That 4020 sounds like the same machine im using at work, i use a slightly modified fanuc post. it kinda sucks though because ive found out you cant jump through the code without using block numbers.

i could be in on this depending on the price

just wanna throw my 2 cents in. for me the inhouse books were the best, but i learn through books the easiest(and like rekd said, seat time). also using forums like this and youtube, is my friend. there were two guys at the shop where i work took night school courses at conestoga college a few years ago, neither have any more understanding of mastercam then when they went in i think. the one guy still gets me to print out bolt circle co-ordinates for him. then manually puts them into the program. i think they were paying $800 bucks a course, what a waste of money!(for them) just sayin everybody learns differently.

finally im back reading through all the replys, thanks everyone. jp that was what im looking for to start(18000 wow my new machine goes to 10000, old one i dont run above 6000), and colin for what i want to advance to. Our shop is basically still running in caveman times. im trying to learn all these new toolpaths mastercam has(im still taking .05" depth of cuts), and surprisingly i know mastercam better than everyone in our company and i know nothing compared to people on this forum. matthew i downloaded HSMAdvisor thanks, have to figure it out at work. again, thanks everyone!

ok this isnt really going where i want it to go, so im gonna just ask what speeds and feeds do you guys run for like a 4 flute 1/2" carbide endmill into 4140 vs. aluminum. and a 1/2" hss drill into 4140 vs. aluminum. i wanna see where im at. our company isnt super high speed machining. im running around 2000rpm at 15ipm for steel for the endmill, i just basically double them for aluminum. around 500 for the drill at 3ipm, same double them for aluminum.

are you using a canned tapping or threadmilling, threadmilling is what im gonna assume. are you selecting the right entity like the minor diameter of the thread or the counterbore? putting -.08" would actually cut the thread bigger.

i downloaded the 2019 copy but havent installed it yet, if it happens again, it must be something wrong on my end. will let you know.

never really messed with the holders, why would it be such an issue other than length of the tool to not crash?

If anyone knows any old topics post em, couldnt find anything. so in my quest to basically post straight from mastercam into the machine as fast as possible, im now looking at making custom tool lists for different types of materials. i have a very basic one i use but just modified the default one. trying to keep it simple at first i just want two, one for aluminum and one for like 4140 steel. What i need help with is the speeds and feeds. theses days theres so many different kinds of material and different types of tooling. all the charts and formulas tend to get confusing. looking for a simple(at the start) way to run a tool with speeds and feeds for aluminum and one for steel, so i dont have to modify them after i click the tool. i hope you understand what im getting at..

Funny thing is our tooling guy i dont think is up on current affairs, so i bet i could get him to start emailing companies for adamantium inserts. On thread topic, i mostly use mitsubishi inserts, find the hm90(not sure the company) ones last longer but need to run on a larger machine.

so if change it in the machine group does it work for all new programs? Or some type of master i have to change?

WAIT??? are you telling me this is where you can change all the generic values???????????????????

thanks Colin, just changing the 11 to a 4 worked perfectly. thanks Ewood, wonder why i never saw that before. got it setup where i want it in my post. I wish i would have found this forum like 5 years ago.

explain in detail???? lol, the new laptop my company bought me still wants to run the intel card. SolidWorks tends to run like xxxxe.

Thanks as always to everyone, will test out what works and will reply back.

Not a huge deal just one of those things im trying to fix in my post. I run a LeadWell and a Fadal, both dont like that decimal point at the end of dwell. Every single time i forget to take it out. Was looking at the post today, and found nothing about how mastercam uses decimal points. When i was checking out the post saw variables about staging tooling, i was looking around in toolpaths but never saw that option? Thanks

Im seriously questioning why it matters?

Back in the day I used to care about having efficient programs when manually programming, these days I dont as long as it gets the job done. Had a talk to our shop manager about it, he still uses mastercam 9 if you can believe it, that was his problem with mastercam. Ive got a mill that cannot move all three axis at the same time, every time I thread mill or helix on it using linearize the helix the program is HUGE, but it gets the job done so im fine with it.

ya thanks man, my bad. jparis just posted a 3d tool for a guy with one post, so i just thought if i asked the question it would have been tooooo advanced. i kinda knew he was an og, was refering to davidcook. just trying to help, dont want it to look like im just trying to use the forum.

Ya not trying to do all that, Just make my post the least i have to edit the better.

I tried this today, it kinda works, but the drill toolpaths still display the length offset, also the contouring toolpaths will display the length offset if not using a diameter offset. If you have more than one D offset the second one doesnt get displayed. Gonna play around a bit more with the if statements. The long vertical line after an if statement, does that mean "OR"?

Thanks Daniel, dont understand why it doesnt work, its only the second tutorial. Thanks anyway

The final thing to complete my post, trying to get my post to output the compensation offsets, something like this... N1(3/4" INDEX SP/DRILL) (D35=0.) (D36=0.) G91G28Z0. im assuming it would require some complicated if statement, just thought I would ask. So if are using more than one offset it would post them all, or if none nothing is posted. thanks

I hope im not stepping on any toes(JParis), but if youre just beginning I just started maybe 6 months ago. The beginner way ive found is to draw the 2D geometry of the tool in the positive quadrant. I sit there with the tool and a vernier, and draw it as I go. You only need to draw half the tool, and mastercam will spin it. Then click on import from level in the custom tool menu, then mastercam should show you the tool you drew. You can change the parameters of the tool and save it to your library. Anyone chime in if im doing it wrong.

I'm pulling my hair out. So i bought the multi-axis essentials, totally cant figure it out. First tutorial went fine. The second the drilling the holes using axis substitution worked, the part rotated. When using rotary axis positioning, Im sure I followed everything right, the back plot looks good tool moves around the part, but when I verify it the tool stays on the top view, and trys to drill all the other holes, massively running into the part. Ive tried on three different computers using demo 2017 and 2018. In 2017 it says to use generic fanuc 4th axis vmc, in 2018 I'm assuming you just use the default cause theres only two to choose from. I downloaded the ebook sample from here using the same axis substitution and the groove from the first tutorial and worked fine too. Must just be one click im missing, a problem somewhere between my computer chair and keyboard lol.