And I'm not trying to talk about software or resellers here, I'm just trying to resolve this post development issue since the machine isn't running right now, so it's not an absolute emergency. I think Jparis is missreading this, I'm not here to complain, but to see if anyone has any ability to help on this- like having a contractor post that can building block this issue and help me indirectly by helping the guy working this save time. And if this is resolved on Monday, I'll let people know that and maybe I'll be a third party that can share the post I'm looking for with someone in need of their own building block.

I don't know that it's being unfair to say, that buying a post in my experience is about 25-30% likely to be a good working post at the time of purchase. There aren't really a lot of people who are qualified to make them right (its high level application work to do that), and they have to be right in order to work well, so it's not fun to buy or need a post. Maybe it would be good to develop a software module that edited and built posts easily so that it wasn't as obscure to modify them. Maybe there is a way to make this more simple that should happen at some point in the life cycle of the software- I saw Fusion had some sort of GUI for post edits and that makes sense. I talked to the guy who had solicited me with this deal 9 weeks ago, that we agreed to and supplied our end of. He claimed he's going to attempt to supply the post by Monday of next week. I hope that is true. It had the promise of saving me the attempt to figure out what's wrong with a post and communicating it to support and working to straighten it out, which is stressful and un-enjoyable. I've heard of the situations where people with the same machines, need different post versions, but I haven't experienced it, I've had 3 Yama Seiki GLS-2000-LYS machines, and all 3 took code the same. I have 2 TT1800SY's one is a II and the other pre II marketing and they take the same code. I have 2 Puma 2100SY II's that take the same code. I have one Lynx 220LYSC and it takes the same code as the 2100's exception of having a low and high clamp, because they are belt driven C axis machines which drag the spindle against a low clamp in C axis live interpolation. I have 2 DNM5700 mills, one is an S and one has the S spindle and not the badging and model number. They take the same code. So I don't have any of those situations where 2 of the same machine work differently. It's looking like that's a minority issue, so it should be possible to have a post that is developed for a machine and to sell that post to customers to make their lives easier. It would be good for the known good posts to be safeguarded and sold, just like it's nice to have cars that are well engineered and don't need recall servicing for issues missed in engineering or manufacturing. There shouldn't be a good version of the product, and yet the bad version gets sold.

I might. First I have to get a programmer here capable of producing in our shop a need to use the 5 axis machine. I have my hands full with good machinists, steady work, and 5 multi-axis mill turn lathes. I purposefully don't touch mills because I want to keep my wife from divorcing me and I have to be home a few hours a day to make that likely to be an outcome. I have an open source post for a doosan mill, so I figured someone might have one for the Mazak, maybe not. I figure if it comes to needing it, we'll realize my friend robbed me and we'll buy the post from the reseller that will put the machine at greater risk for a crash etc. I would never have agreed to a trade for a post, if the resellers could sell you the most developed post for a machine, but typically they sell whatever basic thing comes off the shelf and the development is case by case and that leaves uneasiness in all post purchasing situations. I can't guaranty we'll easily identify an issue, or effectively communicate it, or that it will be easily understood and worked out so a post from a re seller might cost a machine crash and repair. I've been in situations in the past where I buy a machine from a machine tool manufacturer, whos support people tell me they have a bulletproof post, and I've asked to buy it, and they tell me they can't sell me that product, and Mastercam can't either, and that sucks. Customers want the best working product, not a building block to one. If I'm going to have a building block it may as well be free, so I can try to give my friend some help not being a thief, so I can have a good memory of the guy.

A guy on this forum who's kind of a friend of mine was working for us and took a job somewhere else for more pay and he arranged a deal to trade services for a post as he was getting out of here, so we paid a professional for the post, it just hasn't been supplied and it's been 2 months so I'm unsure of whether he was being totally ethical with that arrangement. He's also a dealer sim holder working for a reseller so he's not actually a reseller but he's the next thing to one. I'm not here to call him out, so I was just putting this out there since the current programmer here, is asleep in my office on the job and hasn't gotten to that machine yet. I'm not going to bother waking the programmer up. He's an adult. So I understand how the post looks stupid but we're not idiots, and I would have bought the post from a reseller if it weren't for a post writer arranging a trade without solicitation. The post writer had literally been outputting files to the machine so I figured I wouldn't have to communicate with a post writer or reseller since the writer would be a guy possessing intimate knowledge of the machine from 7 months working here with it.

Long story but I compensated a guy who doesn't apparently have time to develop the post we we paid for. I was looking for a 2015 VCU 500A-5X post capable of 3+2 machining. The 500A-5X is a Y aligned tilt axis machine, so the trunion tilts to the left as you look into the cabinet. We're dealing with a new programmer and a backlog of work so we haven't run the Mazak VCU for 2 months, and as long as it's not needed, we have been looking for the possibility of an open post. I had one subcontractor built for a 4th Axis Doosan DNM5700S, so I know sometimes people have a post that is able to run on anyone's sim. That's got pros and cons- pro- there is no maintenance payment on that post, con, you need a contractor to pay for edits or the knowledge to edit it yourself. I had a good experience with our first contractor post, and I sort of liked the experience.