I just had a prox switch slowly go south on me, happened to coincidently be involved w/ the tool change logic. The LEDs on the rox switch showed ok normal operation, but when I checked the diagnostic it showed that the sensor would switch states after a bit of time for no apparent reason. Lesson Learned: Don't believe the LEDs cp

MillingMan, Check your mail ! cp and what Jerome said +1000

I just checked out V9's mpbosto.pst and saw these 2 lines: prapid # Linear line movement - at rapid feedrate pcan pcan1, n, sccomp, sgcode, x, y, z, "R", strcantext pcan2 pzrapid # Linear movement in Z axis only - at rapid feedrate pcan pcan1, n, "G40", "G01", z, "R", strcantext pcan2 Make your lines look like these and perhaps modify: sg00 G00 # Linear movement at rapid feedrate G code sg01 G01 # Linear movement at feedrate G code to sg00 G01 # Linear movement at rapid feedrate G code sg01 G01 # Linear movement at feedrate G code and the R thing should work for you cp

As far as the feed formatting goes: find the format statement for the feedrate variable, fmt F 5 fr$ # Feedrate and change it to fmt FV 5 fr$ # Feedrate I did a bostomatic post years ago w/ the R for rapid and P for pause, a typical rapid line looked something like this: X237500Y2500RP I'll try to remember how I did it and get back to you if the other guys don't get to it first cp

Thanks to all, I'll give it a try cp

VMC w/ Fanuc example: If I design a job where Mcam's world origin is the same as the VMC's origin, is it possible to access post-processor variables that would fill in these blanks. Mcam's wcs1 -> G10l20P1X________Y________ Z__________ Mcam's wcs2 -> G10l20P2X________Y________ Z__________ Mcam's wcs3 -> G10l20P3X________Y________ Z__________ | | | Mcam's wcs48 -> G10l20P48X________Y________ Z__________ etc. If so , what are the post-processor variables ?? cp

Try : Create Dimension Smart, pick dimension and make sure that the abc button on the ribbon bar is not pressed, then type h. that should open up the height dialog box. cp

try Machine Type -> Machine Def Manager -> Control Def -> Post Processors -> Add Files cp

I said what I have to say in the future mcam capabilities post.

dos conejos, We have used Mastercam since V4.?? (Now X) We program ( or have programmed ): Citizen & Nomura Swiss Lathes Hardinge, Wasino, W/S lathes Okuma twin turret 4 axis , Cincinnati twin turret 4 axis w/ tailstock and powered tooling lathes Tsugami HMC's Kitamura, Drillmate, Mazak, Traub, Monarch VMC's Mazak & Trumpf Lasers Creep Feed grinders Bostomatic Verticals, etc, etc All it took was post processor modifications, which IMHO is the real beauty of Mastercam. We just recently had to modify a post to output hpgl for a marking laser. As far as verification graphics go, I hear Vericut is a good graphical verification program. So perhaps both would suit you. Mcam is heading in the direction of first-class verification as witnessed by the inclusion of machine & control defs etc. I'm quite confident that we'll see some of the exellent graphical verification tools in Mcam soon. Ask other programming systems if their posts are user - customizable. Chances are that they are not or at best , severely limited. I personally don't like the idea of having 'THEM' write posts that spit out code not to my liking at 500-2k a pop. IMHO, Mcam is more than worth the money when compared to any programming system out there. Ease of use, reliability, and flexibility, flexibility, flexibility. my $.02 cp

if: a) the slot can be less than .52 deep an elliptical approximation of the .52 radius is ok c)the slot can be less than 1.04 wide then take the part + stand it up so's the slot aligns w/ Z axis Rotate it back 19 degrees + clamp it Cut the slot w/ 1.0 flat emill travelling parallel to the face of the part being cut ( YZ or XZ ) The approximation of the radius cut should be .519672r part | emill | just an idea cp

We just customize an existing lathe post to output what we need. ie. reverse the sign if Z, swap G2 and G3 , etc or draw the geo in the Z+D+ quadrant cp

This works for lines and arcs , and mabye other entities: Trim/Break -> choose break, at point (to the right of divide), select entity, choose Relative (from the dropdown to the right of !), then either choose the point to be relative to and plug in the info OR press the white arrow to enter the along mode and enter the distance from the nearest end point. cp

to break a line at a specified length from a known point: Trim/Break -> Press Break, to point, relative, (choose relative point), set polar distance+angle or cartesian distance. cp

the * forces the output of peck1$ Try removing peck1$ if you'll never need it: pcan1, pbld, n$, *sgdrlref, *sgdrill, pdrlxy, pfzout, pcout, prdrlout, *feed, strcantext, e$ or, if you'll need it sometimes then replace peck1$ w/ a routine of your own which checks to see if peck1$ is non-zero and outputs it if it is. cp

Here is an improvement that I'd like to see happen in X. Have the Level Manager work similar to KeyCreator (Cadkey 21+) in that it opens in a pane in the graphics window and whatever changes you make in the manager reflect immediately in the graphics window. I find it to be a great time saver, especially when organizing imported geometry. No more opening a new window (or entering the function), just toggle it on/off ( like the Operations Manager), making the changes, and closing the window in order to see what you've done. cp

I would only dare to use one Z-only move while cc is on. What is in the cc offset D21 ?? Which Fanuc ?? I backplotted the code in MC9 , looks standard to me. Is the path ok w/ cc off ?? cp

I have much better luck w/ EZ-Loks No really special taps or tools held in place w/ loctite so's just a little heat needed for extraction http://www.ezlok.com cp

Mike, That's a judgement call. It depends upon what you (they) want the final product to look like. Our 'in-house' engineering guidebook says we are to use 30tpi for diameters from .375-.781. I don't think that I'd use the 20tpi but then again , I don't know what your part looks like. cp

Here is the basic algorithm for obtaining ideal knurl diameters: # teeth on given diameter = Dia*(cos(helix)*pi*tpi) example: 30tpi diamond w/ 30 deg helix on 1.000 dia wire tpi * Cos(30)*pi * dia = 30 * 2.720699 * 1.0 = 81.62097 teeth on 1.0 dia Now we need to turn the blank so that either 81 or 82 teeth will fit evenly around the circumference. 81 / ( tpi * Cos(30)*pi) = .9924 or 82 / ( tpi * Cos(30)*pi) = .1.0046 I can't find my "add a thou" so let's use the 81 teeth figure cp

that is 'additional 48 work offsets cp just learned how to edit a prevoius post! is it legal to do that in Thad's sticky ???

True, the idea of using them (if you got em) as non-destructive storage locations remains the same, just gotta use the appropriate variable #'s Same idea applies to the 'additional 48 work offsets' if you have them and never use all of them. cp

As far as I've seen, CNC knurls are the same tool as 'manual' knurls. The only help CNC is in knurling is that it makes the process repetitive. you still gotta fiddly-f*** w/ the tool to get it just right. Knurling seems to be an art, not just an acquired skill. I have the algorithm for ideal OD's to knurl pitches at work, I'll look it up and post it here thursday. cp

thanx