/cgi-bin/ultimate...ic;f=1;t=009411 I'm a bit stumped on how this stuff is used for such applications. I was expecting something more along the lines of Bondo but without the problems of being effected by coolant like double back tape is. Isn't this stuff just for sealing the vacuum and not for doing any holding like tape or heat activated glues? MF

Question 2) Where do I plug in the Pivot length value for my machine? Guess: Some misc integer?

'Bout time I get to do a 5 axis toolpath. I've been working with Mastercam for 8 years. I'll be starting with the MPGEN5X_FANUC.PST so any advise along the lines of necessary tweeks to it would really be helpful. I'll be programming for a Cincinatti 20v Accramatic control. Question 1) I need to enter the cutter length (pivot length) somewhere..where? ..more questions to follow and many thanks for any replies!! MF

It was referred to in another post.

Whats FZT?

Surface... I got a line on some rubber gasket that's supposed to be great for vac fixtures. It's about .187 square with a thin angled flap on one side.....reminds me of a windshield wiper blade. Ill try to get a part number for you. email me...I'd like hear how your fixture turns out: [email protected]

Has anyone here had to make a vacuum fixture that will accomidate a bunch of different parts? I need to pretty much do just that. The parts are mostly flat with some raised pads (.03-.08) and different outside profile shapes that are around 30" x 30". I think my boss is leaning toward a big grid pattern of grooves and just thread the gasket where ever I need them. I haven't done a lot of vac fixtures. Any chance someone could get me a pic or good description of their vac fixture adventures? Many thanks!! MF

Attn Millman: Here's whta I get when I remove the #'s to get: if absinc = zero, initht_a, !initht_i else, initht_i, !initht_a (MSG, DRILL #30 PILOTS 100PL) : G0 G90 G70 M5 M9 G98 G0 Z23. G0 G98 Y15. A-24. B0. T4 M6 G98 G0 A0 M0 (MSG, .1285 [#30] X 1.0 3FLT CARB STUB DRILL ) (MSG, MAX - Z2.) (MSG, MIN - Z.8934) G0 G90 X1.3031 Y-.7561 Z2. S4000 M13 D1 Z2. M8 Z1.25 G81 X1.3031 Y-.7561 Z-.3266 R1.25 W1.25 W1.25 F8. X1.5141 Y.3929 W1.25 G80 Y1.3584 Z1.22 G81 X1.5141 Y1.3584 Z-.3266 R1.22 W1.22 W1.22 F8. Y2.3239 W1.22 Y3.2894 W1.22 Y4.2549 W1.22 Y5.3529 W1.22 Y6.1548 W1.22 . . . . Looks like the W's are still absolute and I get two W's in the first g81 line. Hmmmmm. MF

To John Summers: Could you please give me an example of applying a 'd' to an FS statement. ie: where the 'd' would be inserted. Thank you!! MF

To Christiam Raebild: I'm getting W0's on every line when I change to: *initht_i, !initht_a # Output the 'W' word Here's a clip: (MSG, DRILL #30 PILOTS 100PL) : G0 G90 G70 M5 M9 G98 G0 Z23. G0 G98 Y15. A-24. B0. T4 M6 G98 G0 A0 M0 (MSG, .1285 [#30] X 1.0 3FLT CARB STUB DRILL ) (MSG, MAX - Z2.) (MSG, MIN - Z.8934) G0 G90 X1.3031 Y-.7561 Z2. S4000 M13 D1 Z2. M8 Z1.25 G81 X1.3031 Y-.7561 Z-.3266 R1.25 W0. F8. X1.5141 Y.3929 W0. Y1.3584 Z-.3566 W0. Y2.3239 W0. Y3.2894 W0. Y4.2549 W0. Y5.3529 W0. Y6.1548 W0. Y6.9568 W0. . . . MF

..on getting my Acramatic post to output incremental W values. Anybody else's input would be very appreciated. It seems that I get only absolute W values. I've been able to get them on every line and thats a step in the right direction. Here's what the W section looks like: #W drill position if cuttype = one, initht_a = initht + (rotdia / two)) else, initht_a = initht initht_i = initht - refht if cuttype = three, initht_a = w #if absinc = zero, initht_a, !initht_i #else, initht_i, !initht_a #'W' is ALWAYS considered to be an INCREMENTAL distance from the #'R' plane regardless of the Absolute/Incremental (G90/G91) setting! # Per CINC docs (pg 8-2, 8-6, 8-11) !initht_i, *initht_a # Output the 'W' word Here's the code: (MSG, DRILL #30 PILOTS 100PL) : G0 G90 G70 M5 M9 G98 G0 Z23. G0 G98 Y15. A-24. B0. T4 M6 G98 G0 A0 M0 (MSG, .1285 [#30] X 1.0 3FLT CARB STUB DRILL ) (MSG, MAX - Z2.) (MSG, MIN - Z.8934) G0 G90 X1.3031 Y-.7561 Z2. S5000 M13 D1 Z2. Z1.25 G81 X1.3031 Y-.7561 Z-.3266 R1.25 W1.25 F5.76 X1.5141 Y.3929 W1.25 Y1.3584 Z-.3566 W1.25 Y2.3239 W1.25 Y3.2894 W1.25 Y4.2549 W1.25 Y5.3529 W1.25 Y6.1548 W1.25 . . . Again, many thanks for any help. MF

To Millman & James.. The reason for the W not on the last hole is that when the control see's the G80 after the last hole it makes the machine dive for the R plane. The only real effect is that it spooks the operator. I've been asked to fix my programs to save our operators some hair. Also the W is an incremental distance from the R plane ....A JUMP HEIGHT...for clearing clamps, part features and such. Thanks again for the replies. MF

Greets to the group from Everett, WA where the weather is finially nice this summer. . So here's my problem. I need to tweek my post so that the W's are incremental from the R plane and not absolute. I also need to get the W's to be on every hole except for the last one. The 'W' section of my post look like this: #W drill position if cuttype = one, initht_a = initht + (rotdia / two)) else, initht_a = initht initht_i = initht - refht if cuttype = three, initht_a = w if absinc = zero, initht_a, !initht_i else, initht_i, !initht_a #'W' is ALWAYS considered to be an INCREMENTAL distance from the #'R' plane regardless of the Absolute/Incremental (G90/G91) setting! # Per CINC docs (pg 8-2, 8-6, 8-11) initht_a, !initht_i # Output the 'W' word ...Seems like my problem is addressed here but the code dosen't come out right. BTW I had a supposedly correct post emailed to me but it has the same problem. Many thanks for any help!! MF

..just like you do the Tplane or Cplane or Gview? I've been working on a series of similar parts where I could have saved alot of time by just rotating the WCS. But instead I had to change to a new WCS and then go through each operation and point that operation to the new WCS. Incedently...the 'edit common parameters' under 'options' in the 'operations manager' drop down window seems like it would globaly change all the operations to a new WCS. Nope, Doesn't work. Any ideas? Many thanks for any input!! MF

Whats causing the problem? Aye..thats the rub laddie. I wish I could tell you why this happens to me. My fix for it is to save my file, exit out of MCAM and re-start MCAM. Then geometry just seems to magically do what it's supposed to the first time. I've been using MCAM since 5.0 and been using 9.1sp2 since it came out....not using the maint upgrade though. Cheers, MF

I'm using 9.1sp2 and Win2K sp4. ...Geforce FX5200 and DirectX 9. Pent4 3.0 1gig ram